Training and works in Venice and Rome, before 1700 Born in
Capodistria,
Istria (modern
Koper now in Slovenia, then part of the
Republic of Venice), he was the son of Antonio Trevisani, an architect, by whom he was instructed in the first rudiments of design. He then studied in
Venice under
Antonio Zanchi and later with
Joseph Heintz the Younger, who specialized in
genre painting. No paintings survive from this early Venetian period, and Trevisani moved to Rome, where he remained until his death, in 1746. His brother,
Angelo Trevisani remained a prominent painter in Venice. In Rome, he was favoured with the patronage of Cardinal
Flavio Chigi. Chigi employed him in several considerable works. His earliest surviving paintings are orientated towards Emilian and Roman classicism. The
Trinity with St. Bernard and St. Catherine of Siena (1684), which was painted for the church at La Cetina, the Chigi–Zandadori villa at
Cetinale, near Siena, is derived from prototypes by
Guido Reni, interpreted in a soft and mannered style. This was followed by the
Martyrdom of St. Stephen (Rome,
Palazzo Barberini), based on
Filippo Lauri’s painting of the same subject (
Burghley House, Cambridgeshire). It seems likely that on Lauri's death in 1694 Trevisani inherited his role as a painter of small, delicate pictures in an
Arcadian vein. Other early works, painted for the Chigi family, such as
Christ between St. Philip and St. James (1687) and the
Martyrdom of the Four Crowned Saints (1688; both
Siena Cathedral), reveal Trevisani's strong links with contemporary Roman artists, especially those in the circle of
Maratta. However, Trevisani's compositions remain Venetian, reminiscent of those by Antonio Zanchi, as is particularly evident in the
Martyrdom of the Four Crowned Saints, a lively, dramatic scene placed in an architectural setting and influenced by the works of
Paolo Veronese. Trevisani's
Martyrdom of St. Andrew (before 1697; Rome,
Sant'Andrea delle Fratte), inspired by
Mattia Preti’s frescoes in
Sant'Andrea della Valle, draws closer to the
Roman Baroque. His early portraits, such as that of Jan Jachym, Count of Pachta (1696;
National Gallery Prague,
Sternberg Palace), a Baroque, richly painted work in the tradition of Anthony van Dyck, are extraordinarily intense. Trevisani's first major contribution to Roman art was his decoration of the chapel of the Crucifix in
San Silvestro in Capite, Rome, with canvases of the
Passion of Jesus and frescoes on the vault and pendentives of
Putti Displaying the Instruments of the Passion. He may have won the commission through the offices of Cardinal
Pietro Ottoboni, whom he probably met shortly after Cardinal Chigi's death, and who became his most important patron. In these works Trevisani drew closer to the art of
Giovanni Lanfranco and Guido Reni, as in his
Road to Calvary, which is indebted both to Reni's
St. Andrew Led to Martyrdom (Rome,
San Gregorio Magno al Celio) and also to Lanfranco's
Road to Calvary in the Sacchetti Chapel in
San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome. Trevisani's response to these works was further modified by his awareness of the art of
Ludovico Gimignani and
Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari, who were also decorating chapels in San Silvestro in Capite. Nevertheless, Trevisani adopted a livelier
chiaroscuro than either of these artists and used sharper contrasts. Indeed, there is little doubt that he was also inspired by
Francesco Solimena and learned from him how to enrich the rather tired echoes of Maratta's classicism with a new energy and freedom of handling. Thus his lunette painting, the
Agony in the Garden, while modelled on Maratta's painting in
Sant'Isidoro a Capo le Case, Rome, has greater dramatic power. A similar development occurs throughout his decorations, and the
Crucifixion returns to motifs from the art of the
Carracci, yet reinterpreted through the more modern vision of Solimena. Trevisani's highly innovative scheme thus marks the beginnings of a new sensibility, of a softer and more sentimental art.
Rome, 1700–20 ,
Barnard Castle,
County Durham,
England. Trevisani was profoundly affected by the
Pontifical Academy of Arcadia, with which he became associated through Cardinal Ottoboni, one of its most distinguished members. In these circles he also met
Filippo Juvarra and the musician
Arcangelo Corelli, who owned Trevisani's
Virgin and Child (a copy of an original by
Carlo Cignani) and a large portrait of Cardinal Ottoboni. Another portrait of Cardinal Ottoboni (1700–09;
Barnard Castle,
Bowes Museum), though spontaneous, is deeply rooted in the Roman portrait tradition that runs from
Bernini to
Andrea Sacchi, and from
Jacob Ferdinand Voet to Maratta. Trevisani was well known at the Accademia by 1704, when
Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, its custodian, sang his praises in a poem, and Trevisani himself had some success as a poet. However, it was not until 1712 that he actually became a member of the Accademia, taking the name of
Sanzio Echeiano. The anti-Baroque, rationalistic tendencies of the Arcadians (associates of the Accademia) were expressed in painting in various ways by artists as diverse as Maratta, Gimignani,
Daniel Seiter, Bernardo Morando and Trevisani. Nevertheless, they all shared an underlying classicism, even when attracted, as was Trevisani, by the
Barochetto, and their art looks forward to that of such
Venetian painters as
Giovanni Battista Crosato as well as to that of
François Lemoyne and
Charles-Joseph Natoire. In 1704 Trevisani began the
Mass of Bolsena (Bolsena Cathedral, Cappella del Miracolo), in which the space is clearly defined and the narrative direct and lucid. The painting is evenly handled, but the colour is vivid, and the rendering of fabrics and highlights rich and brilliant. The classical composition, in the tradition of Sacchi and Maratta, contrasts sharply with the Baroque
naturalism of his earlier
Martyrdom of St. Andrew. The
Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra (1704; Rome,
Galleria Spada) illustrates his achievement as a history painter of biblical and mythological themes. Here too the lucid forms and the attention to detail lend clarity to the narrative. The richly clad figures soberly enact their roles in an elegant architectural interior. Crescimbeni, in his
Breve Notizia dello stato antico e moderno dell’Adunanza degli Arcadi (Venice, 1730), defined ‘gentle birth together with good manners’ as an essential qualification for the Arcadians, and this prescription seems to be reflected in paintings of this kind. Several other of Trevisani's paintings are stylistically close to this work. Between 1708 and 1717 he painted a series of works for Prince–Bishop
Lothar Franz von Schönborn, most of which remain at
Pommersfelden in the
Schloss Weißenstein. Such religious paintings as the
Repentant Magdalene (Pommersfelden, Schloss Weißenstein) reflect the style of Maratta and Reni, while in such mythological pictures as
Luna and Endymion (Pommersfelden, Schloss Weißenstein) Trevisani returned to the art of Lauri, which he interpreted with greater richness. In 1717 Trevisani sent a strikingly immediate
Self-portrait (Pommersfelden, Schloss Weißenstein) as a gift for the Prince. Trevisani's style oscillates between the
Barochetto and the classicism of Maratta, as, for example, in
Dead Christ Supported by Angels (1705–10; Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum), which unites Baroque pathos and chiaroscuro with a classical composition. The austere scenes (finished 1715 ) of the
Life of Saint Joseph and of the Death of St. Joseph that decorate the chapel of St. Lucy in
Narni Cathedral contrast with the more sensuous and colourful
Flight into Egypt (Dresden,
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), which looks forward to François Boucher, and Joseph Sold by his Brethren ( 1714; Melbourne,
National Gallery of Victoria), which echoes Lauri. Trevisani's art is very different from Maratta's strict adherence to the style of
Raphael, a tradition upheld by such contemporary Roman artists as
Andrea Procaccini. In fact it has closer parallels with the art of
Benedetto Luti and
Marcantonio Franceschini.
Late works, 1720–46 In Trevisani's late works there are no substantial changes in style. Some of his portraits, such as Prince
James Francis Edward Stuart (Edinburgh,
Holyrood Palace,
Royal Collection), are distinguished by a new formality, while a more intimate tone was used for portraits of other members of the
Jacobean court visiting Rome, such as the portraits of
David Murray, 6th Viscount of Stormont and James Murray, Titular Earl of Dunbar (both
Scone Palace, Tayside). Such intimacy is rarely found in Trevisani's female portraits, which are graceful and elegant but often rather conventional in treatment, as in the portrait of Marjorie Murray (Scone Palace, Tayside). In his religious paintings Trevisani's compositions tend to be simpler and more restrained and space is defined by the positioning of a few sparse figures. Such paintings as the
Vision of St. Anthony of Padua (c. 1721–4; Rome,
Santissime Stimmate di San Francesco), the
Immaculate Conception with St. Louis of France and the Blessed Amadeus of Savoy (1724;
University of Turin, Aula Magna), commissioned by Filippo Juvarra for the chapel at the
Palace of Venaria,
Victor Amadeus II’s hunting-lodge outside Turin, and the
St. Turibius (1726; Rome,
Sant'Anastasia) amply document this last phase of the painter's activity. To the same period belong the cartoons for the mosaics in the Baptismal of
St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. This project was begun by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, and passed to Trevisani on Gaulli's death in 1709. Trevisani worked on it intermittently from 1710, but with increasing intensity in the 1730s and 1740s. The cartoons (Rome, St Peter's, Loggia delle Benedizioni), of scenes of
Baptism , attain an unexpected grandeur through the use of radically simplified, powerful figures. The effects of chiaroscuro strongly suggest the renewed influence of Solimena, and at the same time echo the Baroque art of Lanfranco and
Luca Giordano. Here the exquisite refinement of Trevisani's early work yields to a new monumentality, although the modelli for the
Four Continents of the World (c. 1709; Rome, Palazzo Barberini) remain subtle and evocative. The mosaics from this design were executed by
Giuseppe Ottaviani, Liborio Fattori and
Giovanni Battista Brughi (1660–1730). In Trevisani's last altarpieces we find little innovation: his
St. Matthew Resuscitating the Son of the King of Ethiopia (after 1730; Pisa) is a magniloquent and original painting, but the Miracle of St. Anthony of Padua (1734; Venice, San Rocco) reuses earlier ideas, as does the
Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (c. 1735;
San Filippo Neri, Turin) and the
Family of Darius before Alexander (1735), commissioned by Juvarra for the throne room at
Real Sitio de San Ildefonso. Here Trevisani, at the height of his success, was occupied on a decorative scheme that included works by
Sebastiano Conca, Francesco Imperiali,
Placido Costanzi,
Donato Creti,
Giambattista Pittoni, Solimena and
Charles-André van Loo. In the
Family of Darius he returned to a subject treated by Veronese and handles it with a felicitous classicizing touch, in the manner of
Charles Le Brun. Trevisani died in Rome in 1746. Among his pupils were
Francesco Civalli of Perugia, Cav.
Lodovico Mazzanti, and Giovanni Batista Bruglii. ==Works==