T. Pignatti Biography
Terisio Pignatti (1920 - 2004) was born in Quistello (Mantua) on 19.9.1920, but has always lived in Venice. Graduated in law in Pavia (1943) and in literature (1947) in Padua, he joined the Venetian Civic Museums in 1945, where he spent his entire career, leaving in 1974 as Director. In 1968 he began university teaching first in Padua and then in Venice, where he created a philological school with numerous students. Since 1971 he has also taught in the Venice section of Wake Forest University (North Carolina), from which he received his doctorate in Fine Arts in 1976. He has also been a visiting professor at Berkeley (1966) and Harvard (1981). A full member of the Ateneo Veneto and the Istituto Veneto di Sceinze, Lettere ed Arti, he has also been an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cambridge) since 1989. The prof's commitment has been continuous. Pignatti for the protection of Venice after 1966, in which he offered his advice to various foreign committees for the restoration of artistic assets. Frequent stays abroad have broadened his notoriety as a connoisseur of Venetian art. He was in fact called to organize exhibitions of Venetian Drawings in the United States (1963, 1974), in England (1965) and in Holland (1964); he directed the exhibition "The Golden Age of Venetian Painting" in Los Angeles (1979) and collaborated on the "Genius of Venice" in London (1985) and "Paolo Veronese" in Washington (1988). In addition to numerous articles in specialized magazines, his monographs cover the entire range of Venetian art: Tiepolo (1951), Lotto (1953), Carpaccio (1958), Canaletto (1958 and 1979), Longhi (1968), Giorgione ( 1969 and 1998), Bellini (1989), Veronese (1976 and 1990), Mantegna (1978), Titian (1974 and 1979). He is considered one of the greatest specialists in Venetian graphics for his volumes on the etchings of Tiepolo (1965), and on the drawings of Guardi (1967), Canaletto (1969), Carpaccio (1972), Tiepolo (1974) and Titian (1979). .
