Giacomo Nani (1698 in

Porto Ercole Porto Ercole () is an Italian town located in the municipality of Monte Argentario, in the Province of Grosseto, Tuscany. It is one of the two major towns that form the township, along with Porto Santo Stefano. Its name means "Port Hercules". Ge ...

– 1755 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

) was an Italian painter, mainly of still-life paintings and of

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

Biography

According to De Dominici, he was a pupil of

Andrea Belvedere Abate Andrea Belvedere (born 1646) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Life and Work It is believed that the painter was born not in 1646, as De Dominici reported, but around 1652, based on the discovery, by Prota Giurleo, of the ac ...

and Gaspare Lopez. In marriage documents from 1726, he stated his trade as a painter. His older son, Mariano Nani, was a painter active in Spain. Works by Nani are listed in an inventory by the Duchess of Terranova in 1723, and by the Duke of

Limatola Limatola is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Benevento in the Italy, Italian region Campania, located about 35 km northeast of Naples and about 30 km west of Benevento. Limatola borders the following municipalities: Caiazz ...

in 1725. He is said to have collaborated with the figure painter

Paolo de Matteis Paolo de Matteis (also known as ''Paolo de' Matteis''; 9 February 1662 – 26 January 1728) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born in Piano Vetrale, a hamlet of Orria, in the current Province of Salerno, and died in Naples. He trained wit ...

. Two dozen of his canvases, originally in the Royal Palace in Naples, were sent to Spain by the king

Charles VII of Naples it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Elisabeth Farnese , birth_date = 20 January 1716 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain , death_da ...

to his mother, the former Queen Isabella Farnese, and are presently conserved in the

Royal Palace of Riofrío The Royal Palace of Riofrío ( es, Palacio Real de Riofrío, ) is one of the residences of Spanish royal family. It is under the management of ''Patrimonio Nacional'', a government agency dedicated to the care and maintenance of properties owned ...

. Nani also made designs for the painting at the royal factory of

Capodimonte porcelain Capodimonte porcelain (sometimes "Capo di Monte") is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory (''Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte''), which operated in Naples, Italy, between 1743 and 1759. Capodimonte is the most outstanding facto ...

founded in 1740. In 1754, the factory director, Giacomo Boschi, stated that for years, Nani had been employed in painting animals and natural objects. His son Mariano also worked at the factory as a decorator. He is also called Jacopo Nani. The

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...

and the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

also own paintings by Nani.

References

1698 births 1755 deaths 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian still life painters Painters from Naples Italian potters People from Monte Argentario 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-18thC-stub