Giovanni Battista Innocenzo Colombo

He trained in Lugano under his uncle Luca Antonio Colombo and worked for several years in Ticino before leaving his native region.

His Swiss works include the illusionistic frescoes of the Oratorium della Beata Vergine in Valmara and other paintings in the parish church of Arogno.

In 1741, at the age of 24, he painted within four weeks for Emperor Charles VII the monumental fresco of the Kaisertreppe of the Römer, entitled Der Sieg der Tugend über die Untugend.

He subsequently worked in several German centres—including Ludwigsburg, where he decorated the vault of the opera house, as well as Braunschweig, Mainz, Munich and Frankfurt am Main—and in 1748 arrived in Hamburg, where he was employed as a theatre painter.

In 1748–49, he executed in Uetersen the ceiling known by the titles Das Engelkonzert or Die Verherrlichung der Dreieinigkeit; the source reports that, following a dispute over the price, he incorporated into the decoration instruments described as unplayable.