Giovanni battista fontana biography definition

          Fontana, Giovanni Battista, Italian composer and violinist; b..

          Biography

          Italian painter, part of a family of painters, draughtsmen and printmakers, active in Austria.

          Giovanni Battista Fontana detto del violino (Brescia, – Padova, 7 ottobre ) è stato un compositore e violinista italiano.

        1. Brief biographical information on Giovanni Battista Fontana precedes comparisons with his contemporaries, the emerging breed of professional violinist-composers.
        2. Fontana, Giovanni Battista, Italian composer and violinist; b.
        3. Italian painter ().
        4. Italian Baroque composer and violinist.

          5. His training was based on the works of such masters as Titian and Veronese, and his activity in Austria, documented from 1562, comprised substantial decorative projects and altarpieces, drawings and numerous engravings. In 1562 he and his brother Giulio Fontana (active 1562–1578) executed frescoes (destroyed) in the chapel of Schloss Kaiser-Ebersdorf in Vienna; in 1573 he was in Innsbruck, where he settled and in 1575 became court painter to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.

          In Innsbruck he created frescoes for the oratory of the Hofkirche; the spheristerion (1573); the Silberne Kapelle, built by Giulio Fontana, in which he executed 14 scenes of the Passion (1576); and a room in the castle (1578).

          A more important work was the decoration of the ceiling of the dining-hall of Schloss Ambras, illustrating Allegories of the Zodiac, the Elements and the Planets (1583–84; in situ).