Giovanni Battista Calandra (1586 - c. 1644) was an Italian

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

artist in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. He was born at

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

in 1586. In the pontificate of

Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII ( la, Urbanus VIII; it, Urbano VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death in July 1644. As p ...

, it was found that the dampness of St. Peter's materially affected canvases, and henceforth it was determined to remove the principal pictures, and to replace them with copies in mosaic, of which the first was executed by Calandra, after the ''St. Michael'' of

Cesare D'Arpino Giuseppe Cesari (14 February 1568 – 3 July 1640) was an Italian Mannerist painter, also named Il Giuseppino and called ''Cavaliere d'Arpino'', because he was created ''Cavaliere di Cristo'' by his patron Pope Clement VIII. He was much patroniz ...

. With this were ''The Four Doctors of the Church'', ''St. Peter'', ''St. Paul'', and others in the cupolas, after the cartoons of D'Arpino, Romanelli, Lanfranco, Sacchi, and

Pellegrini Pellegrini may refer to: People * Pellegrini (surname), an Italian surname Cities * Carlos Pellegrini, Santa Fe, a city in Santa Fe Province, Argentina *Pellegrini, Buenos Aires, a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina Fish *'' Labeo pellegrin ...

. He also executed a ''Madonna'' after

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

for the

Christina, Queen of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December (New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death a ...

References

* 1568 births 1640s deaths People from Vercelli 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Mosaic artists {{Italy-painter-16thC-stub