Giovanni Martinelli (painter)

Giovanni Martinelli (* November 10, 1600 or April 11, 1604 in Montevarchi, † 1659 in Florence) was an Italian painter of the Baroque.

Life and work

The date of birth Giovanni Martin Ellis could not be clearly elicited so far, as two different people are listed in the relevant parish register in Montevarchi, both of which are eligible for identification with the painter in question: One of the two births took place on November 10, 1600, the other at 11 April. 1604. More likely seems the research that the first of these two data relates to the artist Martinelli, as it is clearly mentioned in 1621 in a document of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence, whose content suggests no boy, but a person of a somewhat more mature age. 1623 he is once again detectable, this time in the workshop of Jacopo Ligozzi. The final written sign of life is obtained from the 1659, this is almost fully interpreted as the year of death of the painter, although a clear evidence for this is lacking.

Martinelli had made no later than in the 1630s as an independent artist name and resulted in subsequent years from numerous private and religious orders in Florence. Longer stays outside of Tuscany - for example in the important for the study of antiquities art center Rome - are not used. His style can be described as a symbiosis of the typical painting style early Baroque Florentine painters ( such as Cesare Dandini, Vincenzo Dandini or Francesco Furini ) and elements of Roman -Lombard Caravaggists. In addition to the religious paintings is an essential part of his oeuvre personifications of arts, virtues or vices constitutes or forms - is again not unlike Caravaggio - genre-like constellations of smaller groups of figures from that allow the viewer allegorical interpretations. In addition, he is repeatedly emerged through still life.