Giovanni Bizzelli
1556–1612 · Italian · Mannerism
The story
Giovanni Bizzelli belonged to the last generation of Florentine Mannerists, the painters who kept Michelangelo's grand manner going into the late 16th century. Born in Florence in 1556, he trained under Alessandro Allori, the court painter who had himself been raised in the workshop of Bronzino.
After a spell in Rome he came home and worked alongside Antonio Tempesta on the painted vaults of the Uffizi corridor, the long gallery the Medici had built over the city. Among the works tied to his hand is a portrait of Joanna of Austria, the Habsburg archduchess who married into the Medici, shown with her young son. Bizzelli went on painting altarpieces for Florentine and Tuscan churches until his death around 1612.
