Antonio Balestra
Antonio Balestra (born August 12, 1666 in Verona ; † April 21, 1740 ibid) was an Italian painter , draftsman and engraver of the Baroque era .
Balestra was the son of a wealthy businessman and studied the humanistic sciences such as literature and rhetoric, but also had drawing lessons from Giovanni Zeffis (died 1688). He was in Venice from 1687 , where he was a student of Antonio Bellucci (1654–1726) for three years . In 1691 he went to Rome to the studio of Carlo Maratta , whose late baroque classicism also shaped his painting. Other influences in Rome were Annibale Carracci and Domenichino . In 1694 he won a prize in the Accademia di San Luca competition for the drawing The Fall of the Giants . In 1695 he was back in his hometown Verona , where he founded his own school, but he also worked in Venice and had students there.
His students in Verona include Pietro Rotari and Giambettino Cignaroli , in Venice Giuseppe Nogari , Mattia Bortoloni , Angelo Trevisani , Rosalba Carriera and he also influenced Pietro Longhi , who briefly worked with him, and Giambattista Pittoni .
Balestra mainly painted mythological and religious subjects. In Venice he painted for the churches Gesuiti (Jesuit church, Madonna with saints) and San Zaccaria and the Scuola della Carita. In Bologna he painted for the Church of Sant Ignazio (Virgin and Child with St. Ignatius and St. Stanislaus) and he also painted for churches in Verona (Church of San Teresa degli Scalzi, Annunciation), Vicenza , Brescia and Padua (San Giustino, Miracles of Saints Cosmas and Damian ).
Miracles of Saints Cosmas and Damian
San Giustino (1718) Padua
_-_Chapel_of_Saint_Luke_-_Martyrdom_of_Saints_Cosmas_and_Damian_by_Antonio_Balestra.jpg)
_-_Chapel_of_Saint_Matthias_-_Saints_Cosmas_and_Damian_saved_by_the_angel_(1718)_Antonio_Balestra.jpg)
An autobiographical manuscript is in the Biblioteca Augusta in Perugia (Manoscritto autobiografico inviato all Abate Antonio Pellegrino).
literature
- Marco Polazzo: Antonio Balestra pittore veronese del settecento , Verona, Libreria Cortina 1978, as well as Centro per la formazione professionale grafica San Zeno , Verona 1990
- Lilli Ghio, Edo Baccheschi: Antonio Balestra , in Pittori Bergamaschi, Il Settecento , Volume V (editor Rossana Bossaglia), Bergamo, Bolis 1975, 2nd edition 1989, pp. 79-109
- U. Ruggeri: Nuove opere documentate di Antonio Balestra , in: Giuseppe Maria Pilo (editor) Pittura veneziana dal Quattrocento al Settecento: studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Egidio Martini , Venice 1999.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Balestra, Antonio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 12, 1666 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Verona |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 21, 1740 |
| Place of death | Verona |