Prospero Fontana began his training with the Bolognese painter Innocenzo Da Imola, a student of Mariotto Albertinelli in Florence. Fontana then joined the workshop of Perino del Vaga where he gained experience in fresco decoration among the other painters, sculptors, decorators, stuccoists, and gilders who worked under Perino. Fontana continued his work as an assistant to both Giorgio Vasari and Taddeo Zuccaro in Rome and worked briefly with Francesco Primaticcio on decorations for the Palace of Fontainebleau in France. Eventually Fontana was to receive commissions from the pope in addition to taking on pupils, including the cousins Lodovico and Agostino Carracci and, most famously, his daughter, the painter Lavinia Fontana.