(b Verona, 1528; d Verona, 1590). Italian painter. After the death of his father in 1545 he was brought up by his maternal grandparents, from whom he derived the surname India. He is sometimes referred to as India il vecchio ('the elder') to distinguish him from his nephew Tullio India. He was trained in the workshop of Gian Francesco Caroto but proved particularly receptive to the Mannerism emanating from Mantua and Parma. He first worked as a fresco painter in buildings designed by Palladio: the Palazzo Thiene, Vicenza, and the Villa Poiana, Poiana Maggiore, near Vicenza. In the Palazzo Thiene, India decorated three rooms with mythological and fantastic scenes (1555-6), the forms of which reveal the influence of Parmigianino. His works (c. 1560) in the Villa Poiana are inspired by the Mannerist style of Mantua. The frescoes in the Palazzo Canossa, Vicenza, and the lateral façade of the Palazzo Fiorio della Seta (three panels Verona, Castelvecchio) are of slightly later date. In his later works, beginning in the 1570s, he approached Veronese's use of colour, as can be seen in the numerous altarpieces created for churches in Verona, for example the Nativity (1572) and the Virgin and Child with St Anne (1579; both Verona, S Bernardino). In the Conversion of St Paul (1584; Verona, SS Nazaro e Celso) India created a fusion of Giulio Romano's monumentality and Veronese's use of colour. His final work, the altarpiece depicting the Martyrdom of St Degnamerita (1590; Verona, Castelvecchio), demonstrates his skilful use of light.
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