Giovanni Ghisolfi

Giovanni Ghisolfi, Saint Peter Freed from Prison, Santa Maria della Vittoria

Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623 – 7 June 1683) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.

Born in Milan, he initially trained with his uncle, Antonio Volpino. At the age of 17, he travelled to Rome with his friend Antonio Busca where he painted veduta and capricci, mainly landscapes with architectural fragments and ruins.^[1][2] They would garner renewed interest with the rise of Neoclassicism in the mid-late 18th century.

In 1661, he decorated a chapel of the Certosa di Pavia. In 1664 he was called to Vicenza to execute a series of decorative landscape frescoes in the Palazzo Trissino Baston and the Palazzo Giustiniani Baggio. He painted also in Palazzo Borromeo Arese at Cesano, Reatis' Palace in Lissone and in the fourth chapel of the Sacri Monti and covered the vaults of the Basilica of San Vittore in Varese.

Among his pupils was his nephew, Bernardo Racchetti from Milan (1639–1702).

References

• Wittkower, Rudolf (1980). Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750. Penguin Books. p. 350.
• Artnet Grove Encyclopedia entry

1. • Roman ruins with three columns, vedute of the Temple of Vespasian and Titus from Liechenstein Museum in Vienna.
2. Roman ruins from Liechenstein Museum.