Domenico Fedeli, Maggiotto (venice 1712-1794) Saint Francis Meditating Before The Crucifix

Domenico Fedeli, Maggiotto (Venice 1712-1794)
Saint Francis Meditating before the Crucifix
Oil on canvas 74.5 x 60 cm

This work is presented in a substantial period frame. This painting is a simplified version, that is, without the cherubs above the child behind the saint, of the painting by Domenico Maggiotto, known from the engraving by Leonardis (also reproduced by his son Francesco Maggiotto), which depicts the same figure, here representing Saint Girolamo Emiliani. See: https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/stampe/schede/H0450-89846/. Of modest origins, Domenico Fedeli attended the Venetian studio of the painter G.B. Piazzetta from the age of about ten, sharing apprenticeships and/or collaborations with Giulia Lama, Egidio dall'Oglio, Francesco Capella, Giuseppe Angeli and Antonio Marinetti, known as Chiozzotto. The artist never left Venice, a city where he continued to work at least until the 1990s, passing on to his son Francesco the vast repertoire of his subjects, inspired by the examples of Piazzetta, of whom he was one of the most important students. Fedeli's pictorial production can be divided into three periods: the first, "piazzettaesque" (1740-1754); that of the crisis of the Renewal, inspired by G. B. Tiepolo (1755-1765); and the last, marked by the revival of youth models (around 1765-1780).