![Giuseppe Alberti - San Vigilio in estasi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Giuseppe_Alberti_-_San_Vigilio_in_estasi.jpg)
Giuseppe Alberti (3 October 1664 – 3 February 1716) was an Italian painter of the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
period. He was born at
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) a ...
, in what was then Austrian
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
. After having studied medicine at
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
he decided to become a painter and architect. He worked under
Pietro Liberi
Pietro (Libertino) Liberi (1605 – 18 October 1687) was an Italian painter of the Baroque era, active mainly in Venice and the Veneto.
Biography
Liberi was born in Padua, his earliest training was with Alessandro Varotari (''il Padovanino''). ...
in
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 ...
, then in Rome, and finally settled at
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
. Alberti died at Cavalese.
Biography
Born in Tesero, according to other sources in Cavalese,
on the 3rd of October 1640, he was destined to an ecclesiastical career as was typical of large families of that time. He soon demonstrated artistic skills that he cultivated as an autodidact in the local area, signing, in 1661, an altarpiece destined for a chapel near Montagnaga di Pinè.
From 1664 to 1667 he took courses in medicine and law at the
University of Padua
The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...
, that he soon dropped in order to devote himself entirely to art. Trained on the works of late sixteenth-century Venetian painters, Alberti had the opportunity to enrich his artistic education by assimilating the colored heritage of
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
. It helped him to find his own stylistic maturity. He started gradually deviating from the extreme Venetian traditions towards the manner of
Marco Liberi
Marco Liberi (c.1640 – after 1687) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was the son of the painter Pietro Liberi in Padua, and received his training under his father, whose style he imitated.Bryan p. 53. He was active in Padua and ...
. He was in contact with him during his stay in Venice (1668–73), which followed the one dedicated to his studies at the University of Padua (1664–67), but for the color he followed rather the naturalists, such as
Bassetti
Bassetti is an Italian textile company.
It was founded in Milan in 1830 by Carlo Barboncini, as a textile emporium. In 1840 it opened a hand-weaving factory at Rescaldina
Rescaldina () is a ''comune'' (municipality) that is part of the Metrop ...
and
Mola.
Back in Trento, he created a series of works including ''The San Vigilio altarpiece'' (signed and dated 1673) and ''The Blessed Simonino altarpiece'' (1677), commissioned by
Prince Alberti Poia
A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in s ...
and currently on display at the
Buonconsiglio Castel. From that moment onwards, the Prince Bishop became Giuseppe Alberti's main patron, for both artistic and architectural works.
Alberti had an opportunity to visit Rome, where he could study the most important monuments of the time. As Prince Bishop commissioned to design the Chapel of the Crucifix in the
Cathedral of Trento, in 1682 the artist abandoned Rome and returned home.
In 1688 he started working on the frescoes ''The Triumph of the Faith'' and ''Minerva who Chased the Vices to Hell'' in the two rooms on the first floor of the new Giunta Albertiana, built to connect the
Palazzo Magno to Castelvecchio. Both allegorical paintings, in which Alberti seeks spectacular effects described as “looking from beneath”, follow the similar cycles frescoed by him in
Palazzo Leoni Montanari in Vicenza.
1689, the year of the death of Prince Bishop Alberti, marked the beginning of the artistic crisis of Giuseppe Alberti who, deprived of the support of his patron, retired to Cavalese, in the Val di Fiemme. In the 90s he performed numerous paintings. Though, in these works it became difficult to distinguish part executed by his hand from the contributions of his apprentices. In this last stage of his artistic activity, Alberti is undoubtedly credited for having laid the foundations for the birth of the so-called "scuola fiemmesa" (the Fiemme Valley school of art).
Giuseppe Alberti died in Cavalese on the 3rd of February 1716.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alberti, Giuseppe
1664 births
1716 deaths
People from Cavalese
17th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
18th-century Italian painters
Italian Baroque painters
18th-century Italian male artists