Giovanni Valesio

Who was Giovanni Valesio?

Giovanni Luigi Valesio was an Italian painter and, most prominently, an engraver of the early-Baroque, active in his native city of Bologna, and then in Rome.

Malvasia claims he is the son of a Spanish soldier initially stationed in Reggio Calabria. He frequented the studio of Ludovico Carracci. After 1621, during the papacy of Gregory XV, Valesio relocated to Rome under the patronage of Lavinia Albergati, the wife of Orazio Ludovisi, the pope's brother. He helped Ulisse Aldrovandi in the preparation of some of his volumes of natural history. He was aided by a pupil, Giovanni Battista Coriolano. He also engraved the funereal services in Bologna performed for the Ludovisi pope. Also known as Giovanni Valesi. He died in his mid-forties according to Malvasia.

Among his works in Bologna are a Scourging of Christ for the church of San Pietro, an Annunciation for the Mendicant, and St. Roch curing the Plague-stricken for the church of St. Roch. At Rome he painted a Religion for the monastery attached to Santa Maria sopra Minerva. He etched several plates from his own designs, and after other masters, as well as a variety of plates for books.