Fra Galgario

Fra' Galgario, born Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, and also called Fra' Vittore del Galgario, was an Italian painter, mainly active in Bergamo as a portraitist during the Rococo or late-Baroque period.

He was born in Bergamo to an artist father, Domenico Ghislandi. Initially, he entered the studio of Giacomo Cotta, then Bartolomeo Bianchi, and finally the studio of Sebastiano Bombelli in Venice in the 1690s. He also reported training with the German portrait artist Salomon Adler in Milan.

In 1702, he entered the religious life in the Order of the Minims of the Monastery of Galgario, in Bergamo. He assumed the name of the saint for whom the monastery is named. He was elected a member of the Milanese Accademia Clementina in 1717.

He is said to blend the attention to colourism and glamour that captivates Renaissance-Baroque portraiture of Venice, with the realism of Milanese art such as that of Moroni. Among his pupils were Paolo Bonomino, Cesare Femi, and Pietro Gualdi (18th century painter).

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023