Innocente Bellavite

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Innocente Bellavite (also Belavite , Bellavita , Bellavitta ; * 1690 in Verona ; † June 9, 1762 ibid) was an Italian painter, stage designer and theater architect of the Baroque .

Life

Innocente Bellavite came from a family of goldsmiths based in Verona. In his hometown Bellavite also pursued his studies of painting before he moved with his family to Venice , where his stay in 1717 is documented by church records.

In 1720 Bellavite created sets for the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice . From 1721 he worked simultaneously in Turin at the Teatro Regio and at the Piccolo Teatro del Rondò as a set designer. His meanwhile increased fame led Bellavite to Copenhagen in 1720 , in 1725 to Prague in the service of Count Franz Anton von Sporck and 1730–1732 and again in 1737 to Stuttgart , where he taught for the equipment of the opera and comedy house. Together with Giuseppe Baroffio, who was involved in the construction of the Ludwigsburg residential palace , Bellavite created a model for a small court theater , which was set up there later and according to different designs.

Bellavite was again active in Italy between 1739 and 1742. In Turin he worked again as a set designer at the Teatro Regio and at the Teatro Carignano and as a decorative painter for the construction of the Stupinigi hunting lodge . At the same time he worked in Milan with two of his students at the Teatro Regio-Ducale , the predecessor of the Teatro alla Scala . In Brescia , Bellavite was commissioned to modernize the theater , along with other well-known artists .

From 1746 Innocente Bellavite was again employed outside Italy and worked as a stage painter in Prague and Berlin . In the Prussian capital, Bellavite, together with Jacob Fabris under Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena and his son Carlo, ran the stage design workshop at the court theater of Frederick II until 1756. He also worked for the theater in the Potsdam City Palace, which was designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff . In Potsdam, Bellavite was entrusted with the revision of Knobelsdorff's draft for the prospect of artificial ruins on the ruin hill near Sanssouci by Friedrich II .

After working in Prussia, Bellavite worked as a painter and decorator in Verona until the end of his life, where he died in 1762.

Works

Bellavita's work as a set designer can only be grasped today because of its frequent mention in contemporary opera librettos . Eight signed drawings for the opera Lucio Papirio Dittatore by Antonio Pollarolo, performed at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in 1721, have survived . In 1753, Bellavite and Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena created the sets for the world premiere of the opera “Silla” at the Berlin Opera House. In the same year, the theater in the Berlin Palace was converted according to his plans. This work was strongly criticized by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : “The decorator, Mr. Bellavita, does not yet have the necessary skill in his art. More than once, his machines have almost cost the operators their lives. "

His painterly work is also poorly documented. These included 1,897 eliminated overdoors in by Benedetto Alfieri designed Palazzo Magnocavallo in Casale Monferrato , perspective paintings in Verona Palazzi Crivelli and Tommasini and a properties under local Dominican monastery Sant'Anastasia frieze, which was destroyed. 1807 In addition, there is evidence of a self-portrait of Innocente Bellavite that has since been lost and was in the possession of his great-grandson in the 18th century.

The art library of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has the preserved partial draft of a stage prospectus (around 1750). In Regensburg Castle Thurn and Taxis there are two Roman ruins from 1730, attributed to Bellavite. The collection of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg includes landscape and ruins paintings, which are also attributed to his work.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from Frederick II to Wilhelmine von Bayreut, November 16, 1746. The date of 1746 differs from later information in the artists' encyclopedias, which mention 1748 as the beginning of Bellavite's activity in Berlin.
  2. ^ Heinrich Ludwig Manger : Heinrich Ludewig Manger's building history of Potsdam, especially under the government of King Frederick the Second. Nicolai, Berlin / Stettin 1789, p. 98.
  3. ^ General directorate of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (ed.): Friederisiko. The exhibition. Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7774-4691-2 , p. 344
  4. ^ General directorate of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (ed.): Friederisiko. The exhibition. Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7774-4691-2 , p. 348, note 25: Acta of the change in the Commödien Theater aufm Schloße after Mr Bellavite Dessein de ao 1753 (GStAPK, I. HA Rep. 36, no . 2611).
  5. ^ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Contributions to the history and recording of the theater. First piece, Stuttgart 1750.
  6. ^ Fried Lübbecke: The Palais Thurn and Taxis in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 1955, ill. 85/86.
personal data
SURNAME Bellavite, Innocente
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Belavite, Innocente; Bellavita, Innocente; Bellavitta, Innocente
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter, stage designer and theater architect of the Baroque era
DATE OF BIRTH 1690
PLACE OF BIRTH Verona
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1762
Place of death Verona