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Artist

Giovanni Battista Gaulli

Year
Genoa 1639 - 1709 Rome
Price range
0 – 1,000,000 USD
Giovanni Battista Gaulli was a pre-eminent artist of the Roman High Baroque best known for his theatrical illusionistic works and much admired as a portrait painter.

Also known as ‘Il Baccicio’, Gaulli moved to Rome in 1658 following the death of his family from the plague. There, he proved his talents as a painter with his first public commission, the altarpiece St Roch imploring the intervention of the Virgin and Child on behalf of the plague-stricken at the Church of S. Rocco in Ripetta. Gaulli’s broad brushwork and method of enhancing darker tones with more saturated bursts of colour, demonstrate the influence of Genoese painting on his technique.

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Selected artworks
Market

Top 3 auction prices

234,576 $
2007
435,000 $
2019
569,000 $
2014
Notable exhibitions

Washington D.C., The National Gallery of ArtA Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750, 26 September 2021 – 9 January 2022; travelled to Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, 4 March – 19 June 2022. Curated by Jonathan Bober, Piero Boccardo and Franco Boggero.

London, The National Gallery, Baroque Painting in Genoa, 13 March – 16 June 2002. Curated by Sally Korman and Gabriele Finaldi.

Ariccia, Palazzo Chigi, Giovan Battista Gaulli, Il Baciccio 1639–1709, 11 December 1999 – 12 March 2000. Curated by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, Dieter Graf and Francesco Petrucci.

Oberlin, Allen Memorial Art Museum, An Exhibition of Paintings, Bozzetti and Drawings by Giovanni Battista Gaulli called Il Baciccio. 16 January – 13 February 1967.

Books on Gaulli

Francesco Petrucci, Baciccio: Giovan Battista Gaulli, 1639–1709, Rome, 2009.

Robert Enggass, The Painting of Baciccio, Meriden, 1964.

Lione Pascoli, Vite de’pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni, Rome, 1730, vol. 1, pp. 386­–92.

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