Giuseppe Diamantini (Fossombrone 1621 - Fossombrone 1705)

Diamantini was born at Fossombrone, in Le Marche, in 1621. He quickly developed an individual style, combining elements from the areas of Urbino and Romagna with ideas developed in Rome and Venice, where he came in contact with Pietro Liberi. In Bologna he was influenced by the school of the Carracci brothers and probably by a meeting with Simone Cantarini, also from Le Marche. In about 1650 he moved to Venice, where his work was very favourably received thanks to some important public commissions, including the Adoration of the Magi for the Church of San Moisè and frescoes for the choir of the Church of San Giovanni Crisostomo. During his sojourn in the city, Diamantini was made Knight of the Order of St. George by the emperor. He painted numerous profane subjects, in which the style of the Bologna academy is tempered by a Venetian influence, specifically that of Veronese. He decorated Palazzo Badoer with a cycle of the lives and loves of the gods.
Diamantini was particularly skilled in depicting mythological scenes and was also an excellent engraver. In 1666 he designed the title page of the opera libretto of L’inganno riconosciuto by Camillo Contarini. He also produced a series of about 60 prints of his paintings, which probably account for his popularity. Throughout his lifetime Diamantini never lost touch with the town of his birth; he retired there, virtually blind, and died in 1705.