Filippo Abbiati (1640–1715) was an Italian painter of the early- Baroque period, active in Lombardy and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, together with Andrea Lanzani and Stefano Maria Legnani, he was a prominent

mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

painters from the School of Lombardy. Born in

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 a pupil of the painter Antonio Busca.

Alessandro Magnasco Alessandro Magnasco (February 4, 1667 – March 12, 1749), also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late- Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa. He is best known for stylized, fantastic, often phantasmagoric genre or landscape s ...

was one of his pupils along with Pietro Maggi and Giuseppe Rivola. Ticozzi claims he trained, along with Federigo Bianchi, with Carlo Francesco Nuvolone. Along with Bianchi, he painted the cupola of Sant'Alessandro Martire in Milan. Abbiati also painted a ''St. John preaching in the Wilderness'' for a church in

Saronno Saronno (; lmo, Saronn ) is a ''comune'' of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Varese. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree in 1960. With an estimated population of 39,351 inhabitants, it is the most densely populated ...

. Filippo Abbiati was an apprentice of Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, of whom he resumed the fluid touch and taste for the spacious and luminous foundations, and then of Antonio Busca. He was mainly influenced by the early seventeenth-century painting of Lombardy, by the works of Cerano, Morazzone and Procaccini. Later, he get acquainted with the Roman Baroque up to the first manifestations of the Rococo. Being in contact with the Venetian painting of

Federico Bencovich upright 1.2, ''Saint Andrew among the Saints Batholomew, Carlo Borromeo, Lucy and Apollonia'', ca. 1710–1716 Federico Bencovich (1667 – 8 July 1753) was a late Baroque painter from Dalmatia working in Italy. He is best known as ''Federico Ben ...

and Sebastiano Ricci he influenced his apprentices Pietro Maggi and Giuseppe Rivola in this direction.

also belonged to his school. Abbiati developed his copious production especially in Milan and around it but the information on his life is scarce. In 1671 he produced a canvas, that was lost, for the Milanese church of Santa Maria del Carmine and another, also no longer existing, for the Scuola di San Giovanni in Murano, which suggests his presence in Venice, while one of his trip to Rome before 1674 was hypothesized to explain the influence of Roman painting in his painting of Blessed Tolomeo, preserved in the Milanese church of San Vittore al Corpo. For the Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine dei Miracoli in Saronno he painted the altarpiece of the Preaching of St. John the Baptist (1677), perhaps together with Luca Borromeo, and a David; in 1688 ''La caduta della manna (The Gathering of the Manna)'' was also painted there. In 1680, three canvases were commissioned for the church of San Sebastiano, in Milan. His masterpieces are considered the frescoes on the counter-façade, in the choir and in the dome of the Milanese church of Sant'Alessandro. He executed them from 1683 to 1696 in collaboration with Federico Bianchi. Though it is not easy to distinguish the work of one artist from the other, some claim that only ''The Triumph of the Holy Trinity'', in the dome, and ''The Scenes of the life of Saint Alexander'', in the choir, are of his own hand. Around the same period, he painted ''The Council of Ephesus'' for the church of Santa Maria del Carmine and 31 paintings with scenes from the life of Saint Lawrence for the Cathedral of Novara. In 1700 he received payments for his contribution to funeral ceremonies in honor of Emperor Charles II. Around that year he painted for the church of Sant'Antonio the scenes of ''The life of Sant'Andrea Avellino'', ''The Sant'Antonio Converts a Heretic'', ''The Saint Peter Martyr Unmasks a False Madonna'' and ''The Miracle of the Mule'', the latter two currently preserved in the Diocesan Museum of Milan. His activity in later years was not documented. Abbiati died in Milan.

Works

*''The Solemn Entrance of

Charles Borromeo Charles Borromeo ( it, Carlo Borromeo; la, Carolus Borromeus; 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was the Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat ...

in Milan'' (1670–80), from the Quadroni of St. Charles, Milan Cathedral * ''Portrait of Filippo Pirogalli'' (around 1677),

, Ospedale Maggiore * ''Birth of Mary'' (around 1680), Santa Maria dei Miracoli Basilica,

Morbio Inferiore Morbio Inferiore is a municipality in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland in the hills above Chiasso. It is located in the district of Mendrisio. History Morbio Inferiore is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Morbio Subteriori''. In 1198 it was menti ...

, Switzerland * ''Apparition of the Virgin'' (1683–85), musée Calvet, Avignon, oil on canvas, 55 × 66 cm * ''Self-Portrait'',

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

, Milan * ''History of St Andrea of Avellino'',

Sant'Antonio Abate Sant'Antonio Abate ( nap, Sant'Antuono) is a ''commune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 30 km southeast of Naples. Sant'Antonio Abate borders the following municipalities: A ...

, Milan * ''Apparition of Virgin to

Pope Honorius III Pope Honorius III (c. 1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of impor ...

'', Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Pavia * ''San Siro before the Pope'',

Pavia Cathedral Pavia Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Pavia) is a church in Pavia, Italy, the largest in the city and seat of the Diocese of Pavia. The construction was begun in the 15th century on the site of two pre-existing Romanesque, "twin" cathedrals (Santo Stefa ...

* ''David, Moses'' at Sant'Agostino, Pavia * ''St John Preaching in the Wilderness'', a church in

His other works are at the Pinacoteca Carrara in Bergamo and the

Biblioteca Ambrosiana The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, Italy, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ambrosian art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whose agen ...

in Milan.

References

* Content was translated from the corresponding article on the Italian Wikipedia

Works

References

Further reading