Pietro Benvenuti

Pietro Benvenuti studied at Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. Francesco Nenci, Matilde Meoni Malenchini and Achille Farina are recorded as having studied under Pietro Benvenuti. The recorded working language is Italian. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Positions recorded include court painter. Work by Pietro Benvenuti is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Uffizi Gallery and Palazzo Pitti.

• Name — Pietro Benvenuti • Born — 8 January 1769 • Birthplace — Arezzo, Grand Duchy of Tuscany • Died — 3 February 1844 • Place of death — Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany • Field — Historical and mythological painting • Movement — Neoclassicism • Works — The Oath of the Saxons

Born in Arezzo in Tuscany, he was influenced by the style of Jacques-Louis David. He was a student of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, then studied in Rome, 1792–1803, where he formed an informal academy with his friend of long standing, Vincenzo Cammuccini, and Luigi Sabatelli.

In 1807 he was recruited to become court painter to Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi and to direct the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. In 1809 Napoleon commissioned him his most important work, The Oath of the Saxons (1809–12; Florence, Palazzo Pitti). This painting, for which Benvenuti did more than 19 sheets of drawings (Florence, Uffizi), is rigorously academic and again shows the influence of contemporary French art, notably François Gérard’s Ossian Evoking Phantoms (1801) and Anne-Louis Girodet’s Apotheosis of French Heroes who Died for the Country during the War for Liberty (1800; Château de Malmaison). The use of strong chiaroscuro, however, is more nearly Romantic in inspiration. In 1812 it was delivered to Napoleon in Paris but was brought back to Florence in 1815, together with Old Master paintings that Canova, assisted by Benvenuti, had succeeded in repatriating.

Benvenuti's position as the most important official painter in Florence and one of the leading Neoclassical painters in Italy was reinforced, after the restoration of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, by two fresco commissions from Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany: the Labours of Hercules (1817–29; Florence, Palazzo Pitti) and The Old and New Testaments (1827–36; Florence, San Lorenzo, Cappella dei Principi). In both works his style is much softer than in his easel paintings. In another grand-ducal commission, Christ Blessing the Little Children (1838; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), he employs the forms and spirituality derived from Raphael that are found in the religious paintings of the Puristi. Benvenuti died at Florence, while holding the post of Director. On his death his pupil, the Romantic painter Giuseppe Bezzuoli, became Director of the Accademia. Benvenuti had many pupils and students, including Gaspero Martellini, Tommaso Gazzarrini, Niccola Cianfanelli, Luigi Mussini, and Giorgio Berti. He was an associate of the Accademia di Brera, Milan. In 1829, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member.

Benvenuti’s approach to history painting was laborious, even by academic standards, as noted by the young painter Francesco Hayez when he visited his studio. His strict adherence to Neoclassical canons of beauty, based on close study of antique models, is particularly evident in the Death of Priam (1806–12; Florence, Galleria Corsini). Apart from the Death of Ugolino (1813; Florence, Palazzo della Gherardesca), Benvenuti hardly responded to the burgeoning taste for medieval subjects that heralded the Romantic Movement.

• Illustration — The Oath of the Saxons, 1812 • Illustration — Elisa Bonaparte, 1814 • Illustration — Princess Zinaida Alexandrovna Volkonskaia, 1815 • Illustration — Maria Teresa of Austria and Tuscany, 1817 • Illustration — Christ and the Samaritan, c. 1807 • Illustration — Dome interior of the Cappella dei Principi, Florence • Illustration — Portrait of Elena Mastiani Brunacci, 1809 • Illustration — Portrait of Eleonora Pandolfini Nencini, 1810 • Illustration — Hercules at the crossroads (Detail), 1828

Pietro Benvenuti was born on 8 January 1769 in Arezzo. Benvenuti was educated at Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. Benvenuti worked as painter. Benvenuti held the posts of court painter. The fields Benvenuti worked in include portrait. Benvenuti worked in Italian.