Giuseppe Antonio Petrini Biography
Giuseppe Antonio Petrini was one of the most important artists of the 18th century Ticino, with an unmistakably original style among the highest expressions of the entire 18th century Lombardy.
Born in the Canton of Ticino in 1677, son of the sculptor Marco Antonio Petrini and Lucia Casella, he trained first at the Genoese school of Bartolomeo Guidobono and subsequently, perhaps, in Piedmont, the traditional workplace for Ticino artists, coming into contact with the the work of Solimena and the pictorial rationalism of Andrea Pozzo, as cited by CG Ratti in his work "On the lives of Genoese painters, sculptors and architects" (Genoa, 1769).
Petrini's first datable work dates back to 1703, the "Sant'Isidoro Agricola" in the parish church of Dubino. His works in Valtellina, including many canvases and frescoes, date back to his stay in the first decade of the eighteenth century thanks to the Perogalli family of Delebio. Among the works carried out on behalf of the parish priest of Dubino, Carlo Francesco Perogalli, are the "St. Peter the Apostle" (1704), the "St. John the Evangelist" (1707) and the great "Martyrdom of Gorcum", as well as the works for the Compagnia del Rosario di Delebio.
In the following years Petrini worked in Piedmont, Lombardy and Ticino, creating the "Madonna del Rosario" and the "Death of St. Joseph" in the altarpieces of the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Morbio Inferiore (1726) and various canvases and altarpieces altarpiece in the church of S. Antonio Abate in Lugano between 1715 and 1746. He also created the "Banner" (1711) for the church of Gentilino.
The cycle with the "Allegory of the Seasons", exhibited today at the Cantonale Museum of Lugano, dates back to the period around 1750 and is attributed to the Perogalli family. It marks a stylistic turning point towards the Rococo style, without however supplanting its austere traditional style.
This new direction can be found in many works between 1745 and 1752. Half-figures of saints, prophets, astronomers and philosophers emerge in cold colours, often placed in an unreal and abstract atmosphere, giving the new stylistic orientation a profound knowledge and great openness to contemporary artistic currents. Despite this, Petrini always maintains a tendency towards clarity and narrative simplification, remaining faithful to the characteristics of Lombard Barocchetto, less theatrical, capricious and worldly than international Rococo, even in its subjects.
The large altarpiece with the "Death of Saint Joseph" at the Collegiate Church of Sondrio is considered his masterpiece, dated 1755.
Giuseppe Antonio Petrini died in Carona, on an uncertain date between 1755 and 1759.
