GHISOLFI, Giovanni

(b. 1623 Milano, d. 1683 Milano)

Italian painter. 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 (1625-1684) where he painted vedute and capricci, mainly landscapes with architectural fragments and ruins.

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).

Alexander the Great and Thalestris

The rare subject depicts Thalestris, queen of the Amazons, arriving at Alexander’s camp in Hyrcania with the intention, later realised, of conceiving his child.

The monogram GAE, found at the lower left of the present work, has traditionally been accepted as belonging to the Milanese painter Giovanni Ghisolfi.

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Capriccio of a Mediterranean Port

This painting shows a capriccio of a Mediterranean Port with classical architectural ruins and the statue of Hercules.

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