STELLA, Fermo da Caravaggio
(b. ca. 1490, Caravaggio, d. ca. 1562, Caravaggio)

Biography

Italian painter and sculptor, active in Lombardy and Piedmont. He was a pupil or a follower of Gaudenzio Ferrari. They collaborated probably as early as 1510; documents show they worked together in Morbegno in 1522.

Stella has left a number of sacred subjects, mostly in rural churches and sanctuaries, throughout the north Lombardy and east Piedmont, including at the Sacro Monte of Varallo, where he worked alongside Bernardino Lanino c. 1530. He painted the Polyptych of St Ambrose (1547) for the church of Sant'Ambrogio, Omegna. He also appears to have painted the Polyptych in the church of Sant'Alessandro della Croce, Bergamo.