Giorgio Ghisi (1520 - 1582)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Giorgio Ghisi, one of the greatest Renaissance printmakers, was born in Mantua, Italy, in 1520. Besides his native town, Ghisi also worked in Rome, Paris and Antwerp. Ghisi made prints after some of the masterworks of the High Renaissance, including Raphael’s frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura of the Vatican Palace and Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. After returning to Mantua towards the end of his life, Ghisi also made a set of six large prints after Michelangelo’s Prophets and Sibyls, also in the Sistine Chapel. Ghisi died in 1582.

Besides his printmaking, Ghisi was also employed by the Gonzaga family as keeper of jewels and precious metals, and overseer of work on the Gonzaga wardrobes. He worked damascening, adding ornamental designs to metalwork, although the only signed pieces known are a shield and a dagger hilt.