Benigno Bossi (1727–1792) was an Italian engraver, painter, and stucco artist.

Life

He was born at

Arcisate Arcisate is a town and ''comune'' located in the province of Varese, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The celebrated Arcisate Treasure of Roman silverware was found in the town in the nineteenth century. It is now in the British Museum. ...

Benigno Bossi
, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971) near

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He was intended to have studied painting under

Pompeo Batoni Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors tra ...

, but that artist's death prevented it, and he was advised by

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (22 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German people, German painter, active in Dresden, Rome, and Madrid, who while painting in the Rococo period of the mid-18th century became one of the precursors to Neoclassicism, Neoclas ...

and Dietrich to apply himself to engraving. He stayed for a time in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

and

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, but during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

he had to leave

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, and went in 1760 to

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

where he found patronage by the duke.Bryan 1886 He died in Parma on 4 November 1792. Some sources appear to misspell his name as Benigno Rossi.

Prints

He engraved the following prints: # ''Self-portrait''. # A ''Presentation in the Temple'' (1755). # Forty small etchings of Heads, and other subjects. # A ''Mascarade à la Grecque'' and a ''Suite des Vases'' after

Ennemond Alexandre Petitot Ennemond Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801) was a French-born architect, mainly active in the Duchy of Parma. Biography He was born in Lyon in 1727, and by 1741, he had joined the studio of the architect Jacques Soufflot. From there he moved to study a ...

. # Four of ''Trophies '' (1771). # Four of the ''Attributes of the Seasons'' (1770). # Two of children. # Allegorical figures representing the Towns in

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. # A set of 29 plates after the drawings of

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bo ...

References

Bibliography

* 1727 births 1792 deaths 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 19th-century Italian painters Italian painters of animals Painters from Milan 19th-century Italian male artists 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-18thC-stub