(b Ascoli Piceno, 1643; d Ascoli Piceno, 7 July 1731). He was sent to Rome to study with his cousin, Lazzaro Morelli. Morelli, also from Ascoli Piceno, worked with Bernini, and through him Giuseppe worked as one of Bernini’s assistants on the Cathedra Petri (1657–66; Rome, St Peter’s; see BERNINI, GIANLORENZO, fig. 2). In 1663 Giuseppe returned to Ascoli Piceno to begin work on the reconstruction of the Palazzo Comunale in the Piazza Arringo, a project that lasted the rest of his life. He modified Giovanni Battista Cavagna’s original design of 1610 to create the side and front façades. Later, with the help of his son Lazzaro, he sculpted female caryatids to flank the windows of the second storey, and similar male figures to flank the windows of the third and top storey. Among his other major works, all in Ascoli Piceno, are the altar of the Crucifix in S Maria del Carmine (1668); the façade of the chiesa dell’Angelo Custode (1684); the façade of S Maria del Carmine (1687); altars in S Francesco, S Agostino and S Venanzio (1697); the crypt for S Emidio in the cathedral (1704–8); a marble group of the Virgin with St Thomas the Apostle in S Tommaso; a marble statue, Purity, and the altar of the Madonna of the Rosary (1720–35), both in S Pietro Martire; the caryatid façade of the Palazzo Lenti (these last four works in collaboration with Lazzaro); the entrance gate to the Casa Odoardi garden, including flanking female busts; and his most admired work, the Tempietto di S Emidio alle Grotte. This last was built between 1704 and 1708 as a tribute to the patron saint of Ascoli Piceno after the earthquake of 1703. The first storey has a semicircular portico with a dome supported by eight Doric columns. Its style reflects Bernini, as well as Pietro da Cortona’s S Maria della Pace in Rome.

Part of the Giosafatti family

• Giosafatti, Giuseppe
  • Ascoli Piceno
  • Giosafatti
  • teachers
    • Morelli, Lazzaro