Giovanni Domenico Ferretti
Encyclopedia
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
style painter from Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
. According to the contemporary Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani
Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani
Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani was an Italian painter of the Baroque era.A native of Florence, he was a follower of the style of Carlo Cignani. His major pupil was Matteo Bonechi and Giovanni Battista Ranieri del Pace. Four canvases attributed to Sagrestani can be found in the church of Santa Maria...
, Ferretti was a pupil of the Bolognese
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi. Others say he worked with painter Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole
Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole
Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole was an Italian painter and engraver from Bologna, active in the late-Baroque period....
.
He returned to Florence with a letter of recommendation of Cardinal Gozzadini seeking patronage from Cosimo III de' Medici. He found work in the studio of Tommaso Redi
Tommaso Redi (painter)
Tommaso Redi was an Italian painter, who was active during the late-Baroque in his native Florence.He initially apprenticed with the Florentine painter Anton Domenico Gabbiani , and then moved to Rome to work in the Medici Academy in that city, which employed Carlo Maratti and Ciro Ferri as teachers...
and Sebastiano Galeotti
Sebastiano Galeotti
Sebastiano Galeotti was a peripatetic Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active in Florence, Genoa, Parma, Piacenza, Codogno, Lodi, Cremona, Milan, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Turin....
. He travelled to Bologna to work under Felice Torelli
Felice Torelli
Felice Torelli was an Italian painter of the Baroque style, active mainly in Bologna.He was born to a family of artists in Verona, including his brother, Giuseppe Torelli, a noted violinist and composer of concerti. Both his son, Stefano Torelli, and his wife, Lucia Casalini , were painters. His...
and then resettled in Florence in 1715. Ferretti soon joined the Florentine Accademia del Disegno
Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze
The Accademia di Belle Arti is an art academy in Florence, Italy and it is now the operative branch of the still existing Accademia delle Arti del Disegno that was the first academy of drawing in Europe.-History:The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno The Accademia di Belle Arti ("Academy of Fine...
, where he later taught painting but also designed tapestries for the Medici. He found abundant patronage in fresco painting for the Florentine Abbey (Badia Fiorentina
Badia Fiorentina
The Badìa Fiorentina is an abbey and church now home to the Fraternity of Jerusalem situated on the Via del Proconsolo in the centre of Florence, Italy. Dante supposedly grew up across the street in what is now called the 'Casa di Dante', rebuilt in 1910 as a museum to Dante...
), the Chapel of San Giuseppe in the Duomo, and the altar and cupola of the Church of San Salvatore al Vescovo. One of his most important works was the decoration of the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine
Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
Santa Maria del Carmine is a church of the Carmelite Order, in the Oltrarno district of Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. It is famous as the location of the Brancacci Chapel housing outstanding Renaissance frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino da Panicale, later finished by Filippino Lippi.-History:The...
, since lost in a fire.
Ferretti's fresco style was influenced by Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.-Early years:He was born in Belluno, son...
's lively, colourful, and pastel-hued frescoes in the Palazzo Marucelli-Fenzi. Ferretti himself decorated the Palazzo Amati Cellesi in Pistoia
Pistoia
Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...
, the Palazzo Chigi Sansedoni in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
, and the Villa Flori in Pescia
Pescia
Pescia is an Italian city in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy.It is located in a central zone between the cities Lucca and Florence, on the banks of the homonymous river.-History:...
. The frescoes for the cupola of the cathedral of San Zeno in Pistoia
Pistoia
Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...
are attributed to him.