Pietro De Sebastiani's definition of Giovanni Maria Morandi as a “gentil huomo famoso pittore” in connection with his role as curator of the artistic collection of the Salviati family admirably sums up the dual personality of this intriguing painter who lived between the second half of the 17th century and the first two decades of the 18th. A gentleman because he had good connections with Roman high society by virtue of his chivalrous qualities, but also an accomplished professional in the academic world and in national and international artistic circles. Giovanni Maria Morandi was certainly a man of his own century, his fame not outliving the three hundred years separating his time from our own. Born and raised in grand-ducal Florence and protected by the Salviati family, he spent most of his life in Rome where he established a reputation as a portraitist for popes, cardinals and aristocrats and as a painter of refined altarpieces. In the works painted during his long career, which clearly reveal the influence of orthodox classicism, he showed remarkable skill in sympathizing with his clients' expectations, in understanding the highest aspirations of the Roman aristocracy. Based on an analysis of both direct and indirect data relating to his later years, this article for the first time attempts to sketch a comprehensive portrait of the painter. The list of works inventoried in his workshop in view of a later sale document all the major episodes of his professional career: his early paintings for Jacopo Salviati, the great public works commissioned by popes and famous men of that time, and the works of his later years. The aim is to make an evaluation of the current state of studies on Giovanni Maria Morandi and establish a new basis for future research on this artist.