Giovanni Battista Biscarra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giovanni Battista Biscarra (Nizza Monferrato, February 22, 1790 - Turin, April 13, 1851) was an Italian painter, mainly of historical subjects.

Life

Portrait of Franco Andrea Bonelli

He was the son of Caterina Coppon and Giuseppe Costantino Biscarra. His father was auditor and general treasurer of the Royal Armies of the House of Savoy. He learned his first rudiments of art from Pietro Benvenuti in Florence, where his family had taken refuge during the French occupation of the Piedmont. His first main painting was the Prodigal Son weeps about his Errors, which merely depicts an upper half portrait of man with a fallen toga. When the house of Savoy was restored, Biscarra gained a stipend to travel to Rome, where he befriended Canova, Camuccini, Thorvaldsen, Landi, Tenerani, Vernet, Gypson, Finelli, and others in the Neoclassical atmosphere of Rome. There he completed paintings such as Cain in Flight, A Tiburtine Sibyl predicts the coming of Christ to Augustus, and an Episode of the Universal Flood.[1]

He returned to head the Accademia Albertina and was very prolific. His son Carlo Felice Biscarra was also a prominent painter in Turin, and also taught at the Academy there.[1]

Works

Biscarra painted altarpieces for the churches of Turin, Nizza, Fossano, Mondovì, and others towns in the Piedmont.[2] Among his many other works are:[1]

  • Moses and the Tablets
  • Visitation of Mary
  • Ecce Homo
  • Portrait of King Charles Felix of Savoy
  • Mary Magdalen in Desert
  • Achilles at the Court of Nicomede
  • Generosity of Alexander
  • Portrait of his Mother
  • Bishop St Giovenale
  • Death of San Ilarione
  • Death of Count Ugolino
  • Il Brunelleschi
  • Promulgation of the Albertine Civil Code
  • A series of Historical canvases for the gallery of the Royal Palace of Turin
  • A self-portrait is in the Uffizi at Florence.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bryan,1886-9
  2. ↑ Pittura e scultura in Piemonte 1842-1891: Catalogo cronografico illustrato della Esposizione Retrospettiva 1892., A. Stella, Stamperia Reale della ditta G.B. Paravia e Compagnia. Turin, 1893, page 21-25.

Sources

This article incorporates text from the article "BISCARRA, Giovanni" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.