GALESTRUZZI Giovanni Battista
(Florence 1618 – after 1677)
Engraver and Tuscan painter. He did his artistic apprenticeship with the Baroque Florentine Francesco Furini. After moving to Rome, he became a member of the Academy of San Luca, actively participating in the academic life.
There are little news about his pictorial production, while his activity as engraver is more significant, with about 350 works. In 1657 he produced a large series of engravings for the volume Le antiche gemme figurate depicting camels and gems from Roman private collections. The success of this series of etchings is evidenced by the publication of several new editions of the book (1670, 1686, 1702, 1703, 1707).
The most famous work of Galestruzzi as an engraver is certainly the reproduction of the decorative frescoes by Polidoro da Caravaggio on the exterior facades of Milesi palace in Rome, edited in this city in 1658 with the title Opera of Polidoro da Caravaggio. According to Hermanin (1907), Galestruzzi seems to not to have used the original Polydor’s frescoes or drawings as a model, but some drawn copies by J.P. Saenredam.
The graphic language of Galestuzzi, highly appreciated for the elegance of the stroke, is traditionally judged similar to S. Della Bella’s, though with minor expressive qualities.
At the death of Della Bella in 1664, Galestruzzi realized the landscaping background in one of the seven engravings (called The Sixth Death), a macabre subject made by Della Bella around the seventh decade of the 17th century.
On July 17, 1678, Galestruzzi was for the last time among the participants in a congregation of the Academy of St. Luke. Therefore, it is possible to assume that he died shortly after this date.
