Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo

Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo ( Colombo or even Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colomba ) (* 1717 Arogno; † Arogno 1793 ) was a Swiss architect, church painter and stage designer.

Biography

Colombo learned the art of painting in Lugano. After working several years in Ticino as a painter, he left his homeland. In Germany he worked, inter alia, in Ludwigsburg, where he decorated the ceiling of the Opera House. He later moved to Brunswick, Mainz, Munich and Frankfurt am Main. There he worked at the Palais Thurn und Taxis, and he created in 1741 by order of the Emperor Charles VII the monumental fresco at the imperial staircase to the Romans under the theme The victory of virtue over vice. 1748 he moved to Hamburg, where he finds a position as a theater painter. There is great applause his artistic work. This fame also penetrates into the nearby public Uetersen where he gets the job, the ceiling fresco in the monastery church in Uetersen to paint. There, the artist designed 1748/49 The angel concert or as the glorification of the Trinity known fresco. This fresco later turns into art history since the Uetersener client did not pay him the asking price, he adapted his performance at the low price and painted out unplayable instruments in the Fresco ( see ceiling fresco ). At the same time he was also at the higher Uetersener society worked and created there some wall paintings and decorated the villas with stucco. Later Colombo is appointed by the King of Hanover to create some art for him. After that, the artist moved to London. Some time later, the painter is long worked for nearly two decades in Stuttgart as builder and portrait painter for the Duke of Württemberg. After this time, he moved back to Italy and is in the service of the King of Sardinia. At the end of his life, he returns to his old home, where he died at the age of 76 years.