Scenographers 18th century
Louis Carrogis, better known as Carmontelle was a French artist, garden designer, architect, playwright and inventor.
Carmontelle was of simple origins but versatilely gifted. He wrote several plays and three novels, and created portraits of historical figures. He became famous for his painting of little Mozart at the clavier. In the service of Louis-Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, he was responsible for the theatrical performances for the family as stage designer and stage director.
Carmontelle is the planner and designer of one of the earliest examples of a French landscape garden in Paris, now known as Parc Monceau. In designing the garden, Carmontel rejected many of the fashionable trends in landscape design at the time, drawing inspiration from Japanese pleasure gardens and insisting on incorporating illusion and fantasy.
Carmontelle is also credited as the inventor of animated images. Translucent tape with landscapes depicted on it was slowly rolled from one roll to another against a backdrop of daylight, thus creating the illusion of walking through a garden.
Gaspare Diziani was an Italian late Baroque and early Rococo painter, decorator, draftsman, and engraver.
He painted a series of canvases and murals for churches, and worked as a set designer for theaters and opera houses in Venice, Munich, and Dresden. His engravings illustrate the 1757 edition of The Divine Comedy.
Gaspare Diziani was one of the founders of the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.
Domenico Fossati was an Italian artist, painter, architect and stage designer of the second half of the 18th century.
Fossati studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. His works as a set designer and scenographer can be found in the theaters and palaces of Venice, Padua and other Italian cities, as well as at La Scala in Milan. Fossati's folios with his ink sketches of stage sets, details of rococo ornamentation, and drawings of fantastic creatures inhabiting an outlandish world have also survived.
Andrey Efimovich Martynov (Russian: Андрей Ефимович Мартынов) was a Russian painter and engraver, known for his landscapes and lithographs. Born in 1768 in St. Petersburg, he graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1788. Martynov studied landscape painting under Semion Shchedrin and further honed his skills in Italy from 1788 to 1794, under the influence of Jakob Philipp Hackert. His Italian landscapes were highly appreciated upon his return to Russia, leading to his appointment as an academician in 1795.
Martynov’s work is renowned for its idealized and panoramic views of nature. He traveled extensively, capturing the beauty of rural Russia, Siberia, and Mongolia in his watercolors and lithographs. His series "Views of Russia and Mongolia" and "Peoples Types of Russia and Mongolia" are particularly admired for their detail and artistic quality. Martynov was also the official artist of the Russian embassy to China in 1805, a role that further enriched his portfolio with diverse cultural landscapes.
In addition to painting, Martynov contributed significantly to the development of lithography in Russia. His works, including scenes from the Crimea, the Baltic States, and the Volga River, are preserved in various museums, such as the Russian Museum and the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts. Martynov’s legacy lies in his ability to blend classical composition with the celebration of natural beauty, making his works a valuable part of Russian art history.
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Alessandro Sanquirico was an Italian painter, scenographer, set designer and architect.
Sanquirico began his work as a decorator for festive celebrations in Milan. In addition to scenography, Sancuirico studied architecture and perspective with Giuseppe Piermarini, architect of the La Scala opera house. Between 1817 and 1832, Sanquirico was La Scala's chief scenic designer and skillfully used the neoclassical architectural style in his sets, as well as images of exotic locations. The scenography created by Sanquirico for La Scala reached a higher level than contemporary designs for opera houses in any other European country. For 15 years he was the sole scenographer, designing sets for productions of operas by Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Mozart, Meyerbeer and Pacini. In total, Sanquirico designed more than 300 productions for this theater, including many premieres.
Sanquirico also created several large-scale paintings of historical subjects, worked on the interior of Milan Cathedral and fulfilled other commissions from wealthy nobles.