(b Mantua, 1520; d Mantua, 15 Dec 1582). Engraver and damascener. His teacher was probably Giovanni Battista Scultori, after whose designs and in whose style he engraved two Scenes from the Trojan War (see 1985 cat. rais., nos 7 and 8). His six earliest prints, from the early 1540s or before, are after designs by Giulio Romano. They are lightly engraved in rather flat perspective, the figures often silhouetted against dark backgrounds, the shading lines not necessarily defining volume, and with an effect of intense flickering light, in the style of Scultori. Ghisi is recorded as being with Giovanni Battista Bertani in Rome during the reign of Pope Paul III (1534–49). There he may have met Antoine Lafréry, who published four of his engravings during the 1540s, and many others throughout his life. Probably after his return from Rome he made an engraving on ten separate plates after Michelangelo’s Last Judgement (Rome, Vatican, Sistine Chapel), his model probably being a drawing by Marcello Venusti.

Part of the Ghisi family

• Ghisi, Giorgio
  • Antwerp, §II, 1: Art life and organization, before 1585
  • Arms and armour, §II, 1(ii): European edged weapons, 1450–1630
  • Cock: (3) Hieronymus Cock
  • Engraving, §II, 3(i)(b): Major exponents and their influences, c 1500–c 1600: Raimondi
  • Engraving, §II, 3(ii): Commercial growth, c 1500–c 1600
  • Ghisi
  • Scultori
  • pupils
    • Cort, Cornelis
  • works
    • Bertani, Giovanni Battista
    • Bronzino, Agnolo, §3: Critical reception and posthumous reputation
    • Ghisi: (2) Teodoro Ghisi
    • Mantua, §2: Art life and organization
    • Penni: (2) Luca Penni
    • Prints, §II, 1(ii): Subject-matter, before c 1700: Classical and mythological
    • Reproduction of works of art, §2(i): 15th–17th centuries