Federico Bencovich
Federico Bencovich | |
---|---|
Federiko Benković | |
![]() "Hermit", oil on canvas,Fitzwilliam Museum,Cambridge | |
Born | Federiko Benković 1667 |
Died | 8 June 1753 (85-86) |
Nationality | Croatian,Italian |
Occupation | Artist |
Movement | roccoco |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Saint_Andrew_among_the_Saints_Batholomew%2C_Carlo_Borromeo%2C_Lucy_and_Apollonia_1710-16_-_Frederico_Bencovich%2C_Senonches%2C_France.jpg/260px-Saint_Andrew_among_the_Saints_Batholomew%2C_Carlo_Borromeo%2C_Lucy_and_Apollonia_1710-16_-_Frederico_Bencovich%2C_Senonches%2C_France.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Abraham_s_sacrifice_of_Isaac_-_Federico_Bencovich.jpg/260px-Abraham_s_sacrifice_of_Isaac_-_Federico_Bencovich.jpg)
Federico Bencovich(1667 – 8 July 1753) was a lateBaroquepainter fromDalmatiaworking inItaly.He is best known asFederico BencovichorFederigoorFederighettoorDalmatino.In modern Croatia he is known asFederiko Benković.
Life[edit]
He was bornFederico Bencovich(as he signed his own name[1]) somewhere inVenetian Dalmatia.His exact birthplace is unknown, but it could have been either inOmiš,Šibenik,the island ofBrač,Dubrovnik,or possiblyVeniceitself.
His initial training was likely in Venice, but later Bencovich apprenticed withCarlo CignaniinBologna,assisting him in 1706 in completing the frescoes of theAssumption of the Virginon the dome of theForlì cathedral.His first independent work,Juno on the clouds,was painted in 1705. He also appears to have worked in the studio ofGiuseppe Maria Crespi.
In 1710 Bencovich painted the altarpiece ofSt. Andrewon the cross surrounded bySt. Bartholomew,St. Carolus Borromei,St. Lucia,and St. Apolloniafor the church ofMadonna del Piomboin Bologna, later transferred to the parish church of Senonches nearChartresin France. By 1715, he came to the service of theArchbishop-Elector of MainzLothar Franz von Schönbornand was to complete four large canvas masterpieces for the gallery in theSchloss Weißensteinin the town ofPommersfelden:Apollo and Marcia,Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert,Iphigenia's SacrificeandAbraham's Sacrifice of Isaac.
His last years were spent inGorizia.After his death he gradually fell into oblivion, and his paintings were attributed toPiazzettaor Cignani, amongst others.
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Bencovich's paintingsSaving Saint Peter from prison
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Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert
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Iphigenia’s sacrifice
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Saint Francis of Paola(etching byGiovanni Marco Pitteriafter Bencovich)
Analysis[edit]
The dramatic, often tortured, poses and lighting of his figures are placed within earthy tenebrist backgrounds. He uses Piazzetta's andSebastiano Ricci's unfinished and ragged brushstrokes, but superimposes a startling mystical imprint that is often foreign to the magisterial and olympian Venetian painting, and more akin to the Baroque painters from Northern Italy,Alessandro MagnascoandFrancesco Cairo.
Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac[2]is probably the painting that disappeared from the castle ofPommersfeldenat the beginning of the 19th century. Until that time, the painting was attributed to Piazzetta.
Works[edit]
- Zagreb,Strossmayer Gallery,Sacrifizio d'Isacco,1720
- Forlì, Palazzo Orselli Foschi,Giunone(Juno)
- Brescia, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo,Madonna in trono con santi(sketch)
- Berlin,Staatliche Museen,Madonna e santi,1730 – 1735
- Bologna,Pinacoteca Nazionale,Il beato Pietro Gambacorta,incisione,c. 1728
- Borgo San Giacomo,Verolanuova,Brescia,Chiesa del Castello:Deposizione,c. 1735
- Crema,Church of the Holy Trinity:Estasi di S. Francesco da Paola,1724
- Pommersfelden,Weißenstein Castle,Hagar and Ishmael in the desert;The Sacrifice of Iphigenia,c. 1715.
- Senonches,France,parish,Crucifixion of St. Andrew and Saints,c. 1725
- Stuttgart,Staats-Galerie,Adoration of the Magi,c. 1725
- Tomo,Feltre,parish,Fuga in Egitto,c. 1709
- Venice, Church of S. Sebastiano:Il beato Pietro Gambacorta,c. 1726
- Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia,Autoritratto,c. 1735
- Venice, Museo Correr,Fuga in Egitto,drawings, c. 1720
- Vienna, Albertina:Departing for Egypt,Rest while escaping in Egypt,c. 1745; drawings:St. Francis of Paola;Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi;Death of St. Benedict
References[edit]
- ^The History of Painting in Italy,Translated from the Italian of Abate Luigi Lanzi by Thomas Roscoe, New Edition Revised, 1847,From the Period of the Revival of Fine Arts to End of Eighteenth Century,Volume 3, p. 166
- ^Now in the Strossmayer gallery in Croatia, after they bought the painting at a London auction in 1936.
External links[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Ivanoff, Nicola (1966)."BENCOVICH, Federico, detto il Federighetto o il Dalmatino".Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani,Volume 8: Bellucci–Beregan(in Italian). Rome:Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.ISBN978-8-81200032-6.
- 1667 births
- 1753 deaths
- 17th-century Croatian people
- 18th-century Croatian people
- 18th-century Italian people
- 17th-century Italian painters
- Italian male painters
- 18th-century Italian painters
- Dalmatian Italians
- Italian Baroque painters
- Croatian painters
- Italian people of Croatian descent
- People from Dalmatia
- 18th-century Italian male artists