Giovanni Battista Cimaroli

Who was Giovanni Battista Cimaroli?

Giovanni Battista Cimaroli was an Italian painter of the late Baroque period. He was born in Salò on Lake Garda, not far from Brescia. He studied under Antonio Aureggio and later in Bologna with the landscape painter Antonio Calza, before moving to Venice around 1713. Cimaroli's rustic landscapes are reminiscent of the Arcadian scenes of Francesco Zuccarelli, influenced by a tradition of Lombardian realism. In c. 1722–6, Cimaroli collaborated with Canaletto on Owen McSwiney's unusual Allegorical Tombs series, whose aim was to memorialize British worthies, the main sponsor being the 2nd Duke of Richmond. Caneletto's vedute became the inspiration for Cimaroli's own topographical views of Venice, which until recently have often been concealed under misattributions to Canaletto. Important early patrons of Cimaroli were Marshal Schulenberg, Count Tessin of Sweden, and the British merchant and diplomat settled in Venice, Joseph Smith. It was through the disposition of Consul Smith's art collection, hand-picked by Smith for King George III, that six landscapes by Cimaroli entered the Royal Collection, of which three oval views survive.