He decorated many buildings across central Germany in the late 1600s and early 1700s, particularly under the patronage of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg.
[1] Giovanni Pietro Magni was born on 2 May 1655 in Bruzella, a settlement on the eastern outskirts of Mendrisio in Switzerland’s Italian-speaking Ticino canton, to Giovanni Pietro Magni and Marta Parravicini.
He married Ursula, the daughter of the architect Carlo Salterio and his wife Angelica, with whom he had at least four children.
By 1700, he became court stuccoist to Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Johan Philipp von Greifenclau zu Vollraths, for whom he carried out much of his best work, including the elaborate and large-scale baroque stucco interior of the Kiliansdom (Würzburg Cathedral, mostly collapsed due to bomb damage in 1946 and subsequently restored).
[4] He returned to his homeland, probably on the death of his patron Bishop Johan Philipp in 1719, and died in either 1722 or 1724 in Castel San Pietro.