The Florentine painter Giovanni Battista Ghidoni and his work in Tuscany and Moravia

This article is devoted to the Florentine painter Giovanni Battista Ghidoni (1599–1654), who after working for many years in Florence and Tuscany moved permanently to Central Europe at a mature age. From his late thirties onwards, his life was closely linked with work in the service of one of the most prominent Central European patrons of the arts in the mid-17th century, Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein (1611–1684), and his monumental building and artistic enterprises in Valtice and Lednice in Moravia. In this article we will summarise and contextualise what is currently known about Ghidoni's life and work both in Tuscany and in Moravia, expanding this through the addition of new information and attributions, in order to provide a better overall view of his oeuvre. We will also try to answer the question of whether Ghidoni's stay in the Czech lands was purely his own decision and individual choice, or whether it can be seen in the broader context of the artistic migration of Florentine and Tuscan artists to Prague and to Central Europe in the 17th century