Giovanni Battista Salvi Detto Il Sassoferrato Biography
Giovanni Battista Salvi, known as Sassoferrato (25 August 1609 – Rome, 8 August 1685), was an Italian painter.
Sassoferrato studied the art of painting in his father Tarquinio Salvi's studio. The remains of Tarquinho's work are still visible in the Church of San Francesco in Sassoferrato. Giovanni's other education is not recorded, except for his work in the studio of Domenicino in Bologna, who in turn was a pupil of Annibale Carracci (c. 1580). He learned and was inspired by other masters, Francesco Albani and Guido Reni, and according to the scholar Francis Russell, although they were his teachers, they were more inspiring than Sasofirato Domenicino. His paintings were also influenced by Albrecht Dürer, Gursino and especially Raphael. Sassoferrato has some public commissions and appears to have produced several devotional images in different styles for private clients during the early part of his career. Sassoferrato's work was highly appreciated in the mid-19th century. His paintings are sometimes considered contemporary with the school of Raphael. The end of the twentieth century saw a renewed interest in seventeenth-century Italian painting, thanks to the fame of Guido Reni. Sassoferrato's work received renewed attention, and he was considered a faithful interpreter of the Italian pictorial tradition of his time. Sassoferrato has more than three hundred works in museums around the world, including most of his remaining paintings, which are held in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle in England. His most important and famous masterpiece is the altarpiece for the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine, which replaced Raphael's canvas.
