SAGRESTANI, Giovanni Camillo - b. 1660 Firenze, d. 1731 Firenze

Italian painter. He played an important role in introducing the decorative art of the late Baroque to Florence. He studied with Antonio Giusti and Romolo Panfi (1632-1690) and then visited Rome, Venice and Bologna, where he joined Carlo Cignani’s workshop. On returning to Florence in the 1690s he enrolled (1694) in the Accademia del Disegno and became interested in the anti-academic style of Pietro Dandini and Alessandro Gherardini (1655-1723). His earliest known works are from 1702: the frescoes and the altarpiece in the chapel of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi in San Frediano in Cestello, Florence. In 1707 he produced eight canvases depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin for Santa Margherita in Santa Maria de’ Ricci, and between 1708 and 1714 he made two paintings for Santa Maria delle Selve in Lastra a Signa.

Door hanging

This tapestry was made under the direction of Giovan Battista Termini in the Medici workshops in Florence from a design by the painter Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani. It is a door covering decorated with the Medici coat-of-arms, supported by two angels and surmounted by a regal crown.

From the sixteenth century on, tapestries were used not only for decorative purposes but also to protect and insulate the halls and chambers of palaces from cold draughts by covering doorways and windows.