Andrea Appiani (1754-1817)

Aliases: Andrea (1754) Appiani

Professions: Painter

Portrait présumé de Joséphine Bonaparte
ANDREA APPIANI (Milan 1754-1817)
Andrea Appiani , Milan 1754 - 1817 Cupid introducing Psyche to Jupiter Black chalk and stumping; signed and dated in lower left margin: Andrea Appiani inv. to a...1792
ANDREA APPIANI MILAN 1754 -1817

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Andrea Appiani Biography

(b Milan, 31 May 1754; d Milan, 8 Nov 1817). Italian painter and designer. He had been intended to follow his father’s career in medicine but instead entered the private academy of the painter Carlo Maria Giudici (1723–1804). He received instruction in drawing, copying mainly from sculpture and prints. He studied Raphael through the engravings of Marcantonio Raimondi, as well as the work of Giulio, Anton Raphael Mengs and, again from prints, the compositions in Trajan’s Column. He then joined the class of the fresco painter Antonio de’ Giorgi (1720–93), which was held at the Ambrosiana picture gallery in Milan, where he was able to study Raphael’s art directly from the cartoon of the School of Athens and the work of Leonardo’s followers, particularly Bernardino Luini. He also frequented the studio of Martin Knoller, where he deepened his knowledge of painting in oils; and he studied anatomy at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan with the sculptor Gaetano Monti (1750–1847). His interest in aesthetic issues was stimulated by the classical poet Giuseppe Parini, whom he drew in two fine pencil portraits (Milan, Brera; Milan, Mus. Poldi Pezzoli). In 1776 he entered the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera to follow the painting courses of Giuliano Traballesi, from whom he received a mastery of the fresco technique and the encouragement to make copies after Domenichino and Correggio.

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