Luini (or Lovino), BERNARDINO, a celebrated painter of the Lombard school, born about 1460 at Luini, near the Lago Maggiore, was the ablest pupil of Leonardo da Vinci and of Stefano Scotto. He imitated the style and execution of his master Leonardo da Vinci so closely as to deceive experienced judges and yet his general manner has a delicacy and grace sufficiently original and distinct from that of Leonardo. Many of Luini's best and greatest works, in oil and in fresco, are still in a good state of preservation, namely, the Magdalen and St. John with the Lamb, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan; the Enthroned Madonna, painted in 1521, the Drunkenness of Noah, and other works in the gallery of the Brera at Milan; the frescoes of the Monastero Maggiore, or San Maurizio, in the same city, from which. however, the ultramarine and gold have been scraped off; several at Saronno, among them his chef-d'oeuvre, Christ disputing with the Doctors; and other extensive and equally good works in the Franciscan convent Degli Angeli at Lugano, on the lake of that name. The date of his death is not exactly known, but he was alive in 1530.
He had a brother, AMBROGIO, who imitated his style, and several sons who also were painters. See English Cyclop. s.v.; Chambers, Cyclop. s.v.