Giovanni Battista Viola (1576 – 1622)

• Was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period in Rome.
• Giovanni was born in Bologna.  

• He collaborated with Domenichino in the Room of Appollo in Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati (1616–18), where Viola painted the landscapes and Domenichino, the figures.

• In 1612, he was sharing a house with Francesco Albani.

• In 1612, Viola married Silvia Gemelli, who was already mother to an Anna Gemelli, who in turn married Albani. 

• Hence, Albani was Viola's stepson-in-law.

• Giulio Mancini commented in his writings that Viola was well respected for his landscape canvases.

• His paintings were documented among the works in the collections of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, Giustiniani, Cardinal Mazarin, and the Pamphilj and Louis XIV of France.

• He was a teacher of Bartolommeo Lotto and Pietro Paolo Bonzi.

• The biography of Amorini recounts that Viola died mortified after offending the Cardinal Ludovisi. 

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