Pittura veneta a San Pietroburgo sotto i regni di Elisabetta e Caterina II (1741-1796)

The present work places the magnifying glass on the artistic and cultural relations between the Republic of Venice and the Russian Empire in the eighteenth century, highlighting the presence of Venetian painting in St. Petersburg. The consolidation of ties with Venice, initiated in the era of Peter the Great, had allowed Venetian painting to 'expand' to the banks of the city on the Neva river. In the 1720s the first Venetian painter to arrive in Russia was Bartolomeo Tarsia, while it was necessary to wait for the reign of Elisabetta Petrovna, daughter of Tsar Pietro, to see a large number of Venetian artists at work at the same time: Giuseppe Valeriani, Antonio Peresinotti, Pietro and Francesco Gradizzi, Francesco Fontebasso, Pietro Rotari, Andrea Urbani and Carlo Zucchi. First of all, the living and working conditions of Venetian painters in St. Petersburg were investigated, with particular attention paid to engagements, privileges and interpersonal relations. Subsequently, the decorative activity within the sumptuous imperial residences, such as the Winter Palaces, the Summer Palaces, the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo and the Peterhof Palace, were examined on one hand, while on the other hand, the teaching in the largest institutions of artistic education in Russia at the time. The biographical profiles of Diego Bodissoni, Giuseppe Dall'Oglio and Pano Maruzzi were also outlined, active as intermediaries and art dealers, who have the merit of having favoured the arrival of paintings of the Venetian school in St. Petersburg.