Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi

circa 1606 Bologna – 1680 Rome

The painter, draughtsman and etcher Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi was probably trained at the Carracci Academy in Bologna, although he never has been an actual pupil of Annibale Carracci. Grimaldi went to Rome in 1627 and soon made a name as a painter of landscapes and decorative schemes. His fame led him to Paris, where he worked for Cardinal Mazarin from 1648-51. Back in Rome he was assumed as an assistant by Pietro da Cortona and became a well employed painter of wall and ceiling decorations. His reproductive prints after his own decorative schemes and landscapes paintings were highly popular at the time and diffused his reputation throughout Europe.