Giovanni Maria Viani

1636–1700, Bologna

Giovanni Maria Viani, a painter from Bologna, was a pupil of Flaminio Torri. His painted oeuvre betrays influences of contemporaries such as Guido Reni and Simone Cantarini and displays major stylistic features of the Italian High Baroque. Churches and palazzi in Bologna are still adorned with numerous altarpieces and panel paintings in his hand. Drawings by Viani are comparatively rare, however.