Bottega Di Francesco Battaglioli (modena, Circa 1710 - Venice, After 1796), Baroque Palace

Bottega di Francesco Battaglioli (Modena, circa 1710 - Venice, after 1796)

Baroque palace architecture with elegant staff and swans

Oil on canvas, cm 95 x 136

Frame, cm 113 x 154

Of Modena origin, as indicated by ancient sources, Francesco Battaglioli is present in Venice, which became his home from 1747 to 1751, when his name appears in the Fraglia dei pittori. We find him again in Madrid three years later, when he was called by Ferdinand VI, for whom he painted the Views of the Royal Palaces of Aranjuez and Madrid. At the Spanish court he developed a relationship of collaboration with Farinelli and Metastasio, creating the sets for numerous melodramatic performances. Returned to Venice on the death of the King of Spain in 1759, he was elected a member of the Academy in 1772: in the Venetian institution he was called to cover the chair of Perspective from 1778 to 1789. In this beautiful painting, the use of perspective proves to be of very high quality, capable of evoking extraordinary scenic representations, also vivid for the atmospheric and chromatic sensitivity, reaching decorative levels of considerable visual impact. It can certainly be said that Battaglioli is the worthy heir of the artistic tradition inaugurated by Viviano Codazzi and pursued by Giovanni Paolo Pannini and Antonio Joli, giving life to monumental results in the wake of Michele Marieschi. It was no accident that in 1778 he inherited the chair of perspective at the Academy of Venice after the resignation of Antonio Visentini, crowning a career of undisputed success with an award of very high prestige. The celebrated skill of Battaglioli is well demonstrated in this canvas, where the drawing and pictorial wisdom lead to results worthy of the best glass-making tradition, without neglecting the taste for detail and narrative aspects.