Giovanni Battista Gaulli (called Il Baciccio)

Italian, 1639–1709

BiographyBorn in Genoa in 1639, Giovanni Battista Gaulli (il Baciccio) left that city around 1657 and established himself in Rome. He became a protegé of the sculptor and architect Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), and was accepted as a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1662. He received his first public commission, for an altarpiece in the church of San Rocco, Rome, in 1663. In 1672, Gaulli was awarded the prestigious commission for decorating the interior of the Jesuit church of Il Gesù in Rome; the ceiling fresco, illustrating the Triumph of the Name of Jesus (1678-79), is a masterpiece of High Baroque illusionism and theatricality.

Gaulli received many ecclesiastical commissions for decorative cycles and altarpieces. He also painted portraits and mythological and religious works for private patrons, among whom were several popes. Early works by the artist show his Genoese heritage in their broad, painterly manner and warm, dark palette. Gaulli also experimented with Bolognese classicism in the 1660s, affecting a cool, dry palette and more linear style. In his later years (after about 1685), he moved away from the grandeur of the High Baroque towards a more classical, almost proto-rococo style, employing less intense colors and more delicate compositions. Many drawings by the artist have survived, in a wide range of media; almost all are studies for paintings, giving insight into the artist's working process. Gaulli died in Rome, shortly after 26 March 1709.