Christopher Unterberger, also Christoph or Cristoforo (27 May 1732 – 25 January 1798) was an Italian painter of the early- Neoclassical period.

Biography

He was born in

Cavalese Cavalese (''Cavalés'' in local dialect) is a ''comune'' of 4,004 inhabitants in Trentino, northern Italy, a ski resort and the main center in the Fiemme Valley. It is part of the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme (Magnificent Community of Fiemme) an ...

County of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised pr ...

(today located in

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

). He was initially taught drawing by an uncle,

Franz Sebald Unterberger Franz Sebald Unterberger, or Unterperger (1 August 1706, Cavalese - 23 January 1776, Cavalese) was a South Tyrolean painter in the Baroque style. Biography His father, Christoph Unterberger (1668–1747), was an Imperial forest warden. His gra ...

, and then in the

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

, where another uncle,

Michelangelo Unterberger Michelangelo Unterberger, also Michael Angelo Unterberger and Michelangelo Unterperger (11 August 1695, Cavalese - 27 June 1758, Vienna) was a South Tyrolean painter in the Baroque style. Life He was the son of a forest warden. His first studie ...

, was the co-director from 1751-1758. He then traveled to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

and

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, where he studied under

Giambettino Cignaroli Giambettino Cignaroli (Verona, July 4, 1706 – Verona, December 1, 1770) was an Italian painter of the Rococo and early Neoclassic period. Biography He was a pupil of Santo Prunato and Antonio Balestra and active mostly in the area of the ...

; and finally in 1758, to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. In Rome, he befriended and fell under the influence of

Anton Rafael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (22 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a 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 Neoclassical painting, which replace ...

, and copied the works of

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

, in whose style he produced two altar-pieces of ''St. Jules'' and ''St. Agnes'' for the cathedral of

Brixen Brixen (, ; it, Bressanone ; lld, Porsenù or ) is a town in South Tyrol, northern Italy, located about north of Bolzano. Geography First mentioned in 901, Brixen is the third largest city and oldest town in the province, and the artistic and ...

. In 1772, he joined the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

under the sponsorship of Mengs. In 1772, he and Mengs were commissioned to decorate the Papyrus room in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

with themes from classic Roman frescoes, including grotteschi and other painted ornament, Starting in 1780, he led a team of artists replicating on canvas the Vatican Loggia designed by

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

and

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

. The commission had been communicated by

Giacomo Quarenghi Giacomo Quarenghi (; rus, Джа́комо Кваре́нги, Džákomo Kvaréngi, ˈdʐakəmə kvɐˈrʲenʲɡʲɪ; 20 or 21 September 1744) was an Italian architect who was the foremost and most prolific practitioner of neoclassical architectu ...

, the architect to Empress

Catherine II of Russia , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

. Quarenghi replicated the classic decoration gallery in the Hermitage in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He also decorated the ''Stanza d'Ercole'' (1784–86) in

Villa Borghese Villa Borghese or Villa Borghese Pinciana ('Borghese family{{!Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill') is the villa built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio (and, after his death, finished by his assistant Giovanni Vasanzio), developing sketches by Scip ...

for Marcantonio Borghese. Once called Stanza del Sonno because of the statue of Sleep by

Alessandro Algardi Alessandro Algardi (July 31, 1598 – June 10, 1654) was an Italian high-Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was, along with Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona, one of the major ...

. The frescoes depict the ''Apotheosis of Hercules in the center'' surrounded by four of stories of his life, ''Receiving the horns of Achelous''; ''Hercules and Lichas''; ''Nessus and Deianeira'', and the ''Death of Hercules''. In 1790-91, Unterberger also helped design the playful ''Fontana dei Cavalli Marini'' (fountain of the sea horses) and the architectural ''capriccio'' of a hemi-facade (simulated ruins) of the ''Temple of Faustina'' in the Borghese gardens. His works were mostly historical, but he also executed genre subjects, landscapes, and fruit and flower-pieces. He painted some genre paintings now in the Liechtenstein Gallery in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He painted a ''Madonna with St. John'' for the

Ferdinandeum The Tyrolean State Museum (german: Tiroler Landesmuseum), also known as the Ferdinandeum after Archduke Ferdinand, is located in Innsbruck, Austria. It was founded in 1823 by the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum Society (''Verein Tiroler Lande ...

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

; a ''Martyrdom of St. Pontianus'' for the cathedral at

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

; and an ''Assumption'' for the Loreto Cathedral. A number of his works can be seen in the

Pinacoteca Civica Fortunato Duranti The Pinacoteca Civica Fortunato Duranti is a museum in Montefortino, Italy. The 19th-century painter Fortunato Duranti Fortunato Duranti (25 September 1787 – 7 February 1863) was an Italian painter and collector. Biography Duranti was born a ...

. He saw the commission for the decoration of a ceiling of the ducal palace of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

go to

Giandomenico Tiepolo Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (August 30, 1727March 3, 1804) was an Italian painter and printmaker in etching. He was the son of artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo. Life history Domenico was born in ...

instead of him. He died in

.His brother

Ignaz Unterberger Ignaz Unterberger (24 July 1748, Cavalese – 4 December 1797, Vienna) was an Italian and Austrian painter and printmaker, who was also an inventor. He was a member of a large dynasty of Tyrolean artists. Biography Unterberger was probably b ...

was a prominent painter who was active in Vienna. One of his pupils was Giuseppe Turchi and Antonio Longo.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unterberger, Cristopher 1732 births 1798 deaths People from Cavalese 18th-century Italian painters 18th-century Italian architects Italian male painters Italian still life painters Italian neoclassical painters 18th-century Italian male artists