Alessandro Bonvicino (also Buonvicino) (c. 1498 – possibly December 22, 1554), more commonly known as Moretto, or in Italian Il Moretto da Brescia (the Moor of Brescia), was an Italian Renaissance painter from Brescia, where he in addition to mostly worked. His passй works span the mature from 1524 to 1554, but he was already described as a master in 1516. He was mainly a painter of altarpieces that tend towards sedateness, mostly for churches in and around Brescia, but next in Bergamo, Milan, Verona and Asola; many remain in the churches they were painted for. Most are upon canvas, but a number even of large ones are on wood panel. Only a handful of drawings survive.
He moreover painted a few portraits, but these are more influential. A full-length Portrait of a Man in the National Gallery, London, dated 1526, seems to be the dated Italian independent portrait at full-length, all the more hasty as the “sitter”, though simply a rich nobleman, shows no sign of bodily from a princely ruling family. This format, and the background of an exterior largely closed off by a column the man leans on, was taken stirring by his main co-conspirator Giovanni Battista Moroni, who mainly painted portraits, and was one of the most important portraitists of the mid-16th century.
He was a prominent and pious citizen of the small city of Brescia, belonging to at least two of the most prominent confraternities.
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