Niccolò Cassana

He trained with his father, Giovanni Francesco Cassana, a painter originally from the Republic of Genoa, who had been taught the art of painting by Bernardo Strozzi.

Early on in his career he produced a large amount of portraits in Venice.

In 1681 he sent a self-portrait to Florence in a bid to become the new official court painter for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

He also worked as a copying and restoring paintings for Grandduke Ferdinand II of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Having painted portraits of the Medici court, and also of some of the English nobility, Cassana was invited to England, and introduced to Queen Anne, who sat to him for her likeness, and conferred on him many marks of favor.

Self portrait of Niccolò Cassana, ca. 1695.