Italian painter, active also in Germany and Central Europe. He trained either with Francesco Trevisani or with Sebastiano Conca. He was a protégé of Cardinal Alessandro Albani, and his early activity was centred in Rome, where he executed three canvases for St Catherine, Prague (one, St Augustine, in situ; two untraced), and the main altarpiece for S Apollonia, Rome (untraced). His Canonization of St Camillo de Lellis (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome) dates from 1746. His frescoes included those in the hospital of the Santo Spirito in Sassia (1742; destroyed); History Commands Time to Reveal the Truth (1746; Palazzo Corsini, Rome), commissioned by Cardinal Neri Corsini to decorate the history section of the Biblioteca Corsiniana in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome; the vault fresco, St Giovanni de Matha in Glory (1744-8), in Santa Trinità degli Spagnoli, Rome, and frescoes in the refectory of San Agostino, Rome, 1750-51; in situ). In these first documented works the use of warm, luminous colours and strongly modelled figures within a naturalistic composition demonstrates the artist's desire to unite the late Baroque of Conca with the developing classicism of Pierre Subleyras and Marco Benefial. In 1753 he was in Dresden, the following year in Vienna, where he painted the Allegory of the Four Faculties at the University (1755). After returning to Rome and stay in Turin, he worked again in Vienna (1760-1762), painting one of his major works, the frescoed ceiling of the small and the great gallery of Schönbrunn Palace. This illustrates the Austrian Provinces bringing their tribute to the Empire, Military Life and Benefits of Peace. Three sketches, light and colourful, for this set, is in the Louvre. The artist then returned to Rome, then left for Berlin (1763-64), where he decorated the university. He then worked in Turin (1765-1766), the royal palace, where he painted the Four Parts of the World, and the Palazzo del Duca di Genova (Palazzo Chiablese), then in Bergamo (2 paintings in the Colleoni Chapel). Called again in Germany , he lived in Augsburg (1766-1767), painting the ceiling of the hall of the Schaezler palace (now museum). He was commissioned by Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland to paint the Four Parts of the World (National Museum, Warsaw) and three sketches for the Apollo Gallery at the Palace Ujazdow, now in the Museum of Nancy. But instead of traveling to Poland, he entered the service of Catherine the Great (1769) and spent, with the exception of a short trip to Paris, the last years of his life in St. Petersburg. In his best works he demonstrated an exceptional brilliance as a decorator. //