GHISLANDI, VITTORE, known as Fra' GALGARIO. — Painter, Minim religious, born in Bergamo on 4 March 1655, died there at the age of 88 in early December 1743. He is considered among the most distinguished Italian portrait painters. His works in public and private collections throughout Europe demonstrate the master’s intense capacity for characterization, expressed particularly in the Galleria Carrara in Bergamo through an extremely rigorous and lively drawing style. He had numerous pupils and imitators, among whom is remembered a Minim religious who died at only 22 years of age.
BIBL.: L. Burchard, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, XIII, pp. 566–569; F. M. Tassi, Vite dei pittori, scultori e architetti bergamaschi, II, Bergamo 1793, pp. 57–74; V. DUHR, BERNARD, Il pittore Fr. V. G., 1911; M. Bianca, L’arte di Fr. V. G., in L’Arte, 16 (1913), pp. 341–63; C. Caversazzi, Il ritratto italiano dal Caravaggio al Tiepolo, Bergamo 1927, pp. 149–56. Gennaro Moretti