A Life Dedicated to Painting
Giuseppe Ghislandi was born in Bergamo in 1655. We know nothing about his training in his birthplace. He became a monk, taking the name of Fra'Vittore (the name of Fra'Galgario came from his monastery in Bergamo), and lived in Venice from 1675 to 1688. After a short return to his place of birth, he returned to Venice for another twelve years, to the studio of portrait painter Sebastiano Bombelli. When he finally returned to Bergamo, it was as a famous painter and portraitist who was much in demand. He seems to have kept in touch with his contacts with Venice but the only journey we know of took him to Bologna in 1717 where he met the greatest painter of that town, Giuseppe Maria Crespi. These laconic notes have come down to us from Tassi, the writer of memoirs, who was happily more forthcoming about the artist's pictorial technique. They would seem to indicate therefore that Fra'Galgario led a fairly uneventful life, devoted exclusively to art.
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