Antonio Visentini

Antonio Visentini (21 November 1688 - 26 June 1782) was an Italian architectural designer, painter and engraver, known for his architectural fantasies and "capricci", the author of treatises on perspective and professor at the Venetian Academy. His "Osservazioni che servono di continuazione al Trattato di Teofilo Gallacini..." (Venice 1771) was intended as a complement and an extension of the treatise against the licencious errors of Baroque architecture that was written by Teofilo Gallacini (1564-1641), but not published until 1767, by the same Venetian publisher, Pasquali, who brought out Visentini's treatise [http://www.polybiblio.com/rappapor/37313.html] . Visentini's engravings in his "Osservazioni" illustrate his proposed modifications correcting Baroque architectural details.

Born in Venice, he was a pupil of the widely-travelled Baroque painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, who had painted some decors in English country houses at the beginning of the century. The English connection was easily maintained, for Venice was an essential stop on the Grand Tour. On the Grand Canal, Visentini was commissioned to redesign the façade of Palazzo Balbi (1740-1751), the seat of the British Resident Joseph Smith, for whom he worked often. In the 1760s the English architect James Wyatt studied as an architectural draughtsman and painter with Visentini.

Visentini is better known today as the engraver for Canaletto's first great series of Venetian "vedute" under the title "Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus Celebriores ex Antonii Canal", organised by Consul Smith. The series was began around 1728 and by the time it was completed in 1735, thirty-eight etchings and engravings had been printed. He taught at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice from 1772-78. He painted frescoes at Villa Valmarana in Vicenza, for which Gian Domenico Tiepolo paited the figures. He worked with Zuccarelli on capriccios based on English Palladian villas, again for Consul Smith; some have passed with Smith's collection to the British Royal Collection.

He died in Venice in 1782.

References

* [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/visentin/index.html Web Gallery of Art: Antonio Visentini]
* [http://search.famsf.org:8080/view.shtml?record=56748&=list&=1&=&=And Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Antonio Visentini, "Piazza San Marco", etching]
*Claudia Lazzaro, 1981. "Eighteenth-Century Italian Prints". (Stanford)
*Annalia Delneri, 1988. "Antonio Visentini: 1688-1782," in "Capricci veneziani del Settecento a cura di Dario Succi" (Torino: Umberto Allemandi)
*Succi, D., ( a cura di), Canaletto & Visentini. Venezia & Londra, catalogo della mostra alla Galleria d’arte Moderna di Cà Pesaro, Edizioni Bertoncello - Tedeschi, Venezia, 1986
*J.G. Links. "Canaletto and his Patrons", Paul Elek Ltd, London (1977). p97-98

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