Francesco Salvatore Fontebasso (Venice, Oct. 4, 1707 – Venice, May 31, 1769) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Rococo period of Venice. Among the favorite painters are biblical and religious scenes, mythological scenes, portraits., one of the major exponents of Venetian painting in the Rococo period.
He first apprenticed with Sebastiano Ricci, but was strongly influenced by his contemporary, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In 1761, Fontebasso visited Saint Petersburg and produced ceiling paintings and decorations for the Winter Palace. Fontebasso returned to Venice in 1768. He helped decorate a chapel in San Francesco della Vigna.
Francesco Fontebasso Born in Venice on October 4th. 1707 by Domenico “Biaccarol” and by a Cattarina, the fourth of seven brothers. The recovery of the last time has allowed you to safely find the date of birth fixed, instead, Zanetti in poi, in 1709. His training took place at the bottega di Sebastiano Ricci, as a clever design lavanda dei piedi conservato al Castello Sforzesco di Milano in which the F. if you dictate school of the teacher you would look. Tale esperienza essentially rimase in the painting of the F. che fu, always characterized by a bright color reso by half of a rich and glittery bush. In 1728 and F., the only example of Ricci, if he recovers to Rome, he sees the third prize in the first class of painting at the Academy of S. Luca with his debut The dinner of Baldassarre and Adamo and Eva. Which represent their first shared services.
The Roman soggiorno entailed an enriching in classical sense of his pictorial style through the acquisition of a dense light-green pattern that remarks the quality of his art bounded to a concrete sense of the form.
I return to Venezia and F. soggiornò is the Castelli story in Bologna, a city in which you can learn the use of the academic brand prospective for the architectural and decorative building of compositions by teachers such as Vittorio Maria Bigari. The first period of youth is that of collegare le tele televue l’adorazione dei magi e L’ultima cena, conserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, as close to the style of Ricci as attributed to this fine 1950s (Pallucchini, 1950 ) Not holding the heavy sign and gamme scure dei colori rivelassero la mano dell’allievo.
The strong influence of the F. if he was around the ages Trenta del secolo processed the encounter with the works of G.B. Tiepolo On the basis of the analysis of some drawings preserved in Oxford and Milan, it was possible to confermare as the F. Fosse knew the paintings that the Tiepolo was realizing around 1730 in the patriarchal palace of Udine, even if it were to exclude his direct collaborative quest Operates. It is probable that he visited the palace in 1732, when he found in Friuli to decorate with gray reliefs Adamo and Eva the sacred of Villa Manin to Passariano. At the beginning of the fourth decade of the ‘700 revival the fabric with the Sposalizio di s. Caterina, already in the sacred heart of S. Patemian in Venice, and the adoration of the shepherds in the church of S. Martino in Burano. Quest’opera, not entirely safe from the spatial point of view, reminds us of the Virgin and colorless tone of the Adoration of the Child, followed in 1732 by the Tiepolo for the sacristy of the canons of S. Marco.
In the fourth decade of the Settecento, the definition of the elements and the points of reference of the linguistic language of the F. was complete ormai. The artist, in his midst of a better work, was able to find in a personal style the rich, evident instruction of bright and vibrant colors, with the Roman-Bolognese lezione back to dense plasticism from the bodies and to an architectural-prospective structure. In addition to the desire to reach out to newness, you need to get started with the search for aerial legibility visions which will prevail in the vivid perception of the form and subject matter.
The first important work of the F. in Venice was the decoration of the Church of the Collegiate Church at the beginning of the Thirties of the Manin family. Nei shared maggiori del soffitto il F. raffigurò l’Apparizione digli Angeli ad Abramo e Elia rapito in the sky, where, in the prayer of the bodies plastically picked up in close proximity to prospects, it is evident the influences of the Tidesoli from Tinepolo. The realization of these works and some pale altar, along with important committees, comes from the feldmeseciallo von der Schulemburg, which in 1733 paid a Muzio Scevola and a Continence of Scipione (lost), a testimony to the arrival of the F. Venice. In the città lagunare, in fact, F. opened a school and, from 1734, he was registered in the vicinity of painters of whom he ruled fine member in 1768. Il 6 genn. 1736 married Angela Maria Belli and shortly after the marriage he recovered to Trento, where he went out to decorate the church of the Ss. Annunziata, now partly lost in a bombardment following the second world war.
What works if he eats the last chapter of the Franciscan period of the Fez on the search for a personal style in which, in spite of everything, he ridicules a strong attack on Ricci’s and Tiepolo’s eater, eats a protest – in the immediate vicinity – the Cacciata Of the angels rebels.
The decorative qualities, highlighted by the majesty of the glimpses and the intensity and vivacity of the colors of the frescoes of Trentine, came to F. a protagonist, attoment to the middle of the century, in the great season of the Venetian rococo. Many were the interior decorated by him in Venice, beginning with Ca ‘Duodo where, around 1743, he realized for the ceiling ceilings and frescoes. Of this decorative cycle remain in situ only the two frescoes the Divinities of the Olympus and Bacco and Arianna in which F. seems bound to the spatial exploration of the Bolognese experience. It was also supposed to belong to the same group of paintings of a series of canvases preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts of Budapest, including the two great paintings – Continence of Scipione and Antioco and Stratonica – four round monochromes with mythological scenes and a canvas for Ceiling with the Ifigenia Sacrifice. The works are actually relevant to the decoration of Ca ‘Bernardi (now Bollani) in S. Aponal that F. realized, in the mid-century, in collaboration with Gaspare Diziani. On 24 Feb. In 1745 F. received the payment for the ceiling of a Barbarigo palace room at S. Maria Zobenigo, where he performed the Triumph of Venice which, in contrast to the plasticity of the figures at the base of the representation and the aerial lightness of the characters placed in A large portion of the sky, recalls the similar compositional solutions adopted by Tiepolo, also active in the same years in the palace. While the works F. did in the palaces Soranzo and Erizzo, the cycle with which he adorned Ca ‘Boldù’s salt at S. Felice was still intact. The paintings are hypothetically dated to the middle of the fifth decade of the eighteenth century thanks to a series of similarities with the etchings engraved by F., Various Baccanali et Istorie invented and engraved in copper …, edited in Venice in 1744. Another decorative loop left Intact, composed of paintings and frescoes with mythological and historical scenes, is the one made at Contarini palace in S. Beneto, in which F. seems to be detached from the plastic-perspective modules previously used for the search for more free spatial visions. This compositional element allows to date the complex in the middle of the century.
F. was also involved in the production of numerous canvases such as that made in Venice in 1737 for the church of Angelo Raffaele and that for the church of S. Salvador, both of which are considered to be among his best works. In recent years, F.’s activity gravitated entirely to the Venetian environment, mainly because of the pressing family commitments. Between 1736 and 1743, five children were born, of whom F. had to deal personally after the death of his wife in 1743. Towards 1750 F. was in Padua where he painted two canvases with his Martyrdom. Margherita for the homonymous church; However, only one of those kept in the building can be considered autograph. At the same time he was active in the church of S. Giuliano and in the palace Brigo with works lost. Of the works made in Treviso, there are two paintings painted for Palazzo Pola, located around 1745 and depicting the Encounter of Coriolano and Continence of Scipione, which are part of a cycle of six paintings commissioned by J. Guarana and G. Brusaferro.
These works are the expression of the most mature moment of F.’s stylistic development in which, in autonomous equilibrium, the elegant decorative way of Tiepolo combines with the rich and brilliant Ricci palette.
In the villa Zenobio (now From Prà) at Santa Bona near Treviso remains the fresco decoration of the ceiling of the “barchessa”, dating from 1744 to 1767, including the Banquet of Zenobia, the Continence of Scipione and the Triumph of Aurelian. F. alongside these central episodes with the aulic tones of the vivid sketches in which he stands out for inventive and narrative capacity. Inside the villa, F. painted two sets of canvases, four of themes of mythology and four dedicated to Stories of Alexander, now dispersed in private collections.
F.’s interest in genre scenes led him to produce numerous small-scale paintings, such as the Damning Heat, the Geometry Lesson, the Little Girl Eater, which, in the period of maturity, Are distinguished by the fresh narrative vein and the particular chromatic-luministic sensitivity.
Back in Venice, F. painted in 1750, on behalf of the Archconfraternity of S. Rocco, a Glory of the Holy Spirit of Tiepolesque inspiration in the ceiling of the sacristy of the homonymous church. In the decade of 1740-50, he also performed a number of devotional chapters for the St. Jerome School, whose theme was the unusual iconography of the Virgin that appears to be. Jerome, wanted by the confreres for their own homes.
In recent years, the consideration gained by F. in Venice earned him the task of executing the official portrait of the Dogs Alvise Pisani and Pietro Grimani, for the Sala del Scrutinio in the ducal palace, and the commission of the restoration of the Terrestrial Paradise of Tintoretto In the Hall of the Greater Council.
The scrubbing operation, which began in mid-July 1755, for which F. should have limited himself to “not to use the brush in any way, but only to recover from the prejudice of the canvas”, turned into a heavy remake of He soon attracted criticisms.
In that same year, F. collaborated with some of his colleagues to execute Via Crucis for the church of S. Maria del Giglio with the fourth and eleventh stations. The following year, on Feb. 13, 1756, he was part of the committee of seven artists appointed to nominate the professors of the new Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.
In 1759 F. received the post of bishop of Trento Felice Alberti d’Enno to decorate some of his residence in the castle of Buonconsiglio.
F. made twelve canvases with Moses Stories in the lounge and seven with Stories of the Old Testament in the tower room. Of the whole cycle, only four paintings depicting Aronne in front of the Pharaoh, the Fall of Manna, Isaac’s Sacrifice and the Golden Calf, characterized by a formal and harmonious formal language, are found in the place of origin, while three other canvases They were traced to Villa Margone in Trento. The six paintings already belonged to the parish church of Povo, where the apparent red-footed influence is enriched with narrative strength thanks to the abundant luminary effects and the lively colors. In the series of works carried out by F. a Trento are also the four canvases kept in the Diocesan Museum of the city, among which Good Samaritan and Escape in Egypt are probably not from the representation rooms but from the private rooms of the bishop.
Back in Veneto, F. painted in 1760, perhaps in collaboration with his son Domenico, the Glory of Heaven in the ceiling of the presbyterous church of Montebelluna where, in an attempt to escape from the complex prospects of Bologna brand, seems to build with greater freedom the figures Arranged on cloud groups with contrasting lights games.
The fame reached by F. in the international context allowed him to obtain an important assignment at the Russian court. Between 1761 and 1762 he stayed in St. Petersburg, where he executed a Resurrection in the ceiling of the Winter Palace church, already commissioned at Tiepolo the previous year. Of the work there is a preparatory drawing from which you can grasp the tiepolesca composition of the composition. F. also made four Evangelists in the dome of the dome, a painting “for the canopy above the throne,” and seven canvases for the iconostasis, the only work preserved. Inside the palace F.’s activity continued with twelve overheads, begun in March and ended in June 1762, and according to some critics, in collaboration with Angelo Carboni, the execution of the central part of the ceiling of the staircase Decoration can be deduced from the drawing depicting the Flora Triumph preserved in the Warsaw National Library. On March 1, 1762, F. signed an agreement with the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, where he undertook to educate the students and to paint a picture of free but relative to the court. The master honored the contract with an Allegory of the Cronin II Coronation, made between June 28, 1762, date of the ascent to the throne of the Emperor, and in October of the same year when he returned definitively to Venice after a stop at Mitati at the Duke of Curlandia.
In Venice the F. immediately resumed the didactic activity within the Academy, which culminates on July 3, 1768 with the election as president, and the pictorial activity, even outside the lagoon city. The frescoes that adorn the oratory of S. Carlino in Brescia are to be found in these years, more precisely between 1763 and 1768. In the same period and in the same town, F. accepted the task of decorating the palace Salvadego Martinengo, where he had already painted the chapel no longer existing in 1739, during a first phase of renovations.
These are the scenes inspired by the Stories of Alexander and Rossana in the great salon and frescoes that celebrate the companies of some Martinengo in the cream room and in the gallery. The cycle of paintings is still characterized by a certain narrative liveliness that resembles the frescoes of Ca ‘Zenobio in Santa Bona, but there is evident some stiffness and compositional fatigue possibly due to aid intervention, including his son Domenico appointed academic Venice in 1768.
F.’s painting presents, in the last phase, a clear folding in the academic sense not yet clear in the Madonna with Child and SS sheds. Mattino and Carlo Borromeo, painted for Tolmezzo’s cathedral between 1762 and 1764, where the Ricci and Tiepolo lessons are still alive in the rhythm of the nervous system and the lively chromaticism. More static, however, appear on the frescoes that F. made, around 1765, for the palace ceilings Diedo in Venice with the allegorical scenes The triumph of Peace and Justice, La Sapienza assist the virtue to defeat the vice, Ebe welcomed in the ” Olympus. Also in 1765 was given the cycle with episodes of life dis. Pietro d’Alcantara preserved in the chapel on the right of the main altar of the church of S. Francesco della Vigna. F.’s canvases, in particular the ceiling oval depicting the glory of the saint, now show the imprint of an academic and tired niepolis. “In the last period of F.’s production belong also the canvases of Castello Sforzesco in Milan With the Adoration of the Magi and the Pass of the Red Sea, the two blades for the parish church of Brazzano of Cormons near Gorizia, and the Visitation of the Philippine Church at Chioggia which was commissioned to F. a few months before his death, Which took place in Venice on May 31, 1769.