Giovanni Agostino Ratti
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Giovanni Agostino Ratti (1699–1755) was an Italian painter of the late-
Baroque period The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in ...
.


Biography

Born in
Savona Savona (; ) is a seaport and (municipality) in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria, and the capital of the Province of Savona. Facing the Ligurian Sea, Savona is the main center of the Riviera di Ponente (the western se ...
, and active in
Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
, he constructed scenography for the theatre, and cabinets with lively caricatures, which he also engraved. He was clever in church paintings, as may be seen in the church of San Giovanni at Savona, where, besides other subjects of ''St John the Baptist'', there is a much-praised ''Decollation''. He also painted in the church of Santa Teresa in Genoa, and was a follower of
Benedetto Luti Benedetto Luti (17 November 1666 – 17 June 1724) was an Italian Baroque painter, draftsman, and pastelist. Early life Luti was born in Florence on 17 November 1666. He trained under Anton Domenico Gabbiani before moving to Rome in 1690. Career ...
, whose school he had frequented when in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
. He was also a good fresco-painter; his works are in the choir of the Conventual church in
Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy, northwestern Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montfe ...
, where he added figures to the
quadratura Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective di sotto in sù and quadratura, is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, and other ...
of Giuseppe Natali. But subjects of humor were his forte. In these, he had an exhaustless fancy, fertile and ever-creative. Nothing can be more amusing than his masks, representing quarrels, dances, and such scenes as form the subjects of comedy. Giovanni's son, Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, was an artist and art biographer.


References

* 1699 births 1755 deaths 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Genoa Italian Baroque painters Italian scenic designers 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-17thC-stub