Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi

Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi , 1606-80, Italian painter and architect, called Il Bolognese. He was a pupil of the Carracci and of Francesco Albani. With the exception of two years in France (1649-51), where he decorated the Mazarin Palace (now the Bibliothèque nationale) and other buildings for Cardinal Mazarin, most of his life was spent in Rome. He was employed as architect and painter by several popes. His paintings, chiefly landscapes in the manner of the Carracci, are found in the Borghese and Colonna galleries and the Quirinal, Rome; the Louvre; and in Vienna.

Grimaldi, Giovanni Francesco (1606–80). Italian landscape painter, born in Bologna and sometimes called Il Bolognese. He developed an attractive landscape style in the manner of the mature Annibale Carracci, and his work, which was popular with collectors and much engraved, helped to spread the tradition of ideal landscape in Europe. Grimaldi worked mainly in Rome, painting frescos as well as easel paintings, notably at the Villa Doria Pamphili, where he was also employed as an architect. In 1649–51 he worked in Paris.