Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi

An eclectic painter of the Bolognese school; b. at Bologna, 1606; d. at Rome, 1680. He was a pupil of the Carracci, but he made his mark when he left Bolonga for Rome, and was employed by Innocent X to execute some fresco decoration in the Vatican. His work was so much admired that Prince Pamfili, the pope’s nephew, employed him to decorate the rooms of his villa with landscapes, and then wrote to Louis XIV, describing the work. His appreciation of it was so high that he induced Cardinal Mazarin to invite Grimaldi to Paris, where he decorated two of the rooms in the Louvre and painted some landscapes, and he is said to have received the honour of knighthood from the French king. Returning to Rome, he again entered the papal service, and worked for Alexander VII and Clement IX, was appointed president of the Academy of St. Luke, and became all exceedingly popular person in the Holy City. He was a skilful etcher, especially in landscape-work, and his chief pictures are in the Colonna palace at Rome, in the Quirinal, and in the galleries of Vienna and Paris.