Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo

Who was Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo?

Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo was a Swiss painter and stage set designer.

Born in Arogno, he was a pupil of his uncle, Luca Antonio Colomba. He worked in Frankfurt, Mannheim, Vienna, Hamburg, Prague, Munich and other cities. For 18 years, he was the court architect at Stuttgart and stage set designer for the Duke. Worked also in Turin, but his major work was a large ceiling fresco at the Ludwigsburg Palace.

The first documented paintings were for allegorical decorations and quadratura for the ceiling of the Römer at Frankfurt. This work was destroyed during World War II. In 1749, he was commissioned the decoration of a parochial church at Uetersen in Schleswig-Holstein. In 1750, he decorated the ducal theatre at Hannover. From 1751-1768, he was the court painter for the Duke of Württemberg, Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, who founded the Academy of Art of Stuttgart. In Stuttgart, he created the set designs for operas of Niccolò Jommelli, and the ballets of Jean-Georges Noverre.

From 1769 to 1771, he was the stage set designer for the Teatro Regio, substituting for the members of the Galliari family.