Giovanni Battista Ricci
Italian painter (1537–1627)
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Giovanni Battista Ricci (Novara, circa 1537 – Rome, 1627) nicknamed Il Novara after his birth town, was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early-Baroque period, active mainly in Rome.
Biography
He was born in Novara[1] or in Suno, in the present-day Province of Novara.[2] In 1576 he and Bernardino Lanino were commissioned some paintings (perhaps Novara's Crocifissione tra santi) for the Saint Benedict Chapel of the duomo of Novara.[2] In 1578 was registered the dowry for his wife, Cassandra Cattanea (Cattanei), originally from and resident in Novara.[2]
Ricci moved to Rome from his native Piedmont, followed by his wife, before 1581,[2] during the papacy of Gregory XIII and was registered with the guild of painters by 1581. He was active in the fresco decoration (1590-1593) of the Scala Sancta in Santa Maria Maggiore, in the decoration (1597-1613) of San Marcello, and (1619) Santa Maria in Traspontina. He was influenced by Federico Zuccari.[3] He also painted in the Vatican Library and the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini.[4] In 1617–1620, Ricci collaborated with Cristoforo Greppi, a painter from Lombardy, in designing and painting the frescoes for the Castellani Chapel in San Francesco a Ripa.[5] Ricci and his assistants executed several frescoes and paintings in the church of San Giacomo Scossacavalli in Borgo, destroyed in 1937.[6] Ricci was an excellent draftsman, working primarily in pen and brown ink, although a handful of studies in chalk are also known.[7]
