Luigi Garzi Italian, 1638-1721

Luigi Garzi (Pistoia, Italy, 1638 - Rome, Italy, 1721)

Born in Pistoia in 1638, Luigi Garzi attended both grammar and drawing schools before moving to Rome. There, he trained in Salomon Boccali’s workshop and Andrea Sacchi’s atelier. Drawn to classicism, he found his primary source of inspiration in Raphael.  

From 1670, he became an academician of S. Luca. Between 1671 and 1672, he collaborated with Filippo Lauri and Gaspard Dughet on the decoration of Palazzo Borghese, as well as the naves and ambulatory of the church of S. Carlo al Corso.  In 1680, he became regent of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi at the Pantheon, and in 1682, he was appointed prince of the Academy of S. Luca.

During the 1690s, he was active in both Rome and Naples, though, regrettably, most of his works from this period were lost.

Returning permanently to Rome around 1701, he painted three frescoes in the church of S. Paolo alla Regola. Between 1711 and 1712, he frescoed the dome and pendentives of the S. Giuseppe’s Chapel.

Towards the end of his career, he contributed to two of the most important decorative cycles in early 18^th-century Rome: the series of the twelve prophets for the nave of St. John Lateran and the decoration of Palazzo De Carolis. In 1720, for Livio De Carolis, he painted the large canvas depicting Apollo driving the Chariot of the Sun, fully employing a classicist style.

He died in Rome in 1721.

Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)