Giovanni Maria Bottala (1613–1644)
• Known as Il Raffaellino was an Italian painter period.
• Son of Francesco Bottalla.
• Giovanni left very early for Rome.
• He was a disciple of Pietro da Cortona, having worked with him in Rome, as well as an occasional collaborator of Giovanni Francesco Romanelli.
• He became a protégé of Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti, one of Rome's leading collectors during the papacy of Urban VIII.
• It is Sacchetti himself who nicknames his protégé "Raffaellino" ("little Raphael"), comparing him to the great master of the Renaissance, due to the mastery he demonstrates in the field of drawing.
• It is likely that he had a collaboration with the famous French painter
Nicolas Poussin.
• The painter is believed to have been in Naples and Milan.
• In Genoa, Bottalla executed his last frescoes, for the salotto of Palazzo Ayroli (now Palazzo Negrone).
• Giovanni had a brief life, passing away at the age of 31.
