Giovanni Busato

Giovanni Busato (born December 3, 1806 in Verona , † December 10, 1886 in Vicenza ) was an Italian painter who became known for his interior decorations and his portraits, and who was not only in Veneto but also in Russia, Switzerland, France and Germany operated.

life and work

Portrait from 1836, after restoration in 2016

Asklepios , engraving by Giuseppe Dala, after Busato

Busato was born in the Veronese Contrada Borgo S. Croce as the son of the carpenter Giuseppe Busato and Caterina Zattara. In 1825 his parents sent him to his mother's brother, an organist in Sandrigo , in order to learn to paint with Teodoro Matteini , Natale Schiavone and others at the Accademia veneziana di Belle Arti . In order to perfect himself he was financed a stay in Rome , where in October 1829 he got involved in the debates between neoclassics and romantics , as well as the Nazarenes around Friedrich Overbeck . The Accademia di S. Luca awarded him a medal for one act in 1830, a portrait of Pope Gregory XVI was created. In 1834 he received the title of Cavalier .

Giovanni Busato fell in love with a Greek woman whom he followed to Corfu . There he painted in the city theater. But he soon returned to Italy, where he married Luigia Dalla Vecchia. A phase of extraordinary productivity followed. In November 1837 an altarpiece was created for the Reformed Church of Vicenza, then a stage curtain was created with a scene from the life of Doge Enrico Dandolo in Constantinople . This picture found great recognition, so that in 1841 he became an assistant for painting at the Accademia , against the resistance of its secretary Antonio Selvatico . In 1843 further works for the theaters in Senigallia and Trieste followed ; He also provided the designs for the lithographs for the Costumi veneziani dalla loro origine fino alla caduta della Repubblica , which were engraved by Bartolomeo Marcowich in Venice from 1845 to 1846. In 1847 he painted the ceiling of the Casa Giovanelli in Venice with Venezia che accoglie Minerva . In the Palazzo Benvenuti he created the Allegoria delle Ore , then a Madonna and Child in the Casa Cristofferi in Vicenza. In 1847 he painted two portraits and a painting with Vettor Pisani liberato dal carcere in Milan .

In 1848, during the uprising against Austria , he fought in Marghera , his parents and a daughter died of cholera . After the Austrians returned, he went to Switzerland, then to Turin . There he devoted himself to restoration work and sold works of art on commission. In 1853 he painted a painting on the Genoese uprising of 1743 and a painting commissioned by King Victor Emmanuel II . After the death of Cosroe Dusi , court painter to the tsar and Venetian, Brusato was summoned to Saint Petersburg in 1859 to decorate the theater and to take the opportunity to create a portrait of the tsar. There he also received awards.

He then stayed briefly in Vicenza, exiled to Greece, then to France and Berlin . Only in 1866, after Veneto had come to Italy, did he return there. He used the technique of stereochromy learned in Berlin many times. He worked with the architect friend Caregaro Negrin . In 1867, commissioned by Alessandro Rossi, he painted four stories of St. Peter in the apse of the Cathedral of Schio. However, he was not accepted as a lecturer at the Venetian Accademia. In Valentino Pupin he found a later successful student. The cycle in the Villa Castellani in Malo dates from 1870 . After he was again rejected by the Accademia , he created a scene of the progress of the human race from November 1877 to December 1878 on the facade of the Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza, which dates back to the 15th century: the presentation of the silkworms to Emperor Justinian , Alessandro Volta and James Watt in scientific experiments, finally the trade of the Venetians in the east. He created other paintings in Treviso and Vicenza as well as in the Villa Fogazzaro-Roi in Montegalda (Escape to Egypt).

His son Giorgio, born in Vicenza in 1836 and died in Nottingham on November 20 , became his pupil.

literature

• Jacopo Cablanca: Biografia di Giovanni Busato e dei suoi nuovi dipinti nella Cattedrale di Schio , in: Arte in Italia. Rivista mensile di belle arti (1872) 158–159.

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Busato  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Franco Barbieri : Giovanni Busato , in: Enciclopedia Italiana , Vol. XV, Rome 1972 ( online )

Remarks

1. ↑ Jacopo Cablanca: Biografia di Giovanni Busato e dei suoi nuovi dipinti nella Cattedrale di Schio , in: Arte in Italia. Rivista mensile di belle arti (1872), p. 158 f.