Born in Bologna, he was a pupil of Domenico Santi, under whom he worked seventeen years, devoting himself above all to the painting of birds and small figures in illuminated manuscripts.
Then he moved to the studio of the quadratura painter Agostino Mitelli who instructed him in decorative fresco painting, and procured him commissions.
Colonna and Alboresi used painters Fulgenzio Mondini, and later Giulio Cesare Milani, and Canuti, to place figures in their backgrounds.
Examples of the collaboration of Colonna, Alboresi and Canuti can be found at the Palazzo Felicini.
He worked with Mondini in the decoration of the chapel depicting the Death and Canonization of St Anthony of Padua for the San Petronio Basilica at Bologna.