Giovanni Battista Braccelli

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Giovanni Battista Braccelli (c. 1600-before 1650) was an Italian engraver and painter of the Baroque period, active in Florence.

He is best known for his book of prints: Bizzarie di Varie Figure, published in 1624 in Livorno, and dedicated to Don Pietro Medici. The depiction of a variety of human shapes aggregated from a variety of objects or landscapes appears prescient of modern cubist experiments. In this book, he engraves baroque experiments recalling Arcimboldo, engaging in a rarified set of conceits. Some of the figures are composed of boxes or raquets or curlicues.

Equally quizzical is his Alfabeto figurato (1632) which consists of alphabets constituted by acrobatic calligraphy of human forms. Added to this were some vedute of Rome and Roman artworks. He also published a collection of prints of conventional individuals engaged with playing musical instruments, entitled Figure Con Instrumenti Musicali E Boscarecci.

He appears to be distinct from the Genoese painter of the same name, born 1584 and apprenticed under Giovanni Battista Paggi (il Paggi), and who died in 1609^[1].

[edit] References

^ Soprani, Raffaello (1769). in Carlo Giuseppe Ratti: Delle vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi; Tomo secundo scritto da Carlo Giuseppe Ratti. Stamperia Casamara in Genoa, dalle Cinque Lampadi, con licenza de Superiori; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Feb 2, 2007, pages 198-199.