Zephyr And Flora By Jacopo Amigoni

18th century painting restored on original stretcher after Jacopo AMIGONI (Naples 1682 - Madrid 1752) Jacopo Amigoni, also named Giacomo Amiconi, was an Italian painter of the late Baroque or Rococo period, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe, where his sumptuous portraits were in high demand. He was born in Venice. Amigoni originally painted mythological and religious scenes, but as his clientele expanded northward, he began to produce many salon works depicting gods in sensual languor or games. His style influenced Giuseppe Nogari. Among his students were Charles Joseph Flipart, Michelangelo Morlaiter, Pietro Antonio Novelli, Joseph Wagner and Antonio Zucchi. From 1717, he worked in Bavaria at Nymphenburg Castle (1719), Schleissheim Castle (1725-1729) and the Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren. He returned to Venice in 1726. His indictment from Paris is exhibited at the Villa Pisani in Stra. From 1730 to 1739, he worked in England, at Pown House, Moor Park Wolterton Hall and the Covent Garden theatre. From there, he convinced Canaletto to go to England by telling him about the many patrons available. In London or during a trip to Paris in 1736, he met the famous castrato Farinelli, whose portrait he painted twice in 1735 and then in 1752. Amigoni also encountered the paintings of François Lemoyne and François Boucher. In 1739, he returned to Italy, perhaps to Naples and certainly to Montecassino, in whose abbey there were two paintings (destroyed during the Second World War). He went to Venice to paint for Sigismund Streit, for the Casa Savoia and other buildings in the city. In 1747, he left Italy for Madrid, encouraged by Farinelli, who held a position at court there. He became court painter to Ferdinand VI of Spain and director of the Royal Academy of Saint-Fernand. He paints a group portrait in which he is represented, Farinelli, Metastasius, Teresa Castellini and an unidentified young man. The young man may be the Austrian Archduke Joseph, heir to the Habsburg throne. Amigoni dies in Madrid. Amigoni was the father of the pastellist Caterina Amigoni Castellini and the sister of the artist Carlotta Amigoni.