ROSITI, Giovanni Battista - b. ~1475 Forli, d. 1545 Forli

Giovanni Battista Rositi (also Rosetti), Italian painter. He is a painter from the Forli school, active in Forli and in Romagna, but also in Central Italy. He was influenced above all by Marco Palmezzano.

There are only two authentic works by him, the panel depicting the Transport of the Santa Casa di Loreto (Diocesan Museum, Velletri) and a panel representing the Madonna with Child (Christian Museum, Esztergom). Another Madonna and Child in the Civic Pinacoteca of Forli was erroneously attributed to him.

Madonna with Child

The painting is a variant of a painting (present location unknown) by Niccolò Rondinelli. Rondinelli was an assistant of Giovanni Bellini, and perhaps he used a now lost composition by Bellini as a model.

The present panel is one of the two authentic paintings by Rosetti. It is signed on the parapet below with Greek letters: “Joannes Baptista de Rositis Fotoloviensis pinxit theo toco - 1507”.