Bartolomeo Nazari

Bartolomeo Nazari, self-portrait

Bartolomeo Nazari (31 May 1693 – 24 August 1758) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque, mainly active in Venice as a portraitist.

Biography

Born in Clusone, near Bergamo. By 1716, he had become an apprentice under Angelo Trevisani, but visited in 1723 the Roman studio of Angelo's brother, the Venetian Francesco Trevisani, and then also studied with Benedetto Luti. Nazari likely knew personally Fra Galgario, the renowned portraitist from Bergamo, and is described by some as a pupil. He returned to Venice in 1724, and was registered with the Fraglia dei Pittori by 1726. In 1744, he travelled to Frankfurt to paint the emperor Charles VII and his family and other members of the court. In 1756, he was inducted into the newly founded Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice. His son Nazario Nazari was also a painter, as was his daughter Maria. Among his patrons were Consul Joseph Smith and the former general Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (who owned over eight diverse portrait paintings). He painted the portraits of a number of operatic singers including Farinelli. He died in Milan, returning from Genoa, where he had painted the Doge.

Works

• 
  Portrait of Farinelli (Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi)(1705-1782)
• 
  Gian Rinaldo Carli Ca' Rezzonico Venice
• 
  Samuel Egerton Ca' Rezzonico Venice
• 
  Old man in an eastern attire
• 
  Faustina Bordoni
• 
  Angelo Maria Quirini

Sources

• The Nazari-A Forgotten Family of Venetian Portrait Painters, F.J.B. Watson. The Burlington Magazine (1949); page 75-79.

• Boni, Filippo de' (1852). Biografia degli artisti ovvero dizionario della vita e delle opere dei pittori, degli scultori, degli intagliatori, dei tipografi e dei musici di ogni nazione che fiorirono da'tempi più remoti sino á nostri giorni. Seconda Edizione.. Venice; Googlebooks: Presso Andrea Santini e Figlio. p. 700.