View source for Giambattista Pittoni

{{Short description|Venetian painter (1687–1767)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
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{{Use British English|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox person
 | name             = Giambattista Pittoni
 | image            = Giambattista Pittoni, portrait from Longhi 1762, cropped.jpg
 | caption          = Portrait of Pittoni by [[Alessandro Longhi]], 1762
 | birth_name       = Giovanni Battista Pittoni
 | birth_date       = {{birth date|1687|6|6|df=y }}
 | birth_place      = [[Venice]], [[Republic of Venice]] (present-day [[Italy]])
 | death_date       = {{death date|1767|11|6|df=y}}
 | death_place      = [[Venice]], [[Republic of Venice]]
 | known_for        = [[painting]]
 | style            = late-[[Baroque]], [[Rococo]]
 | nationality      = [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]]
 | notable_works    = 
 | signature        = 
}}
[[File:Giambattista Pittoni, portrait by Bartolomeo Nazari.jpg|thumbnail|right|Portrait of Pittoni by [[Bartolomeo Nazari]]]]
'''Giambattista Pittoni''' or '''Giovanni Battista Pittoni''' (6 June 1687 – 6 November 1767) was a [[Venetian painter]] of the late [[Baroque]] or [[Rococo]] period.{{r|grove}} He was among the founders of the [[Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia|Academy of Fine Arts of Venice]], of which in 1758 he became the second president, succeeding [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo|Tiepolo]].{{r|viola}}

==Biography==
Pittoni was born in Venice on 6 June 1687. He studied under his uncle Francesco Pittoni, a well-known but undistinguished painter of the Venetian [[Baroque painting|Baroque]]; a ''Samson and Delilah'' at the Villa Querini in [[Visinale]], near [[Pasiano di Pordenone]], is signed by both painters.{{r|miller|eliot|page2=383}} The theory of [[Rodolfo Pallucchini]] that Pittoni studied under [[Antonio Balestra]] is now generally discounted.{{r|grove}}

Pittoni was unwilling to leave Venice and travelled little;{{r|nat|trecc}} although he received many foreign commissions, no journey in connection with any of them is documented, while from 1720 onwards records show that he was in Venice in every year.{{r|grove}} However, in 1720 he may have travelled to France with his uncle Francesco, together with [[Rosalba Carriera]], [[Antonio Pellegrini]] and [[Anton Maria Zanetti]]. His change of style from a heavy Baroque to a lighter and more delicate [[Rococo]] manner dates from about this time; some older writers have attributed this change to an indirect French influence, perhaps through Pellegrini or through [[Sebastiano Ricci]].{{r|grove}}

Pittoni joined the Fraglia dei Pittori Veneziani, the Venetian guild of painters, in 1716.{{r|zava|page=104}} From, probably, the same year until his death he was a member of the Collegio dei Pittori,{{r|zava|page=104}} of which he became prior in 1729.{{r|grove}} He was elected to the [[Accademia Clementina]] of [[Bologna]] in 1727.{{r|viola|page=28}} In 1750 he was one of the forty-six founding members of the Veneta Pubblica Accademia di Pittura, Scultura e Architettura, which later became the [[Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia]]; from 1758 to 1760 he succeeded [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo|Tiepolo]] as president of the academy, and was elected for a second term in 1763–64.{{r|grove|viola|page2=28}}

Pittoni died in Venice on 6 November 1767. His tomb is in the church of [[San Giacomo dell'Orio, Venice]].{{r|eliot|page=384}}

==Works==
[[File:Giambattista Pittoni-Sophonisba.jpg|thumb|right|[[The Death of Sophonisba (Pittoni)|''The Death of Sophonisba'']] in the [[Pushkin Museum]] in Moscow]]
[[File:View of the Brenta, near Dolo MET LC-1975 1 091-001.jpg|thumb|right|''View of the Brenta, near Dolo'', in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City.]]

{{see also|List of works by Giambattista Pittoni}}
The [[catalogue raisonné]] by Franca Zava Boccazzi of Pittoni's paintings lists 247 extant and 117 lost, missing or destroyed works.{{r|grove|zava}} The catalogue raisonné by Alice Binion of his drawings includes 304 items.{{r|grove|alice|page2=91}}

==Patronage and reception==

Pittoni had a high reputation during his lifetime, both within the Italian peninsula and elsewhere in Europe. Among his foreign patrons were [[Augustus II of Poland]] (a ''Death of Agrippina'' and a ''Death of Seneca'', ''circa'' 1713, formerly in [[Dresden]], now destroyed); an unknown patron who in the 1730s bought five [[altarpiece]]s for [[St. Mary's Church, Kraków]]; [[Clemens August of Bavaria]] (''St. Elizabeth Distributing Alms to the Poor'', 1734, for the castle of [[Bad Mergentheim]]); [[Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg]], who at about the same time commissioned an ''Education of the Virgin'' and  a ''St. John Nepomuk'' for the chapel of [[Schloss Schönbrunn]] in Vienna; [[Philip V of Spain]], who in 1735 commissioned a ''Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylonia'' for the [[Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildefonso]];{{r|grove}} and [[Augustus III of Poland]], who through [[Francesco Algarotti]] commissioned a ''Crassus in the Sanctuary of the Temple of Jerusalem'' in 1743.{{r|grove|gino|page2=311}}

He was also much in demand in Italy, and supplied altarpieces for churches in [[Bergamo]], [[Brescia]], [[Milan]], [[Padova]], [[Verona]] and [[Vicenza]]. He was a skillful [[art restorer|restorer]] of older paintings; he was often selected as restorer or inspector of the ''quadri pubblici'', the state-owned paintings of the [[Republic of Venice|Serenissima]]. He sold nine paintings to the soldier-turned-collector [[Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg]], but also advised him both on art and on art restoration. Pittoni was successful, well liked and well respected.{{r|grove}}

His reputation rapidly faded after his death, and by the end of the eighteenth century he was totally forgotten. Interest in him was revived in the twentieth century by the publications of Laura Coggiola Pittoni, beginning with ''Dei Pittoni, Artisti Veneti'' in 1907.{{r|grove|laura}}

==References==
{{reflist|refs=

<ref name=alice>Alice Binion (1983). [https://books.google.com/books?id=rxOxAAAAIAAJ ''I disegni di Giambattista Pittoni''] (in Italian). Firenze: La Nuova Italia.</ref>

<ref name=eliot>Eliot Wooldridge Rowlands (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=y6bqAAAAMAAJ ''The collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Italian paintings, 1300-1800]. Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.</ref>

<ref name=gino>Gino Fogolari (August 1911). [http://www.bollettinodarte.beniculturali.it/opencms/multimedia/BollettinoArteIt/documents/1344606899676_04_-_Gino_Fogolari_p._311.pdf Dipinti veneziani settecenteschi della Galleria del Conte F. Algarotti (Amigoni e Pittoni)] (in Italian). ''Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione'' '''V''': 311–317.</ref>

<ref name=grove>Alice Binion (n.d.). [http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T067983 Pittoni, Giambattista]. ''Grove Art Online'' / ''Oxford Art Online''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{subscription required}}.</ref>

<ref name=laura>Laura Coggiola Pittoni (1907). [https://archive.org/stream/deipittoniartist00pitt ''Dei Pittoni, Artisti Veneti''] (in Italian). Bergamo: Istituto Italiani d'Arti Grafiche.</ref>

<ref name=miller>Dwight C. Miller (1982). [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00043079.1982.10788037 Review of: Franca Zava Boccazzi, ''Pittoni: L'opera completa'']. ''Art Bulletin'' '''64''' (4): 672-73. {{doi|10.1080/00043079.1982.10788037}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

<ref name=nat>[http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/giovanni-battista-pittoni Giovanni Battista Pittoni 1687 - 1767]. London: The National Gallery. Accessed August 2015.</ref>

<ref name=trecc>Laura Coggiola Pittoni (1935). [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giambattista-pittoni_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ Pittoni, Giambattista] (in Italian). ''Enciclopedia Italiana''. Roma: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed August 2015.</ref>

<ref name=viola>Elisa Viola (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?ei=cofZUe3TGIeK7AbZ94GYAw&id=4UtNAAAAYAAJ ''L'Accademia di Venezia: i maestri, le collezioni, le sedi''] (in Italian). Venezia: Marsilio. {{ISBN|9788831786553}}. {{nobreak|p. 28.}}</ref>

<ref name=zava>Franca Zava Boccazzi (1979). ''Pittoni: L'opera completa'' (in Italian). Venezia: Alfieri.</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
* {{Commons-inline|Paintings by Giovanni Battista Pittoni}}
{{commons category|Giovanni Battista Pittoni}}
* Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi (annotated by P. Guarienti) (1753). ''Abecedario pittorico''.
* Alessandro Longhi (1762). ''Compendio delle vite de' pittori veneziani istorici più rinomati del presente secolo con suoi ritratti tratti dal naturale''. Venezia: the author.
* Antonio Maria Zanetti (1771). [https://archive.org/stream/dellapitturavene00zane#page/460/mode/2up ''Della pittura veneziana e delle opere pubbliche de veneziani maestri libri V''] (in Italian). Venezia: Stamperia di G. Albrizzi.
* Laura Coggiola Pittoni (1921). ''G. B. Pittoni'' Firenze: Istituto di edizioni artistiche.
* {{long dash}} (1933) Pseudo influenza francese nell'arte di Giambattista Pittoni. ''Rivista di Venezia'' '''11''': 399–412.
* M. Goering (1934). Die Tätigkeit der Venezianer Maler Piazzetta und Pittoni für den Kurfürsten Clemens August von Köln. ''Westfalen: Hefte für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde'' '''19''': 364–72.
* Rodolfo Pallucchini (1945). ''I disegni di Giambattista Pittoni''. [Padova]: Le Tre Venezie.
* Klàra Garas (1969). [[Anton Kern]] (1710–1747). In: Kazimierz Michałowski, Jan Białostocki (eds.) (1969). ''Muzeum i twórca: Studia z historii sztuki i kultury ku czci Stanisława Lorentza''. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo naukowe. {{nobreak|p. 65–89.}}
* Alice Binion (1970). From Schulenburgs Gallery and Records. ''''Burlington Magazine'' '''112''': 297–303.
* Franca Zava Boccazzi (1974). Per il catalogo di Giambattista Pittoni: Proposte e inediti. ''Arte Veneta'' '''28''': 179–204.
* {{long dash}} (1975). Nota sulla grafica di Antonio Kern. ''Arte Veneta'' '''29''': 246–51.
* {{long dash}} (1975). Pitture mitologiche di Giambattista Pittoni in rapporto a Sebastiano Ricci. ''Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi su Sebastiano Ricci e il suo tempo'' '''1''': 46–51.
* Barbara Mazza (1976). La vicenda dei Tombeaux des princes: Matrici, storia e fortuna della serie Swiny tra Bologna e Venezia. ''Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte'' '''10''':  79, 81-102, 141-151.
* Franca Zava Boccazzi (1977). Due nuove micropitture di Giambattista Pittoni. In: [Maria Cionini Visani] (1977).''Per Maria Cionini Visani: Scritti di amici''. Torino: G. Canale. 118–21
* Alice Binion (1981). Anton Kern in Venice. ''Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst'' '''32''': 182–206.
* {{long dash}} (1981). Three New Mythological Paintings by Giambattista Pittoni. ''Burlington Magazine'' '''123''': 96–99.
* George Knox (1985). Piazzetta, Pittoni and Tiepolo at Parma. ''Arte Veneta'' '''39''': 114–24.
* Adriano Mariuz, Giuseppe Pavanello (1985). I primi affreschi di Giambattista Tiepolo. ''Arte Veneta'' '''39''': 101–13.

{{Giambattista Pittoni}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittoni, Giambattista}}
[[Category:1687 births]]
[[Category:1767 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Venice]]
[[Category:Italian Baroque painters]]
[[Category:Rococo painters]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian male artists]]