Vision of Saint Anthony by Pittoni
Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Italy (Venice) 1687-1767
oil on canvas, late 1730s
Giovanni Battista Pittoni helped to spread the international success of the Venetian Rococo style. Most of Pittoni's religious, mythological, and historical paintings were created for German, Polish, and Russian patrons. He first trained with his uncle, Venetian painter Francesco Pittoni, then joined the guild in Venice in 1716.In the 1720s and 1730s, Pittoni's nervous brushwork produced vibrant Rococo paintings that reveal a debt to Sebastiano Ricci and Tiepolo. A sophisticated colorist, he imbued his elegant pictures with an Arcadian mood close in feeling to the French Rococo. Later, Pittoni's palette lightened and his compositions became more sedate, probably due to the prevailing trend towards Neoclassicism. Highly regarded by his contemporaries, Pittoni was a founding member of the Venetian Academy and succeeded Tiepolo as president of the institution in 1758.
"Anthony of Padua was born in Portugal in 1195 and taught and preached in France and Italy. He was canonized in 1232, only one year after his death. His name is invoked to aid in the finding of lost objects. He is the patron saint of the poor and his attributes are the lily and the infant Jesus."
San Diego Museum of Art, California
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