Biography
Giovanni Maria delle Piane was born in Genova, Italy, the son of Giovanni Battista delle Piane, a fencing expert. He was nicknamed the "Molinaretto" as his grandparents had watermills (from Italian molino, watermill). At the age of 10, he began to work the studio of Giovanni Battista Merano where he stayed until he was 16 years old, when he transferred to Rome to work under the famed fresco painter, Giovanni Battista Gaulli called il Baciccio, who held him like a son. The Genoese painter Enrico Vaymer was a fellow student and lifelong friend. In this important Roman studio and under the guidance of Gaulli, Piane copied the works of great masters like Giulio Romano, Guido Reni, Annibale Carracci and Domenichino. These copies brouht him contemporaray acclaim. At the studio of Gaulli, he also painted portraits. He returned to Genova in 1684, the year of the death of Giovanni Battista Carlone, heir of the Genoese traditional portraiture of the first half of the 17th century.
The local aristocracy recognized in him the art and the celebrative sensitivity of the times, capable to adapt to new fashions, he dressed his figures with "majestic and elegant drapes taking them in certain new and witty movements" (defined by Carlo Giuseppe Ratti). In 1695, by invitation of Count Morando, he completed a first journey to Parma, the city where his former master G.B. Merano was recently active. He found clients in the Farnesian cities and also in Genova. He moved from a place to another in Emilia and Liguria, making portraits of sacred character. In 1705 the Cardinal Alberoni, sent by the Duke Francesco Farnese, assigned the artist, who seemed to be residing in Piacenza at that moment, to portray the Duke of Vendôme, commander of the Franco-Spanish troops. In 1706 the artist was again in Parma, commissioned to portray Duke Francesco, the Duchess Dorotea Sophia and the young Princess Elisabetta Farnese, Princess of Parma. Two years after he made the portrait of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Successively he returned more times to Milan.
In 1709 he portrays Prince Antonio Farnese and already from that year, he was nominated Court Painter and he transferred to Parma from where, he returned to Genoa. In April 21 of 1711, Piane became the personal painter of Princess Elisabeth, receiving a stipend, including food and accommodation. He was still holding a commission in 1737. Between 1714 and 1715 he portrayed Princess Elisabeth when she married King Phillip V of Spain, from 1715 he resided stably with the royal family in Piacenza where he stayed until 1737. In 1719 he was invited to go to Spain, probably by Princess Elisabeth, as she considered him as a trustable portraitist, but the journey was never undertaken. Already elder in 1737, he affronted a long transfer to Naples, where he retained for some years at the court of the young king Charles III of Spain, already duke of Parma. Still a court painter, he was committed to portray King Charles and his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. During those years two of his feminine portraits were presented at the Florentine exhibition of the academy of drawing.
In June 1741 he left Naples to return to his native city of Genova. There he still painted portraits for the local aristocracy and finally, in 1744 he retired to Monticelli d’Ongina, near Piacenza, where he died on 28 June 1745. The artistic activity of Piane endured for over 60 years, it was extremely intense. The first works have to be inserted again in that typical strand of the Genovese portraiture that led from Van Dyck led to Carlone and from him to Piane. The technique used in the portraiture is conducted with robust incisiveness in the face of the persons portrayed and with a decorative exuberance inserted in an opulent scenogaphy with meticulous attention for the attributes of caste of the subject represented.
The artist's most important portraits are conserved in the Royal Palace of Madrid and in Caserta Palace's collection of royal family portraits. He was esteemed for his distinguished art like Godfrey Kneller and Anthony Van Dyck in Italy.
His son, Giovanni Andrea, (died 1759) was a painter of portraits.
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