Giovanni Battista Merano

1632 – 1698

Italian painter. He was a pupil in Genoa of Giovanni Andrea de' Ferrari and perhaps also of Giulio Benso, from whom he acquired an inclination towards narrative and naturalism. Later he entered the workshop of Valerio Castello. About 1651 Merano went to Parma to study the works of Correggio and Parmigianino. Here he painted two oval frescoes of St Lucy and St Apollonia (both Parma, Santa Croce). These first works, stylistically still immature, were strongly influenced by 16th-century Emilian painters, especially Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, as well as by Castello. He returned to Genoa after the death of Castello in 1659, and painted there in various churches. He returned to Parma in 1668, where he received a pension from Duke Ranuccio II. He painted the chapel in the Ducal Palace of Colorno, and also painted frescoes for the chapels of the Benedictine church of San Giovanni Evangelista. In 1698, he worked in the town of San Remo.

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