On November 12, 1661, Gio Gioseppe Piccini was born in the district of Nona (now a hamlet of the municipality of Vilminore di Scalve), where he was baptized in the Parish Church of the Natività di Maria, served by parish priest Giovanni Silli. In the 1666 census, the village was called Annona, a toponym whose probable Latin origin refers to the presence, on site, of a supply warehouse intended for workers and laborers from the nearby Manina mines. In this context, the Piccini family was part of the Associazione vicinale of Nona, a district that at the time had about a hundred residents.
In 1672, after being apprenticed to the carver Capitanio of Vilminore, as stated by biographer Francesco Maria Tassi (Bergamo, 1710-1782), following his initial apprenticeship with this "ordinary craftsman," we find eleven-year-old Gio Gioseppe as an assistant to Carlo Ramus, of the famous family of carvers from Edolo, engaged in Vilminore with the task of sculpting the statues of the pulpit of the ancient Parish Church of Scalve.
It was Tassi himself who reported that Piccini, having quickly surpassed his first master thanks to his precocious and evident talents, set out to "find himself a better one" and, leaving his Valley "...went to Tirano in Valle Tellina where Pietro Rames, a famous German sculptor, was located." During this period, Gio Gioseppe, a young student at the Ramus school, engaged in following the master and his brother Pietro according to commissions, also came into contact with Andrea Fantoni of Rovetta, who was also present in the famous workshop, sent there by his father in 1675. But in 1682, the death of Pietro Ramus, which occurred due to suspected poisoning, induced Piccini to hastily return to Valle di Scalve where he would continue his training independently. Again from Tassi: "having devoted himself purposefully to continuous studies, with the help of Alberto Dürer's book on symmetry, Michelangelo's anatomy, and prints by various authors, he made such progress that he began to produce in public many things worthy of praise." The creation of the altarpiece of the main altar of the parish church of Cedegolo, commissioned to Piccini on January 26, 1691, to complete the altarpiece previously executed by Pietro Ramus himself, clearly reveals Piccini's distinctive personality and peculiar abilities. This was the period of artistic maturity evidenced by his diligent work, not only in Val di Scalve and neighboring localities, but especially in Valle Camonica.
These were the years when Piccini, now a known artist, also worked for private clients such as the Capitanio family of Bergamo and Dr. Antonioli of Brescia, for whom he created the splendid prie-dieu now preserved at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan and attributed to Andrea Fantoni until 1996, with whom, after continuous collaboration at the family workshop in Rovetta, a rivalry developed that would induce the Scalve sculptor to voluntarily renounce "all his claims."
It was during one of his stays in Milan that Piccini met Count Carlo IV Borromeo who purchased one of his precious carved works on the theme "Shipwreck of the disciples," still preserved in the private antechapel of Palazzo Borromeo at Isola Bella (VB). As Tassi again testifies "...his genius was mainly to sculpt in boxwood medals of small figures and then bring them to this city [Bergamo] or to those near us [...] in such an encounter, when he went to Milan, he had the good fortune to meet a very great personage, who having seen the bas-relief work he had with him, praised it highly [...] medal in which was expressed the story when Jesus slept on the ship during a fierce storm [...] this was Count Carlo Borromeo who urged him strongly to stay in his house [...] but being a timid man, and inclined to live in solitude [...] he preferred with greater satisfaction to return among the very high forests of his beloved valley."
The important manuscript dated December 19, 1724, written with foresight by Piccini himself, entitled "Notes on some carving works made by Gio Gioseppe Piccini of Nona in Valle di Scalve who was born there on November 12, 1661," now preserved in the archives of the Episcopal Curia of Bergamo, dates back to this period. This document has actually enabled the correct attribution of authorship to Gio Gioseppe Piccini of both the Poldi Pezzoli prie-dieu and the "Shipwreck of the Disciples," the latter work erroneously believed to have belonged to Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631).
From the same document, the prie-dieu dated 1722 still appears unsold. Piccini writes: "...Another Oratory [...] made thus by chance, and for sale, and which can serve for the Room of some Great person, and better for some rich sacristy for the preparation and thanksgiving of mass, there being sufficient space for two with comfort [...] This oratory is made of walnut and boxwood with a quadricircular plan and the arm rest in the middle has a large open mouth of a monster with three faces denoting the three punishments of the damned." The splendid sacred furnishing, created by Piccini without commission, was subsequently put up for sale. After various changes of ownership, it was donated by archpriest Don Giuseppe Calvi who, in turn, had received it as a gift from Luigi Grassi Ghisletti of Schilpario, to the Parish Church of Telgate, where it is still preserved today.
In December 1725, Gio Gioseppe Piccini "...finished living in his homeland of Nona, where he had almost always made his home, and was buried in that parish church, which had been so beautified by his excellent works."
