CIPRIANI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA , Ital ian painter and engraver, Pistoiese by descent, was born in Flor ence in 1727. He studied first under Ignatius Heckford or Hug f ord, and afterwards under Antonio Domenico Gabbiani. He was in Rome from 175o to 1753, where he became acquainted with Sir William Chambers, the architect, and Joseph Wilton, the sculptor, whom he accompanied to England in Aug., When Chambers designed the Albany in London for Lord Holland, Cipriani painted a ceiling for him. He also painted part of a ceiling in Buckingham Palace, and a room with poetical subjects at Standlynch in Wiltshire. Some of his best and most permanent work was, however, done at Somerset House, London, built by his friend Chambers. He not only prepared the decorations for the interior of the north block, but, says Joseph Baretti in his Guide through the Royal Academy (1780), "the whole of the carvings in the various fronts of Somerset place—excepting Bacon's bronze figures—were carved from finished drawings made by Cipriani." These designs include the five masks forming the keystones to the arches on the courtyard side of the vestibule, and the two above the doors leading into the wings of the north block, all of which are believed to have been carved by Nollekens. The grotesque groups flanking the main doorways on three sides of the quadrangle and the central doorway on the terrace appear also to have been designed by Cipriani. The central panel of the library ceiling was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, but the four compartments in the coves, representing Allegory, Fable, Nature and History, were Cipriani's. These paintings still remain at Somerset House, together with the emblematic painted ceiling, also his work, of what was once the library of the Royal Society. He was an original member of the Royal Academy (1768), for which he designed the diploma so well engraved by Bartolozzi. He was much employed by the publishers, for whom he made drawings in pen and ink, sometimes coloured. His friend Barto lozzi engraved most of them. Drawings by him are in both the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, London. His best autograph engravings are "The Death of Cleopatra," after Benvenuto Cellini ; "The Descent of the Holy Ghost," after Gabbiani; and portraits for Hollis's memoirs, 1780. He painted allegorical designs for George III.'s state coach—which is still in use—in 1782, and repaired Verrio's paintings at Windsor and Rubens's ceiling in the Banqueting House at Whitehall. He de signed nymphs and amorini and medallion subjects to form the centre of Pergolesi's bands of ornament, and they were con tinually reproduced upon the elegant satin-wood furniture which was growing popular in his later days. Almost certainly some of the beautiful furniture designed by the Adams was actually paint ed by Cipriani himself. He also occasionally designed handles for drawers and doors. Cipriani died at Hammersmith in 1785 and was buried at Chelsea, where Bartolozzi erected a monument to his memory. He had married an English lady, by whom he had two sons.