Biography

Italian painter. He is first documented in Milan in a contract of apprenticeship of 1487, when he undertook to teach Protasio Crivelli (d. after 1516) the art of painting miniatures; Marco must by that time have been a qualified master with a shop of his own. During the early 1490s he was in some way associated with Leonardo da Vinci: in September 1490 Leonardo's assistant Salai stole a valuable silverpoint pencil from Marco, who was then staying in the Florentine's house. In 1491 d'Oggiono and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were commissioned by the brothers of the late Archbishop Leonardo Griffi to paint an altarpiece for the newly constructed chapel of S Leonardo, attached to S Giovanni sul Muro, Milan; only the centrepiece of the work, a Resurrection with SS Leonardo and Lucy (Berlin, Staatliche Museen), survives. The Griffi Altarpiece was not finished until 1494. He is documented in Venice 1497-98 and in Savona 1501-02.

Although d'Oggiono did not gain much recognition as an innovator, as a pupil he skillfully learned his master's style and produced a number of faithful copies including that of the Last Supper. He tended towards exaggerated gestures in his more independent works.