Giorgio Ghisi Biography
Giorgio Ghisi was born in Mantua to a family originally from Parma in 1520. No details are known about his education, but it is known that it occurred under the influence of Giulio Romano, present in Mantua in the service of Federico II Gonzaga. It is plausible that he began his profession at the school of Giovanni Battista Scultori, an engraver from Mantua and collaborator of Giulio Romano at Palazzo Tè.
The first works attributed to Ghisi date back to 1540 and are clearly inspired by the models of Giulio Romano. Precisely for this reason, scholars believe that the young engraver worked in the master's workshop.
After the master's death in 1546, Ghisi moved to Rome, where he had the opportunity to enrich his education and form new relationships. Among these, the one with the publisher Hieronymus Cock was particularly important. He began an intense collaboration with him which took him to Antwerp, one of the major cultural centers in Europe, where Cock published under the banner "Aux quatre vents".
In Flanders Ghisi executed numerous engravings of the highest quality, so much so that in 1551 he was admitted as a member of the Guild of Saint Luke. It is plausible that, once he left Antwerp, he headed to France, where he executed several works published with royal privilege.
His last commissions were for the Gonzaga family, between 1574 and 1582, the year of his death. His latest work is represented by a series of four plates created to illustrate the Missal of St. Barbara, published in 1583.
