Biography

Italian illuminator, painter and sculptor. He was principally active as an illuminator and ran a workshop of considerable repute in Bologna. In 1486 he collaborated with Martino da Modena on the decoration of choir-books for San Petronio, Bologna, and this contact with Martino undoubtedly influenced his style. In 1509 and 1511 and then in 1522 and 1523 he and his collaborators received payments for the illumination of a number of choir-books for the same church (Museo San Petronio, Bologna).

Cavalletto's only surviving signed and dated work is a full-page miniature of the Coronation of the Virgin (1523; Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna), from the statute book of the guild of merchants and drapers of Bologna. The miniature, with the Virgin enthroned on a podium in a columned room, is strikingly monumental in its conception. Here, as in the best of Cavalletto's work as an illuminator, the marked influence of the Ferrara school fused with the traditional style of Bologna is apparent.

Also attributed to Cavalletto are the frontispiece miniature of the statute book of the College of Jurists of Bologna representing the Assumption of the Virgin (1502; Archivi di stato, Bologna), and the Office of Holy Week from the Lateran abbey of San Salvatore (Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna). The elegant ornamental borders of these manuscripts may, however, be the work of Giovanni's son Scipione (active 1516-26), who collaborated closely with him. Arslan has attributed to Cavalletto a number of painted works, including a triptych representing the Virgin and Child with Saints (Museo San Stefano, Bologna). None of his sculptural works is known.