Francesco Salvator Fontebasso, 1707 Venedig – 1769 ebenda

SOFONISBA Oil on canvas. 167.5 x 250.5 cm. In curved wooden frame. In front of a classical architecture with Ionic columns as well as balustrade and sculptural attachments on the gallery, the seated Sofonisba, holding a bowl, which is offered to her by a servant. A greyhound stands to his left. The rich staffage of figures is partially covered by a brown cloth of honor. Francesco Fontebasso, who studied under Sebastiano Ricci but was strongly influenced by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, became one of the leading artists in 18th century Venice and was a sought-after painter of frescoes and large history paintings. In his early career, he spent short periods in Bologna and Rome before returning to his native Venice. He probably first came into contact with Tiepolo's work around 1730, when he saw the frescoes in the Palazzo Patriarcale in Udine - an encounter that was to steer Fontebasso's work in a decisive new direction. This was reflected in his first major commission in Venice, that of the Manin family for I Gesuiti, which was completed in 1734, when his reputation had already grown to such an extent that he was able to open a school. In the following decades he received numerous commissions from members of the Venetian aristocracy, and in 1761 he was invited by the Empress Catherine II to Saint Petersburg, where he stayed for almost two years, working on projects for the Winter Palace and other imperial palaces. After being appointed professor at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, he returned to Venice at the end of his illustrious career and became Principe of the Accademia Veneziana in 1768. Literature: Giuseppe Luigi Marini (ed.), Catalogo Bolaffi della pittura Italiana del '600 e del '700, Turin 1977, p. 66. Marina Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso, Vicenza 1988, p. 145, no. 68. (13808110) (13) Francesco Salvator Fontebasso, 1707 Venice - 1769 ibid. SOFONISBA Oil on canvas. 167.5 x 250.5 cm. Literature: G.L. Marini (ed.), Catalogo Bolaffi della pittura Italiana del '600 e del '700, Turin, 1977, p. 66. M. Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso, Vicenza, 1988, p. 145, no. 68.