GIUSEPPE NOGARI 1699-1763

Oil painting on canvas depicting the portrait of a grey-haired woman. Executed by Giuseppe Nogari, Venice 1699-1763.

With regard to Giuseppe Nogari's training, historical sources agree in considering him a pupil of Antonio Balestra, noting that as long as he remained at his school, 'he never gave signs of that egregious, tender, mellow, vague and natural manner, which he later formed himself' (Orlandi - Guarienti, 1753, p. 235). This training is presumed to have continued until 1718 and was later refined with Piazzetta, while his registration at the Fraglia dei pittori veneziani in 1726 marks the beginning of his professional autonomy. The canvas under examination expresses the first manner of the artist, whose fame among his contemporaries is due to his peculiar talent in creating heads of character following the examples of Piazzetta and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, without neglecting the influence of Dutch models, especially Rembrandt's, which also characterised some of Maggiotto's works. According to Guarienti, it was the Milanese marquis Ottavio Casnedi who supported this attitude. Casnedi was 'very knowledgeable about the art, and having observed in Nogari a certain spirit and grace in making half-figures, he commissioned him to make several, about each of which, having told him his opinion and given him useful warnings, he took so much advantage of them that in a short time, with his new singular manner, he rose to a distinguished degree of reputation' (Orlandi - Guarienti, 1753).

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