Giovanni Battista Canal

The son of Fabio Canal, Giovanni Battista Canal was a Venetian artist who worked in the following of Giambattista Tiepolo.  A tireless artist, Canal studied at the Academy in Venice, afterwards receiving commissions throughout the Veneto. He is most well-known his decorations of church ceilings, with over seventy examples known by him.  The present canvas, dated 1772, was completed while he was a member of the fraglia dei pittori, where he was enrolled from 1769-1780.  It shows the vision of Aloysius Gonzaga (1568 – 1591), who was born into an aristocratic Italian family and renounced his inheritance in favor of a life as a Jesuit.  Here we see the young saint, who died at the young age of 23, wearing a white vestment over a black cassock, holding a lily in reference to his innocence.