(b Venice, 1583; d Venice, after 1663). Italian painter, also active in Dalmatia. He was related to the Archbishop of Split, Markantun de Dominis (1560–1624), and his brother, Sforza Ponzoni (1581–1640), was another Archbishop of Split. Ponzoni studied in Venice under Palma Giovane and Sante Peranda (1566–1638) and began his career in Venice, the Veneto and Friuli, where he painted some of his finest works, such as the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi (1629; both Treviso, Mus. Civ. Bailo) and historical scenes in the frieze at the Mocenigo-Robilant Palace in Venice. Around the 1630s he was based in Split and executed several paintings for Split Cathedral, altarpieces for the Franciscan church in Sibenik, the church of St Cross on the island of Ciovo near Trogir and for churches in Trogir, Korcula, Omis and Rab. After his brother’s death he returned to Venice (?c. 1640), where he set up a workshop and taught Andrea Celesti, Antonio Zanchi and Pietro Negri (d after 1679), among others. In his early period Ponzoni adopted his teachers’ pronounced use of chiaroscuro, a naturalistic approach to secular themes and lively compositions in smaller format. Baroque elements are more noticeable in his later work, as in the altarpiece of St George in S Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. As he never accepted the extreme approach of tenebrism MARCO BOSCHINI praised his work in the poem La carta del navegar pitoresco (Venice, 1660), seeing Ponzoni as a part of the great Venetian tradition.

• Ponzoni, Matteo
  • Celesti, Andrea
  • Zanchi, Antonio