Felice Giani Self-portrait before 1823 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani (1758-1823) strongly supported Napoleon's conquest of Europe and flourished under his Empire. According to a profile provided by the Getty, "his team of artists and craftsmen decorated palaces and public buildings throughout Italy, including Rome, Venice, and Faenza. Sumptuous and richly colored, Giani's distinctive Neoclassical style combined a wealth of antique ornament with wall and ceiling paintings depicting subjects from ancient Greece and Rome . . . he absorbed influences ranging from ancient Greek and Roman art to Michelangelo's and Raphael's Renaissance classicism and the Romantic classicism of contemporaries such as Johann Heinrich Fuseli. . . . Participating in revolutionary and pro-French causes brought Giani commissions and honors. He collaborated on decorations for Napoleon's triumphal entry into Bologna in 1805. From 1812 to 1813 he worked in France at Napoleon's request, decorating rooms in the Palais de Tuileries and the Château Malmaison. In 1811 he entered the Roman Accademia di San Luca, and in 1819 he was elected to the Congregation of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon."
Felice Giani Design for wall decoration, Pompeian Room, Palazzo Altieri, Rome 1792 drawing, watercolor Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Above - Putti making music after Lodovico Carracci Below - Entombment after Lucio Massari ca. 1820-21 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Dosso Dossi - St George and the Dragon ca. 1821-22 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Lodovico Carracci - Madonna and Child 1815 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Lodovico Carracci - St Anthony and the Hermits 1809-1818 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Studies after Carracci frescoes - Four Herms ca. 1821-22 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Studies after Carracci frescoes - Three Herms ca. 1821-22 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Peter Paul Rubens - Four figures on clouds ca. 1813-18 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Peter Paul Rubens - Two Lion-heads ca. 1813-18 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study of four statues by Michelangelo on the Tomb of Pope Julius II ca. 1821-22 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Giulio Romano and Raphael - Godfrey de Bouillon ca. 1820 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Study after Raphael - Group with Petrarch and Sappho from Parnassus fresco ca. 1820 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Felice Giani Artist drawing by lamplight ca. 1800-1820 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |