Felice Giani (17 December 1758 – 10 January 1823) was an Italian painter of the Neoclassic style. His grand manner subjects often included Greco-Roman allusions or themes.

Biography

Born in San Sebastiano Curone near Alessandria, he moved to

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

. In Pavia, he studied with Carlo Bianchi and

Antonio Galli Bibiena The Galli–Bibiena family, or Galli da Bibiena (also spelled "Bibbiena"), was a family of Italian artists of the 17th and 18th centuries, including: "Ferdinando Galli Bibiena Online" (overview), John Malyon, ''Artcyclopedia'', 2005, Artcycl ...

. He moved to

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, in 1778, where he entered the studio of

Domenico Pedrini Domenico Pedrini (Bologna, 1728 – Bologna, 1800) was an Italian painter. Fiercely provincial in his geographic activity, Pedrini's works were mainly completed in and around Bologna, and yet his atavistic style strayed far afield into Bologna's st ...

and Ubaldo Gandolfi. He soon moved to Rome and found work in the decoration of the

Palazzo Altieri Palazzo Altieri is a palace in Rome, which was the home of the Altieri family in the city. The palace faces the square in front of the Church of the Gesù. The Altieri The Altieri were one of the prominent families in Rome claiming descendancy ...

. Between 1780 and 1786, he worked in various studios in Rome, under, for example,

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 ...

and Christoph Unterberger. He then returned north to work in Faenza, where he worked with the

quadratura Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective ''di sotto in sù'' and ''quadratura'', is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, an ...

painter Serafino Barozzi, and with Giovanni Battista Ballanti. In Faenza he was involved in a prolific series of projects including the fresco decoration of the Laderchi, Naldi and Milzetti Palaces. The latter is considered his masterpiece. In Bologna, he decorated the Palazzi Aldini, Marescalchi, Lambertini Ranuzzi, and Baciocchi. In Rome, he worked in the palace of the Embassy of Spain,

Palazzo Quirinale The Quirinal Palace ( it, Palazzo del Quirinale ) is a historic building in Rome, Italy, one of the three current official residences of the president of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and the Tenuta di Castelporzia ...

, and he also did work in

Forlì Forlì ( , ; rgn, Furlè ; la, Forum Livii) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. It is the central city of Romagna. The city is situated along the Via ...

, Ferrara,

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...

and

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

. He befriended the Napoleonic French leaders, and traveled to Paris where he painted frescos in the villa of the Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Italy. It is there, where he is credited with co-establishing the

French Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

. He first studied in

, then sponsored by the patronage of marchese Luigi Botta, he continued studies at

(1778–79), then at 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 fi ...

in Rome, under Bartoni,

Cristoforo Unterberger 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 in County of Tyrol (today located in Trentino, Italy). He was in ...

, and architect

Giovanni Antonio Antolini Giovanni Antonio Antolini (Castel Bolognese, 1756 – Bologna 1841) was an Italian architect and writer. Biography From 1803 to 1815, he was professor of architecture at the University of Bologna and thereafter at Milan's Brera Academy. He design ...

. Returns to Faenza in 1796 -1797 as collaborator of Serafino Lodovico Barozzi, and helps in the decoration of the Galleria dei Cento Pacifici. He helped establish the first Scuola Pubblica di Disegno, opened in 1796 under

Giuseppe Zauli Giuseppe Zauli (1763 – 1822) was an Italian painter and engraver. He trained at the Accademia Clementina of Bologna. He was a collaborator with Francesco Rosaspina and Felice Giani. He dedicated himself to the practice and teaching of engrav ...

. In Faenza, Giani created a studio which had as pupils

Gaetano Bertolani Gaetano (anglicized ''Cajetan'') is an Italian masculine given name. It is also used as a surname. It is derived from the Latin ''Caietanus'', meaning "from ''Caieta''" (the modern Gaeta). The given name has been in use in Italy since medieval pe ...

Antonio Trentanove Antonio Trentanove (c. 1745 – 1812) was an Italian sculptor and stucco-artist, active in Bologna in a Neoclassical style. He was born in Rimini and studied at the Accademia Clementina. He is best known for his stucco decorations. He completed ...

, the brothers Ballanti Graziani, and

Marcantonio Trifogli Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figur ...

. Scuola di Disegno Tommasso Minardi
biographies of professors. In 1784, he won second prize in the painting competition of the Academy of Parma with a ''Samson and Delilah''. In 1811, he joined the

and in 1819, the Congregation of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon. He died after falling from his horse in Rome in 1823, and he is buried in the church of

Sant'Andrea delle Fratte Sant'Andrea delle Fratte ("Saint Andrew of the Thickets") is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the ''Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis'' is Ennio Antonelli. History The current c ...

Legacy

His work is held in the collection of the

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Ins ...

Books

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References

Grove Art Encyclopedia entry.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giani, Felice 1758 births 1823 deaths People from the Province of Alessandria 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian male artists Italian neoclassical painters Fresco painters 18th-century Italian male artists