Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli was one of the most important baroque painters of the seventeenth century. Trained in Rome by Pietro da Cortona, whom he assisted in the execution of the frescoes at the Palazzo Barberini, Romanelli quickly distinguished himself as a great decorator. He obtained important commissions, executing, among others, the decorative cycle The Life of Countess Mathilde of Tuscany in the Vatican, and the mythological scenes of the Palazzo Altemps. His reputation brought him to Paris in 1646 where Cardinal Mazarin commissioned him to decorate the Hôtel de Chevry-Tubeuf, now the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. This decoration introduced to France the latest innovations of Roman art in the domain of ceiling decoration and exerted a decisive influence on the art of Charles Le Brun and his decorations for the Palace of Versailles. Romanelli returned to Rome in 1648, where he continued to receive important commissions. In 1655, the artist went back to Paris to decorate the queen's apartments in the Louvre Palace.