Francesco Battaglioli

Essay:

Born in Modena, Battaglioli is thought to have first studied under Raffaello Rinaldi (active 1713-1747?), a local artist, and between 1747 and 1751 he was enrolled in the Fraglia Veneziana, where he met the leading vedutisti of the time. In 1754 he went to Madrid to work at the court of Ferdinand VI, where he painted theatre sets for the royal palaces in Aranjuez and Madrid. Other patrons there included the famous castrato Farinelli (1705-1782), under whose supervision he painted stage sets for Pietro Metastasio’s opera La Nitteti (Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando). During his time in Spain, he also painted a number of vedute, including four of the castle of Villaviciosa de Odon (New York, Centerport, Vanderbilt Museum) and two views of the royal palace at Aranjuez commissioned by Farinelli (signed and dated 1756; Museo del Prado, Madrid). It is conceivable that he met Antonio Joli at this time, as he too was working for Farinelli at Aranjuez.

Following the death of Ferdinand VI in 1759, Battaglioli returned to Italy. In 1772 he was nominated a member of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice and six years later he succeeded Antonio Visentini as a professor of perspective at the Accademia, a position he held until 1789.