Bernardino Deho

Born in Cremona, Bernardino Deho moved to Rome after a first apprenticeship with Angelo Massarotti. Back in Cremona, he was active as religious painter, but he is mostly remembered for introducing the Bambocciate genre to northern Italy and for his series of canvases “representing dwarfs of any kind, love affairs, feasts, battles amongst these imaginary pigmies, tricks, sortileges, and spells of all kinds” (G.B. Biffi (1736 -1738), Memorie per servire alla storia degli artisti cremonesi, ed 1989, p 294).