Born 1595 in Cento as son of the painter Benedetto, died between 1665 and 1672. In 1615 he collaborated with Guercino on the frescoing of the house of the Pannini family in Cento, which took until 1617, after which he followed his master to Bologna. In 1618 (Salerno:1619), at Guercino’s behest, he took the prints of anatomic models which his teacher had dedicated to Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga to Mantua. When Pope Gregory XV, the former cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, summoned Guercino to Rome, Gennari accompanied him and stayed in the Eternal City in 1621—22. He shared lodgings with Guido Cagnacci, who was also a member of Guercino’s workshop. Between 1623 and 1624 he joined Benedetto Gennari to run the master’s workshop in Cento, after that he accompanied Guercino to Reggio Emilia and Piacenza in 1624. Gennari produced copies of Guercino’s works and painted heads of minor importance in Guercino’s compositions (e.g. The Death of Dido, 1631). After the great plague of 1632 he organised an exhibition of Guercino’s painting The Death of Dido and wrote a book praising this work of art. From 1647 onwards he lived in Rimini, where he is last mentioned in 1672. Gennari’s work reflects only two stages of Guercino’s style: the pre-Roman period (before 1621—22) and that after his return from Rome, which lasted until the beginning of the thirties. We do not know why Gennari gave up painting as a profession.
Lit.: Prisco Bagni, Benedetto Gennari e la bottega del Guercino (Introduction: Denis Mahon), Roma 1986, pp. 219-224 and passim.