Giovanni
Domenico Ferretti (Giandomenico), also called Giandomenico
d'Imola (1692–1768) was an Italian Rococo style painter
from Florence. According to the contemporary Giovanni Camillo
Sagrestani, Ferretti was a pupil of the Bolognese painter Giuseppe
Maria Crespi. Others say he worked with painter Giovanni Gioseffo
dal Sole.
He returned to
Florence with a letter of recommendation of Cardinal Gozzadini
seeking patronage from Cosimo III de' Medici. He found work in the
studio of Tommaso Redi and Sebastiano Galeotti. He travelled to
Bologna to work under Felice Torelli and then resettled in Florence
in 1715. Ferretti soon joined the Florentine Accademia del Disegno,
where he later taught painting but also designed tapestries for the
Medici. He found abundant patronage in fresco painting for the
Florentine Abbey (Badia Fiorentina), the Chapel of San Giuseppe in
the Duomo, and the altar and cupola of the Church of San Salvatore
al Vescovo. One of his most important works was the decoration of
the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, since lost in
a fire.
Ferretti's fresco
style was influenced by Sebastiano Ricci's lively, colourful, and
pastel-hued frescoes in the Palazzo Marucelli-Fenzi. Ferretti
himself decorated the Palazzo Amati Cellesi in Pistoia, the Palazzo
Chigi Sansedoni in Siena, and the Villa Flori in Pescia. The
frescoes for the cupola of the cathedral of San Zeno in Pistoia are
attributed to him.