Fyodor Bruni

Fedele Giovanni Baroffi Bruni, russified as Fyodor Antonovich Bruni At the age of ten, he was enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with Alexei Yegorov, Andrey Ivanovich Ivanov and Vasily Shebuyev. He graduated in 1818 with the title "Artist Class XIV". Returning to Rome for a third time from 1841 to 1845, he produced twenty-five sketches that would be the basis for frescoes at Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Some of the frescoes were executed by Bruni himself, others by various artists under his direction. The work was completed in 1853, and the originals are now stored at the Russian Museum.

As he grew older, however, he became reclusive, even distancing himself from his own students and disappearing for weeks at a time. In his efforts to sustain the academic tradition, he began to openly express his dislike for younger artists and was forced to resign in 1871 because of his behaviour. By the time of his death, he was an honorary Professor at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

Paintings