Giovanni Battista Ricci

Giovanni Battista Ricci (Novara, circa 1537 – Rome, 1627) nicknamed Il Novara after his birth town, was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early-Baroque period, active mainly in Rome.

Ricci moved to Rome from his native Lombardy during the papacy of Gregory XIII and was registered with the guild of painters by 1581. He was active in the fresco decoration (1590-1593) of the Scala Sancta in Santa Maria Maggiore and in the decoration (1597-1613) of San Marcello. He was influenced by Federico Zuccari. He also painted in the Vatican Library and the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. In 1617-1620, Ricci collaborated with the fellow Lombard Cristoforo Greppi in designing and painting the frescoes for the Castellani Chapel in San Francesco a Ripa. Ricci and his scholars executed several frescoes and paintings in the church of San Giacomo Scossacavalli in Borgo, destroyed in 1937.

Ricci was an excellent drafsman, working primarily in pen and brown ink, although a handful of studies in chalk are also known.