GIOVANNI GHISOLFI Lot n° 33

(Milan, 1623 - 1683) Rest of the Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and St. John Oil on canvas, cm 81X64.5 Provenance: Private collection Bibliography: A. Busiri Vici, Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). A Milanese painter of Roman ruins, Rome 1992, p. 140, no. 95. Giovanni Ghisolfi is to be considered the forerunner of an illustrative taste that only in the 18th century and with Giovanni Paolo Pannini would achieve an extraordinary collecting fortune, consecrating the Capriccio as an autonomous pictorial genre. The artist was born in Milan and trained in a family environment; moving to Rome around 1650 he benefited from the Cortonesque lesson and collaboration with Salvator Rosa, devoting himself to painting landscapes and architectural views. This landscape and archaeological bent soon revealed an intimate classicist vein, marked by elegant compositional balances, which would set an essential precedent for Pannini. Typical of his style is the manner in which he constructs perspective sequences and scenic constructions, although we often find in his production a sometimes uneven quality, dictated by the intervention of collaborators or by precise market choices. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Ferdinando Arisi. Reference bibliography: G. Sestieri, Il Capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, vol. II, pp. 112-181