Pietro Benvenuti
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(b Arezzo, 8 Jan 1769; d Florence, 3 Feb
1844).
Italian painter. In 1781 he began his studies at the Accademia di
Belle Arti in Florence, where he was taught by such Neo-classical
painters as Giuseppe Piattoli (c. 1743–1823) and Sante Pacini ( fl
1762–90). He went to Rome in 1792 to continue his studies and while
there painted the Martyrdom of St Donatus (1794; Arezzo Cathedral)
for Bishop Marcacci of Arezzo. This work was one of his first
commissions and shows the influence of Baroque religious art. By the
time Marcacci commissioned him to paint Judith with the Head of
Holofernes (1803–4; Arezzo Cathedral), his style had developed under
the influence of Vincenzo Camuccini and Antonio Canova, artists who
dominated the Neo-classical movement in Rome. However, his crisp,
linear style of drawing shows a greater affinity to the work of the
Danish–German painter Asmus Jakob Carstens than to that of any
Italian. Canova was a close friend of Benvenuti’s and visited Arezzo
expressly to see Judith installed in the cathedral. An earlier
version of it (1798; Naples, Capodimonte), which was deemed
unsuitable, was sold to Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of
Bristol, one of Camuccini’s patrons. Benvenuti’s career flourished
during the years of French rule in Italy (1796–1814). In 1803 Elisa
Baciocchi (née Bonaparte), Grand Duchess of Tuscany and sister of
Napoleon, appointed him court painter and Director of the Accademia
in Florence; in the same year he was also elected a member of the
Accademia di S Luca in Rome. In 1804 he assumed his post in
Florence, although his departure from Rome was seen by Canova as a
great loss. In Florence he emphasized the formal qualities of
Neo-classical art rather than its deeper emotional or moral
significance. His precise technique was well suited to the
requirements of regal portraiture, as in Elisa Baciocchi and her
Court (1812–13; Versailles, Château), which includes Canova standing
beside his portrait bust of the Grand Duchess. The painting, with
its elegant composition and restrained colour, is influenced by the
work of such French Neo-classical painters resident in Florence as
François-Xavier Fabre.
