Antonio Francesco Lodovico Joli (13 March 1700 – 29 April 1777) was an Italian painter of
vedute and
capricci.
Biography
Born in
Modena, he first was apprenticed to Rafaello Rinaldi. He then studied in Rome under
Giovanni Paolo Panini, and in the studios of the
Galli da Bibbiena family of scene-painters. He became a painter of stage sets in Modena and
Perugia. In 1732 he moved to
Venice, where he worked as stage-painter for opera productions at the
Teatro di San Giovanni Grisostomo and the
Teatro San Samuele of the
Grimani family. In 1742 he went to
Dresden, and then to London (1744–48) and
Madrid (1750–54).[1] In London, he decorated the Richmond mansion of
John James Heidegger, then the director of the
King's Theatre in the
Haymarket.[2] In 1749 Joli left London and went to Madrid where he was also involved in scene painting for the royal court, both at the Coliseo at Buen Retiro, the royal palace then just outside Madrid, and at the smaller opera house at the palace at Aranjuez. The opera performances for which he painted scenery were directed by Farinelli. He also made large-sized paintings of the Esquadra del Tajo, the fleet of royal barges and other vessels on the river Tajo at Aranjuez. Joli returned to Venice in 1754, where he became one of the 36 founding members of the
Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. He moved to the
Bourbon court of
Naples in 1761,[1] and died there on 29 April 1777.