Pietro Rotari

Portrait of Queen Maria Josepha, consort of King Augustus III of Poland, by Rotari, 1755

Pietro Antonio Rotari (1707–1762) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Born in Verona, he led a peripatetic career, and died in St Petersburg, where he had traveled to paint for the Russian court.

He was initially a pupil of Antonio Balestra, but moved and lived in Venice from 1725 to 1727. He then joined the studio of Francesco Trevisani in Rome (1728–1732) Between 1731 and 1734, he worked with Francesco Solimena in Naples. He then returned then to Verona, where he started a studio. But soon he was off to paint for royal and aristocratic patrons in Dresden, Vienna, and Munich.

He was much in demand as a portraitist, and painted royal families in Dresden and Saint Petersburg. He also painted the multi-figured altarpieces of the Four Martyrs (1745) for the church of the Ospedale di San Giacomo in Verona.

References

• Farquhar, Maria (1855). Ralph Nicholson Wornum. ed. Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Jun 27, 2006. pp. page 158. http://books.google.com/books?q=intitle:Wornum+intitle:principal+intitle:painters. 

Links

• Artcyclopedia:Pietro Rotari

Persondata
Name	Rotari, Pietro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1707
Place of birth
Date of death	1762
Place of death