(b ?Modena, c. 1725; d ?Venice, c. 1796). Italian painter, stage designer and draughtsman, active in Spain. He is thought to have first studied under Raffaello Rinaldi ( fl 1713–?1747), a local artist, and between 1747 and 1751 he was enrolled in the Fraglia Veneziana, where he met the most notable vedutisti. He painted vedute in Treviso and Brescia, and these views, engraved by Francisco Zucchi, were used to illustrate Baldassare Camillo Zamboni’s Memorie intorno alle pubbliche fabbriche (1778). In 1754 Battaglioli went to Madrid to work at the court of Ferdinand VI, where he painted theatre sets for the Reales Coliseos at the Palacio Real, Aranjuez, and at the Palacio Real, Madrid. He also worked for such patrons as the castrato Farinelli (1705–82), painting two vedute (1756; Madrid, Prado) depicting scenes at the royal court. Under Farinelli’s supervision he painted stage sets (1756; two in Madrid, Real Acad. S Fernando) for Pietro Metastasio’s opera La Nitteti. He illustrated the Descripción del estado actual del Real Teatro del Buen Retiro (1758; Madrid, Bib. Pal. Real, MS.) with 16 drawings. While in Spain he also painted four vedute (Centerport, NY, Vanderbilt Mus.) of the castle of Villaviciosa de Odón. After the death in 1759 of Ferdinand VI, there was a decline in theatrical performances, and in January 1760 Battaglioli was dismissed from his post. He returned to Italy (c. 1760) and was nominated a member of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice in 1772. In 1778 he succeeded Antonio Visentini as a professor of perspective at the Accademia, a position he held until 1789. The influence of Visentini and that of Michele Giovanni Marieschi is evident in such late works as View of a Seaport (1786) and Naval Battle (Venice, Doña delle Rose priv. col.).

• Battaglioli, Francesco
  • reproductive prints by others
    • Valesi, Dionigi
    • Zucchi
  • works
    • Bourbon, §II: (3) Ferdinand VI, King of Spain