Francesco Bagnara (1784 in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

– 21 October 1866, in

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 ...

) was an Italian scenographer, decorator and landscape architect.

Biography

Francesco Bagnara came from a poor family and began work as a decorative room painter. Thanks to the interest of a local noble family (the Angarans), he was able to go to Venice, where he studied with

Giuseppe Borsato Giuseppe Borsato (14 February 1771 in Venice – 15 October 1849 in Venice) was an Italian painter, primarily of vedute. Known for his work as the architect, decorator, and painter to the French Imperial Court in Venice. Life and works From ...

and helped him paint decorations for the

Teatro La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice bec ...

.Brief biography
from the Dizionario Biografico @

Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' ( Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language ...

. Around 1812, with the financial assistance of the Papadopoli family, he was able to open his own studios. His first clients were the Teatro San Moisè and the

Teatro San Benedetto The Teatro San Benedetto was a theatre in Venice, particularly prominent in the operatic life of the city in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It saw the premieres of over 140 operas, including Rossini's ''L'italiana in Algeri'', and was the t ...

, and later became the official designer at La Fenice. During this period, he designed sets for several now-famous operas by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...

. He also supplied decorations for provincial theaters. Because they generally could not afford full new sets for each production, he created a series of scenarios (about a dozen) that could be easily readapted for the occasion. None of these survive, but albums of watercolor sketches have been preserved at the

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the square on the upper ...

. In addition to his theater work, he decorated churches and palaces and designed gardens featuring mounds, lakes, bridges and faux ruins; after the style of Giuseppe Jappelli. His most notable work was at the

Giardini Papadopoli Giardino Papadopoli is a terraced garden filled with shade trees in the Venetian sestiere of Santa Croce, between the Venezia Santa Lucia train station and Piazzale Roma. Its area is about 8,800 sq. m. The gardens occupy the lands of the demol ...

, although much of it was later destroyed to create an extension for the bus terminal at the

Piazzale Roma Piazzale Roma is a square in Venice, Italy, at the entrance of the city, at the end of the Ponte della Libertà. Piazzale Roma and nearby Tronchetto island are the only places in Venice's insular urban core accessible to ground motor vehicles, s ...

. From 1838 to 1854, he was a Professor of landscaping at the

Accademia di Belle Arti This is a list of the tertiary-level schools or academies of fine art in Italy that are recognised by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of higher education. Accademie di Belle Arti The offic ...

. Beginning in a Neo-Classical style, he gradually adopted

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. He was known for his lack of concern for historical veracity, once having set ''

La Sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...

'' in what looked like a Roman forum (instead of an Italian village), for example. Occasionally, he used machines to create theatrical effects; notably at a festival celebrating the coronation of

Ferdinand I of Austria en, Ferdinand Charles Leopold Joseph Francis Marcelin , image = Kaiser Ferdinand I.jpg , caption = Portrait by Eduard Edlinger (1843) , succession = Emperor of AustriaKing of Hungary , moretext = ( more...) , cor-type = ...

in 1835. According to his official obituary, he created over 1,100 scenarios. Donizettiluciabuehnenbildbagnara hi

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bagnara, Francesco 1784 births 1866 deaths Italian set decorators Italian scenic designers Italian landscape architects People from Vicenza Opera designers Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia faculty

Biography

References

Further reading

External links