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"Son of the Piacenza architect Giuseppe, he studied painting in Milan with the Lombard Girolamo Chignoli. In 1649 he was entrusted with the important task of collaborating in the realization of the fittings, of the triumphal arches and of the pictorial decorations, for the reception of the Archduchess Marianna of Austria, on the occasion of her visit to the city.In 1650 his presence in Rome is documented, engaged in the study of ancient architecture and in the graphic reproduction of architectural fragments , seems to be in the company of his painter friend Antonio Busca. According to the story of the biographer and art historian Filippo Baldinucci, Ghisolfi spent a long time in Rome, also learning to "paint the figures" and to realize the architectural perspectives, finding himself in close contact with the most expert Neapolitan Salvator Rosa. He had certainly already returned to Milan in 1659. In fact, the fresco decoration of the third chapel on the right of the Certosa d i Pavia, executed in 1661 is his first documented work in Lombardy, after his profitable stay in Rome, while in the following years he will also be active in the Veneto. In the last years of his life, Orlandi tells us about his physical decay and the blindness that hit him in the end. He died in Milan in 1683 and was buried in the church of S. Giovanni in Conca. The work in question reproduces a glimpse of classical ruins, attributable to his formative Roman experience, and expresses a solid architectural structure: the figures, with a few measured gestures, are dressed in draperies, caps and shoes, details of clothing that also seem from Salvator Rosa's repertoire, while the scene is of severe composure.In fact, the classicism that emerges from his paintings, rendered through linear compositions, light colors, diffused light and solid architectural setting, make Giovanni Ghisolfi a forerunner of eighteenth-century landscape painting and a pioneer of new expressive trends. Some of the landscapes, views and perspectives created in this period will constitute a fundamental model of inspiration for the most celebrated Emilian Giovanni Paolo Pannini. " STUDIO ASOR