Giuseppe Diamantini

The Angel Shows Hagar and Ishmael the Way to Saving Fountain by Giuseppe Diamantini, 1705

Giuseppe Diamantini (1621–1705) was an Italian painter and printmaker of the Baroque period, active mainly in Venice.

He was born in Fossombrone. His early training is not well documented, but he arrived in Venice by c. 1650. He is known to have designed the title page of a libretto for the opera L’inganno riconosciuto by Camillo Contarini from 1666. He reputedly was an early mentor of Rosalba Carriera, and a painter by the name of Santo Piati. He painted a God the Father on the ceiling of the choir of the church of San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice. He painted an altarpiece of the Adoration of the Magi for the church of San Moisè. He painted classical scenes of the gods Mercury and Argus, Juno, Jupiter and Io and Venus for the hall of the Palazzo Badoer (not to be confused with the villa) in Venice. He also produced a series of about 60 prints, mainly on classical mythological subjects. In 1698 Diamantini returned to Fossombrone, where he died.

He left a considerable number of plates, most of them etchings. Among his prints are:

• The Holy Family with St. John holding a Cross.
• Hagar in the Desert.
• Marriage at Cana after Paolo Veronese.
• Dead Christ supported by an Angel.
• Death of Dido.
• Venus, Ceres, and Apollo.
• Mercury and Flora.
• Fall of Phaeton.
• Mercury and Argus
• Venus and Adonis.
• Mars and Venus.
• Diana and Endymion.
• Sacrifice of Iphigeneia.
• Boreas carrying off Orcithyia.
• Justice and Peace. Eight emblematical subjects of different sizes.

References

• Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves, ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume I: A-K). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. pp. page 410. 
• Abstract from Grove art encyclopedia

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