By Anne Leader and Alexis Culotta
Painter, draughtsman, and printmaker Paolo Anesi was born 9 July 1697 in Rome. The son of a Venetian silk weaver, Anesi became one of the most important landscape painters active in Rome in the mid-eighteenth century.
He worked between Florence and Rome and specialized in landscape painting, favoring the incorporation of classical themes and ruins akin to the work of contemporary Giovanni Paolo Panini. He was also known to have collaborated with Andrea Lucatelli, a fellow landscape painter, while in Rome. He is also known for his prints series and his drawings, several of which are including in the Uffizi Gabinetto die Disegni.
Collectors greatly admired his ideal landscapes and views based on studies of the Roman countryside. He worked in fresco and oil on canvas, many of which were collected by British and French tourists and expats, who admired vedutistilike Anesi, Canaletto, and Francesco Guardi. Anesi’s success led to his induction on 8 January 1747 to the assembly of Virtuosi al Pantheon.
References:
Olivier Michel. “Anesi, Paolo.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
“Anesi, Paolo,” by Evelin Borea. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Vol. 3 (1961).
Landscape of Rome with the Ponte Sisto. Private Collection.
View of the Roman Countryside. Private Collection.
View of the Temple of Minvera Medica (Nymphaeum) and an Aqueduct. Private Collection.
Clavicord decorated by Paolo Anesi. Private Collection.