Giovanni Ghisolfi was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 period.

Born in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, he initially trained with his uncle, Antonio Volpino. At the age of 17, he travelled to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 with his friend Antonio Busca where he painted veduta

Veduta

A veduta is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting of a cityscape or some other vista....

 and capricci, mainly landscapes with architectural fragments and ruins. They would garner renewed interest with the rise of Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

 in the mid-late 18th century.

In 1661, he decorated a chapel of the Certosa di Pavia

Certosa di Pavia

The Certosa di Pavia Gra-Car , Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Grace, is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, 8 km north of Pavia...

. In 1664 he was called to Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...

 to execute, in the Palazzo Trissino Baston and the Palazzo Giustiniani Baggio, a series of decorative landscape frescoes. He painted also in Palazzo Borromeo Arese at Cesano

Cesano Maderno

Cesano Maderno is a town and comune of c. 37,110 inhabitants in the province of Monza and Brianza, Lombardy, northern Italy. The town borders with the towns of Seveso in the North, in the South with Bovisio-Masciago, in the East with Desio and Seregno, and in the west with Ceriano Laghetto and...

, and in the fourth chapel of the Sacri Monti and covered the vaults of the Basilica of San Vittore in Varese

Varese

Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...

.

Among his pupil was his nephew, Bernardo Racchetti

Bernardo Racchetti

Bernardo Rachetti was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active as a painter of imaginary vedute.He was born in Milan, the nephew and scholar of Giovanni Ghisolfi. He painted architectural views and perspectives in the style of his instructor, for whose pictures Racchetti's are not...

from Milan (1639–1702).