Pittoni was born in Venice on 6 June 1687. He studied under his uncle Francesco Pittoni, a well-known but undistinguished painter of the Venetian Baroque; a Samson and Delilah at the Villa Querini in Visinale, near Pasiano di Pordenone, is signed by both painters.[3][4]: 383 The theory of Rodolfo Pallucchini that Pittoni studied under Antonio Balestra is now generally discounted.[1]
Pittoni was unwilling to leave Venice and travelled little;[5][6] although he received many foreign commissions, no journey in connection with any of them is documented, while from 1720 onwards records show that he was in Venice in every year.[1] However, in 1720 he may have travelled to France with his uncle Francesco, together with Rosalba Carriera, Antonio Pellegrini and Anton Maria Zanetti. His change of style from a heavy Baroque to a lighter and more delicate Rococo manner dates from about this time; some older writers have attributed this change to an indirect French influence, perhaps through Pellegrini or through Sebastiano Ricci.[1]
Pittoni joined the Fraglia dei Pittori Veneziani, the Venetian guild of painters, in 1716.[7]: 104 From, probably, the same year until his death he was a member of the Collegio dei Pittori,[7]: 104 of which he became prior in 1729.[1] He was elected to the Accademia ClementinaofBologna in 1727.[2]: 28 In 1750 he was one of the forty-six founding members of the Veneta Pubblica Accademia di Pittura, Scultura e Architettura, which later became the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia; from 1758 to 1760 he succeeded Tiepolo as president of the academy, and was elected for a second term in 1763–64.[1][2]: 28
The catalogue raisonné by Franca Zava Boccazzi of Pittoni's paintings lists 247 extant and 117 lost, missing or destroyed works.[1][7] The catalogue raisonné by Alice Binion of his drawings includes 304 items.[1][8]: 91
He was also much in demand in Italy, and supplied altarpieces for churches in Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Padova, Verona and Vicenza. He was a skillful restorer of older paintings; he was often selected as restorer or inspector of the quadri pubblici, the state-owned paintings of the Serenissima. He sold nine paintings to the soldier-turned-collector Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, but also advised him both on art and on art restoration. Pittoni was successful, well liked and well respected.[1]
His reputation rapidly faded after his death, and by the end of the eighteenth century he was totally forgotten. Interest in him was revived in the twentieth century by the publications of Laura Coggiola Pittoni, beginning with Dei Pittoni, Artisti Veneti in 1907.[1][10]
^ abcdefghijklAlice Binion (n.d.). Pittoni, Giambattista. Grove Art Online / Oxford Art Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (subscription required).
Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi (annotated by P. Guarienti) (1753). Abecedario pittorico.
Alessandro Longhi (1762). Compendio delle vite de' pittori veneziani istorici più rinomati del presente secolo con suoi ritratti tratti dal naturale. Venezia: the author.
Laura Coggiola Pittoni (1921). G. B. Pittoni Firenze: Istituto di edizioni artistiche.
——— (1933) Pseudo influenza francese nell'arte di Giambattista Pittoni. Rivista di Venezia11: 399–412.
M. Goering (1934). Die Tätigkeit der Venezianer Maler Piazzetta und Pittoni für den Kurfürsten Clemens August von Köln. Westfalen: Hefte für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde19: 364–72.
Rodolfo Pallucchini (1945). I disegni di Giambattista Pittoni. [Padova]: Le Tre Venezie.
Klàra Garas (1969). Anton Kern (1710–1747). In: Kazimierz Michałowski, Jan Białostocki (eds.) (1969). Muzeum i twórca: Studia z historii sztuki i kultury ku czci Stanisława Lorentza. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo naukowe. p. 65–89.
Alice Binion (1970). From Schulenburgs Gallery and Records. ''Burlington Magazine112: 297–303.
Franca Zava Boccazzi (1974). Per il catalogo di Giambattista Pittoni: Proposte e inediti. Arte Veneta28: 179–204.
——— (1975). Nota sulla grafica di Antonio Kern. Arte Veneta29: 246–51.
——— (1975). Pitture mitologiche di Giambattista Pittoni in rapporto a Sebastiano Ricci. Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi su Sebastiano Ricci e il suo tempo1: 46–51.
Barbara Mazza (1976). La vicenda dei Tombeaux des princes: Matrici, storia e fortuna della serie Swiny tra Bologna e Venezia. Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte10: 79, 81-102, 141-151.
Franca Zava Boccazzi (1977). Due nuove micropitture di Giambattista Pittoni. In: [Maria Cionini Visani] (1977).Per Maria Cionini Visani: Scritti di amici. Torino: G. Canale. 118–21
Alice Binion (1981). Anton Kern in Venice. Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst32: 182–206.
——— (1981). Three New Mythological Paintings by Giambattista Pittoni. Burlington Magazine123: 96–99.
George Knox (1985). Piazzetta, Pittoni and Tiepolo at Parma. Arte Veneta39: 114–24.
Adriano Mariuz, Giuseppe Pavanello (1985). I primi affreschi di Giambattista Tiepolo. Arte Veneta39: 101–13.
Media related to Paintings by Giovanni Battista Pittoni at Wikimedia Commons
