Brescia Sette Angeli dell'Apocalisse Ottavio Amigoni

Ottavio Amigoni (16 October 1606 – 28 October 1661) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

. He was trained by Antonio Gandini. Among his masterpieces is a large fresco about the life of Sant'Alberto (c. 1640) in the Carmelite church of Brescia, painted with Gandino's son, Bernardino.

Biography

The date of birth of the Amigoni, that had been open to discussion in artistic literature for a long period and fell anywhere between 1605 and 1665, was finally fixed with certainty only in 2006 after careful research in the parish archives of the church di Sant'Agata. It was discovered that he was born on 16 October 1606. He initially worked as a chemist at his father's workshop but, before 1632, for unknown reasons he had already traveled to

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

and

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 ...

, getting from the first city the teaching of

Bernardo Strozzi Bernardo Strozzi, named il Cappuccino and il Prete Genovese (c. 1581 – 2 August 1644) was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver. A canvas and fresco artist, his wide subject range included history, allegorical, genre and portrait paintin ...

and from the second the method used by Bartolomeo Cesi, these motives were noticeable in his first famous work, ''San Rocco and Nicola da Tolentino invoke the Virgin to spare Sergnana from the plague in the presence of the saints Bartolomeo, Faustino and Giovita'' that is preserved in the church of San Rocco in Provezze. The altarpiece is dated 1632 and can be attributed to a first experiment, performed on the basis of the works seen during the two journeys just completed, works belonging to the worlds that were very different from the environment in Brescia. Closer to the "local" style appears his second known work, ''Madonna with Child between Saints Charles and Francis'' for the church of Saint Giorgio in Cellatica, signed and dated 1633. In the painting the influences of Genoa and Bologna were much more attenuated to give way to the lessons of Pietro da Marone, Paolo Veronese and Moretto. The following year, he painted a fresco of the two great monochromes of ''Saint Gregorio Magno'' and ''Saint'Onorio'' on the counter-façade of the church of Saints Faustino and Giovita in Brescia, where the shift towards more characteristic features of the Brescia area can be found. The activity of Amigoni in the second half of the 1630s, which would thus attest the evolution of his reunion with local art, remains obscure today due to the loss of some works that were fundamental in this sense. In the early 1640s, still for unknown reasons, he traveled to Switzerland and left the altarpiece of the ''Perdon d'Assisi'' in the church of San Francesco in Ruis, in the

Surselva District Surselva Region is one of the eleven administrative districts in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2017 as part of a reorganization of the canton.baroque features than mannerism of the Gandino. Chiesa di Santa Agata Annunciazione Brescia.jpg, Annunciation by Ottavio Amigoni in the ''Sant'Agata'' church in

. Santa Maria dei Miracoli Immacolata Cristo e Maddalena Brescia.jpg, The Immaculate by Ottavio Amigoni and ''Noli me tangere'' by Giuseppe Fali in the ''Santa Maria dei Miracoli'' church in

. In 1642 he signed ''the Madonna with Child and the saints Eufemia and Francesco'' in the parish church of Vello, thus testifying his return to Brescia, and again in the same year he executed the frescoes on the semi-dome of the apse and the central vault of the church of San Giorgio. The style of Amigoni, now turned to a true experimentation with contemporary baroque lines, does not stop in the second half of the 40s. We can still find it in the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Brescia with the paintings of 1648 of ''the Immaculate Conception'' and ''Presentation in the Temple of Mary'' (the first half-destroyed and the second completely destroyed in 1944 during a bombing), then again in Chiari, Paitone and Zone. Here he performs for the parish church ''a Madonna with Child, St. George, St. Rocco and a devotee'', another masterpiece, where his experiments reached a certain stability, allowing the artist to return to the lessons learned at the beginning of his training and enrich them with the new, well-established baroque style. In the fifties of the seventeenth century he turned to light tones, while the traits are becoming increasingly important: this aspect is clearly visible, for example in San Gregorio Magno in the sanctuary of the Madonna della Misericordia in

Bovegno Bovegno (Brescian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It borders the communes of Artogne, Berzo Inferiore, Bienno, Collio, Esine, Gianico, Irma, Marmentino and Pezzaze. It is located in the valley named Val Trompia. ...

, dated 1650. A masterpiece of early 50s is ''the Madonna with Child'' and ''Saint Bernard Abbot'' for the church of San Bernardo in

Marone Marone (Brescian: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy. Physical geography Territory Marone is located on the eastern shore of Lake Iseo at about 200 m a.s.l. The territory is mainly mountainous. It b ...

, with almost silver tones on twisted figures. For two years ( 1655-1656) Amigoni returns to painting frescos with the internal frieze of the church of Santa Maria della Carità in Brescia, executed together with Agostino Avanzo and now lost, and with the decoration of the Villa Togni salon in

Gussago Gussago (Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. The town is situated in Franciacorta, an area known for its precious wines. There are also many other cookery specialities, as ''spiedo'' (where meat such as po ...

, created in collaboration with the young

Pompeo Ghitti Pompeo Ghitti (1631–1703 or 1704) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in and in towns surrounding Brescia. Biography He was born in the village of Marone on the shores of Lake Iseo, near Brescia. He was a pupil of t ...

. After this date, however, the artist's tracks are becoming increasingly rare. In 1660 he reappeared with a shovel in the parish church of Gorzone depicting the ''Saints Ambrogio'' and ''Antonio da Padova''. Ottavio Amigoni died on 28 October 1661 in his hometown and was buried in the church of San Giuseppe.

References

* * * Content was translated from the corresponding article on the Italian Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Amigoni, Ottavio 1606 births 1661 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Brescia Italian Baroque painters