Pietro Balestra (sculptor)
Pietro Balestra (* before 1672 in Siena , † after 1729 there ; also Pietruccio and Pietro Balestri ) was an Italian sculptor of the late Baroque and worked mainly in Rome and Siena. He became known in German-speaking countries for his marble sculptures , which he created for Dresden on behalf of the Saxon court and the most important of which have been preserved can be found in the Dresden Great Garden .
Life
Very little is known about the life of Pietro Balestra. He received his sculptural training from Gian Lorenzo Bernini , with whom he - together with Mazzuoli , Cartari and Manelli - created the tomb for Pope Alexander VII in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (1672–1678). He was in Rome for a long time in the service of Queen Christina of Sweden .
After 1715, the Italian sculptor came into contact with August the Strong's art buyers and was entrusted with commissions for marble sculptures based on ancient models, which initially adorned the garden of the Japanese Palace . With the planned layout of the Great Garden as a baroque park, these were implemented there from 1728.
Most of the work he created for Dresden was lost in the Seven Years' War between 1756 and 1763 , but his artistically outstanding and “baroque-expressive” sculpture Die Zeit Abducts die Schönheit (1722) was retained; it was only removed from the garden of the Japanese Palace in 1831 implemented and - restored in 1995 - is one of the most famous individual works of art in the Dresden Great Garden.
Works
- Bust of Cardinal Decio Azzolini the Younger , dating inconsistent (before 1690)
- Statue of Pope Pius III (1703–1706) at the Cathedral of Siena (around 1705)
- Time abducts beauty (also known as: Boreas abducts Orithya ), marble sculpture, Dresden, 1722.
- Venus and Amor , for the Saxon court, fragment in the Dresden sculpture collection
- Meleager , for the Saxon court, whereabouts unknown
- Hercules with Silenus and Bacchus child , for the Saxon court, whereabouts unknown
literature
- Stefano Ticozzi: Dizionario degli architetti, scultori, pittori, intagliatori in rame ed in pietra, coniatori di medaglie, musaicisti, niellatori, intarsiatori d'ogni etá e d'ogni nazione (Volume 1). Gaetano Schiepatti, Milan 1830, p. 101 ( digitized in the Google book search; Italian).
Web links
- Bacchante boys on billy goats by Pietro Balestri on antiquitaeten-erfurt.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Anke Fröhlich: Courtly festival culture in Dresden in Augustus. In: Reiner Groß , Uwe John on behalf of the Dresden city administration (Hrsg.): History of the city of Dresden. Volume 2: From the end of the Thirty Years War to the establishment of an empire. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-8062-1927-3 , pp. 231-232.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Balestra, Pietro |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Balestri, Pietro; Pietruccio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | before 1672 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Siena |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1729 |
| Place of death | Siena |