Michele Marieschi

Michele Marieschi or Michele Giovanni Marieschi, also Michiel (1710 - 18 January 1744), was an Italian painter and engraver. He is mainly known for his landscapes and cityscapes (vedute), or views, mostly of Venice. He also created architectural paintings, which reveal his interest in stage design.

Biography

Marieschi was born in Venice in 1710 as the son of an engraver. He probably trained either with Gaspare Diziani, or Canaletto, or both. According to his biography in Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi's Abecedario Pittorico, published in Venice in 1753, he spent some time in Germany, where he may have worked as a stage designer. He returned to Venice by 1731, when he is recorded as a scene-painter, and in 1735 he worked on the "effects" for the funeral in Fano of Maria Clementina Sobieska, wife of the Old Pretender.

In 1741–42 Marieschi published a set of 21 prints of Venice, under the title of Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus; the title page featured a portrait of Marieschi by Angelo Trevisani.