Giovanni Pietro Bellori
![Gian Pietro Bellori, portrait by [[Carlo Maratta]]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Carlo_Maratta_Ritratto_di_Giovan_Pietro_Bellori.jpg)
Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as
Giovan Pietro Bellori or
Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian art theorist, painter and antiquarian, who is best known for his work ''
Lives of the Artists'', considered the seventeenth-century equivalent to
Vasari's ''
Vite''. His ''Vite de' Pittori, Scultori et Architetti Moderni'', published in 1672, was influential in consolidating and promoting the theoretical case for classical idealism in art. As an art historical biographer, he favoured classicising artists rather than
Baroque artists to the extent of omitting some of the key artistic figures of 17th-century art altogether.
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