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(1) (Giuseppe) Giocondo Albertolli
(b Bedano, 24 July 1742; d Milan, 15 Nov 1839). Architect, decorator and teacher. He was educated in Aosta and was then sent by his father to Parma to stay with his uncle, a stuccoist. He finished his training in the local Accademia di Belle Arti where he was awarded prizes in 1766 and 1768. He worked first in Parma, executing decorations in S Brigida (1765), decorations from a design by Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot for a triumphal arch (1768, destr. 1859) for the wedding celebrations of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, and Maria Amalia of Austria and ceiling decorations in the palace of the Duca di Grillo (begun 1769). From 1770 to 1775 Giocondo carried out the stuccowork in the Gran Salone of the villa of Poggio Imperiale, outside Florence, for Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany. French designs were sent from Vienna, and the resulting room, later painted white, recalls the Petit Trianon, Versailles, though the scale is very large, with a Corinthian order of pilasters along the walls. These serve to mark off the garlands, trophies and low reliefs in frames that are applied in decoration. During his time in Florence he became familiar with Tuscan stuccowork of the 15th and 16th centuries, which was fundamental for his future career. Giocondo’s personal style was also influenced by a visit he made to Rome, Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum. On that occasion he executed models of Corinthian capitals for the church of the Annunciation in Naples for the architect Carlo Vanvitelli, son of Luigi Vanvitelli. These professional contacts may have brought his work to the appreciative attention of Giuseppe Piermarini, imperial and royal architect in Milan, who in 1774 invited him to leave Bedano, where he had returned in 1773, to decorate the Palazzo Reale. In 1774 and 1775 he divided his time between Milan and Florence, having been summoned again to Florence by the architect Gaspero Maria Paoletti to decorate the ceilings of the Sala degli Stucchi and the Palazzina della Meridiana in the Palazzo Pitti. He also began the decoration of the Sala delle Niobi in the Uffizi Gallery. All his Tuscan projects were completed by his brother Grato. In Milan he took two years to complete the room of the caryatids in the Palazzo Reale.
Part of the Albertolli family
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