Francesco Londonio Biography
Francesco Londonio (Milan, 1723 – Milan, 1783) was an Italian painter. Francesco Londonio was born in 1723 in Milan. He was a pupil of Ferdinando Porta and Giovanni Battista Sassi, assimilating the elegant style in painting from his masters, later also traveling to Rome and Naples. He is still remembered today for having been among the most industrious artists in the eighteenth century for private Milanese families. He was in fact a talented portraitist not only for the houses of the ancient aristocracy (the Borromeo, for example), but also for the new nobility, the one made up of entrepreneurs such as the Greppi, the Tanzi or the Mellerio. He also studied the art of engraving with Benigno Bossi from Varese and created 44 etchings between 1759 and 1782 with rural and country scenes as their subject, a repertoire of tasty snapshots of eighteenth-century peasant life, all accompanied by a slightly Arcadian. Twelve of these were dedicated to Count Firmian, governor of the Duchy of Milan. His greatest work, and also the most curious, is certainly represented by a nativity scene composed of around thirty wooden figures made from wooden boards and then painted, created in 1750 for the Church of San Marco in Milan. After this work, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria entrusted him with the role of set designer at the Teatro alla Scala when the latter was completed. A further nativity scene on paper, known to critics but never published, became part of the Diocesan Museum of Milan thanks to the donation of Anna Maria Bagatti Valsecchi and was exhibited for the first time on the occasion of Christmas 2018 at Palazzo Pirelli. Made up of around sixty figures on paper or cardboard, it was created to be set up during the Christmas holidays at the Villa del Gernetto, owned by Count Giacomo Mellerio (1711 - 1782), who hosted the painter on long holidays there.
