Francesco FIDANZA

Italian painter Francesco Fidanza, born in Rome by some, in Città di Castello by others, is the eldest son of Filippo and the brother of Giuseppe, both painters. Fidanza is best known for his landscapes and seascapes, which enjoyed great success in Italy and Paris. At the end of the century, he moved to the French capital, where he was strongly influenced by Vernet and Lacroix de Marseille. This assumption influenced the impeccable formal elaboration of his production, characterized by the surpassing of classical landscape by anticipating Enlightenment and Romantic taste solutions. He exhibited a number of landscapes at the 1801 Salon - Temps de neige, Clair de lune - and at the 1804 Salon - Una nevicata- , now housed in Milan's Galleria d'Arte Moderna. Back in Italy, he spent the last decade of his life in Milan, where he obtained the protection of Viceroy Eugéne de Beauharnais, to whom he sent four Paesetti, which he painted and worked on for the Marquis Melzi d'Eril. The Beauharnais protection offered Fidanza the commission for views of the “principal ports of the Kingdom”: the Viceroy's intention was to have a visual documentation similar to that achieved by C.J. Vernet, with the series of 15 ports, produced for the French King Louis XV. Fidanza didn't complete the project, painting just six views that are now housed in several Lombardy museums. In 1780, he opened a studio in Paris, welcoming numerous painters.