Felice Giani Biography
Giani Felice (San Sebastiano Curone 1758 – Rome 1823) was an Italian painter, interior decorator, famous exponent of neoclassicism.
During his studies in Pavia and Bologna, he demonstrated great artistic abilities which allowed him to quickly gain satisfaction. In 1780 he moved to Rome where he participated in the decoration of Palazzo Altieri and met Cristoforo Unterperger, with whom he collaborated on the reproduction of the decorations of the Raphael Loggias in the Vatican intended for Tsarina Catherine II of Russia.
In 1784 he obtained second prize in a drawing competition organized by the Academy of Parma, where the young Francisco Goya also competed. In 1786 he moved to Faenza to decorate the Gallery of the Conti-Sinibaldi Palace and the Galleria dei Cento Pacifici, receiving the following year the nomination of honorary member of the Accademia Clementina of Bologna.
Later, he completed his training with a trip to Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum, and returning to Faenza he worked at the Gallery of Palazzo Laderchi and Palazzo Milzetti. In 1803 he was called to Paris to decorate the Napoleonic Cabinets at the Malmaison and in the following years he received many commissions in various Italian cities of art, including Bologna, Rome, Venice and Ferrara.
In 1811, he was appointed academician at the Accademia di San Luca in Bologna and in 1819 he received the nomination as a member of the Accademia dei Virtuosi al Pantheon. Despite his reputation as a restless artist, Giani Felice has always taught giving space to his students' improvisation, remaining faithful to his bizarre and ironic style which he shares with the great 19th century painters such as Delacroix, Johann Heinrich Füssli and Goya.
His career ended tragically in Rome, where he died falling from a horse.
