Angelo Michele Colonna

1604 – 1687

Italian painter and draughtsman, active also in Spain. He studied and collaborated with Girolamo Curti (1575-1632) and later enjoyed a 25-year collaboration with Agostino Mitelli. A figure painter (figurista) and quadraturista, with Mitelli he emphasized the former role. In 1625, however, Colonna provided both figures (studies, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie) and quadratura for the nave ceiling of S Alessandro, Parma; in 1635-36 he and Mitelli decorated the walls of the Sala Grande, Palazzo Spada, Rome. Only the scenographic decoration of three ground-floor rooms in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (1639-41), and the more richly detailed frescoes in the Great Hall of the Palazzo d'Este at Sassuolo, Modena (1646-47), survive out of their complete quadratura interiors. Their finest work in Bologna was the intricate design of the chapel of the Rosary, S Domenico (1654-56). In this period they decorated a chamber in the Palazzo Balbi, Genoa, contributing to the diversity of ceiling decorations in Liguria.

View all works →