Giovanni Battista Viola

Giovanni Battista Viola was an Italian painter born in 1576 and died in 1622. He was a prominent figure in the Baroque movement, known for his landscape paintings that often served as backgrounds for other artists' works. Viola was active in Rome, where he collaborated with and influenced contemporaries such as Domenichino and Annibale Carracci. His work is characterized by its harmonious composition and atmospheric use of light, contributing to the development of landscape painting in the early 17th century. Viola's landscapes were highly regarded during his lifetime, and he was employed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a significant patron of the arts. Despite his relatively short life, Viola's contributions to the Baroque landscape genre left a lasting impact on the trajectory of Italian painting.