Alessandro Marchesini

Alessandro Marchesini (30 April 1664 – 27 January 1738) was an Italian painter and art merchant of the late-Baroque and Rococo, active in Northern Italy and Venice.

Biography Alessandro Marchesini was born in Verona. He first trained in Verona with Biagio Falcieri and then with Antonio Calza. He then moved to Bologna, to work in the studio of Carlo Cignani. He is described as gaining fame for his allegories with small figures. In 1700 Marchesini moved to Venice, where he painted two works for San Silvestro. He remained in Venice until 1737 and specialized in making small-scale copies of works by the Old Masters to decorate private houses, thereby imitating a wide variety of styles.

His most memorable independent works are the two paintings of Christ Blessing the Little Children (1708; Bologna, priv. col.), which attain the light elegance of the Emilian late Baroque. His later Triumph of Apollo (after 1720; Pommersfelden, Schloss Weißenstein) reveals, in its radiant colours and the airiness of its composition, his development of an international Rococo style. Marchesini was also active as an agent and adviser, notably to the Lucchese art collector Stefano Conti, who in 1725 acquired four paintings by Canaletto on Marchesini’s recommendation. Among his pupils is Carlo Salis.