Jacopo Amigoni (1682
– 1752)
was an Italian painter
of the late-Baroque
or Rococo
period, who began his career in Venice,
but travelled and was prolific throughout Europe, where he
was often sought after as a sumptuous portraitist.
He was born in
Naples
or Venice. Amigoni initially painted both mythological and
religious scenes but as the panoply of patrons expanded
northward, he began producing many parlour works depicting
gods in sensuous languor or games. His style influenced
Giuseppe Nogari.
Among his pupils were
Charles Joseph Flipart,
Michelangelo Morlaiter,
Pietro Antonio Novelli,
Joseph Wagner,
and
Antonio Zucchi.
Starting in 1717, he is documented as working in
Bavaria
in the
Castle of Nymphenburg
(1719), in the
castle of Schleissheim
(1725-1729) and in the
Benedictine abbey
of
Ottobeuren.
He returned to Venice in 1726. His Arraignment of Paris
hangs in the
Villa Pisani
at
Stra.
From 1730 to 1739 he worked in
England,
in
Pown House,
Moor Park
and in the Theatre of Covent Garden. From there, he helped
convince
Canaletto
to travel to England by telling him of the ample patronage
available.
From his travel to
Paris
in 1736, he met the celebrated
castrato
named
Farinelli.
Later in Madrid, he was to paint a self-portrait with the
singer and entourage. He also encountered the
painting of
François Lemoine
and
Boucher.
In 1739 he returned in Italy, perhaps to Naples and
certainly to
Montecassino,
in whose Abbey existed two canvases (destroyed during World
War II). Until 1747, he travelled to Venice to paint for
Sigismund Streit,
for the
Casa Savoia
and other buildings of the city. In 1747, he
left Italy to settle down in Madrid as court painter to
Ferdinand VI of Spain
and became director of the Royal Academy of Saint Fernando.
He died in Madrid.
