Francesco Casanova
Francesco Giuseppe Casanova (born June 1, 1727 (or baptized under this date) in London , † July 8, 1803 in Vorderbrühl ) was an Italian battle painter of the 18th century. He was a brother of the writer and adventurer Giacomo Casanova and the painter Giovanni Casanova .
Life
After his father, the actor Gaetano Giuseppe Giacomo Casanova , kidnapped the mother Giovanna ("Zanetta") Maria Farussi and married against her parents' wishes, the older brother Giacomo was born in 1725. Some time later, Gaetano Casanova took his wife "Zanetta" with him to London , where she also became an actress. It is believed that Francesco came from a love affair with the then Prince of Wales , later George II .
Francesco grew up in Venice , where he was a student of Francesco Guardi . He later studied with Francesco Simonini in Parma. In 1751 he went to Paris with his brother Giacomo, which he presumably left again in the summer of 1753 in order to continue his education in the Dresden gallery with copies of Philips Wouwermans . However, Jacques Courtois was the main model for his battle painting .
In 1757 Casanova returned to Paris and on May 28, 1763 became a member of the Academy, which also acquired one of his works for 12,000 francs. He taught several students, among them Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the Younger . Casanova was a good colorist, but had weaknesses in drawing and composition, so that on his battle paintings he worked with a lot of veiling powder smoke. Nevertheless, he had many prominent buyers, including painting several battle pictures for Catherine II, such as “The Storming of the Oczakow Fortress” . He also painted seascapes and landscapes and was active in the field of etching .
Despite his success and two marriages with extensive dowries, his expensive lifestyle brought him high debts, so that his brother Giacomo had to help him out several times. With this he went to Vienna in 1783 and settled there. Here, too, he lived on a large scale, had an apartment with five rooms, three horses, six wagons and a country house in Vorderbrühl near Mödling on the Wieden in Kaisergarten No. 51.
He was sponsored by Count Kaunitz and used to entertain the other guests in his house as a kind of "maître des plaisirs" . After the count's death, he was again harassed by his old creditors and had to file for bankruptcy in 1803. He died exhausted in his country house on July 8th.
Throughout his life, he and his brother Giacomo had a relatively good relationship characterized by mutual respect, in contrast to the relationship between Giacomo and Giovanni, the younger brother. Francesco had a lively correspondence with Giacomo between Vienna and Dux , part of which has been preserved in Dux.
He died in the Vorderbrühl, he was buried in the Hinterbrühl as Franz Casanova .
Works (selection)
- The camp , around 1760/70. Bavarian State Painting Collection, Schleissheim Palace
- Prince Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen kills a puma , 1787, Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts.
- Nocturnal robbery , around 1770, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
- Collapse of a bridge , around 1770, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
- The Battle of Lens , 1771, Paris, Musée du Louvre
- Cavalry battle , Vienna, Belvedere
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Casanova, Franz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 2nd part. Publishing house of the typographic-literary-artistic establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1857, p. 301 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Carl Clauss: Casanova, Francesco . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 40.
- Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , Volume 1, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1983, explanations by Günter and Barbara Albrecht
- Roland Kanz: The Casanova brothers. Artist and adventurer. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin et al. 2013. ISBN 978-3-422-07211-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Explanations by G. Albrecht in G. Casanova “History of my life”, Vol. I, p. 326f, s. literature
- ↑ Hans Kretz: Mozart's librettist Lorenzo da Ponte on the run in the Hinterbrühl , in: Local history supplements to the official gazette of BH Mödling, issue 1/2006
- ↑ Further information on the "Reitergefecht" ( memento of the original from March 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Digitales Belvedere
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Casanova, Francesco |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Casanova, Francesco Giuseppe (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian battle painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 1, 1727 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 8, 1803 |
| Place of death | Vorderbrühl |