Italian painter and decorator. He has been forgotten for a long time, his discovery dates back to the mid-1960s. He had a pictorial training similar to that of other Venetian artists-designers impressed by the genius of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who influenced him greatly as a decorator and fresco painter. Urbani had a considerable reputation demonstrated by his activities between 1760 and 1763 at the Russian Court, where he worked together with a group of Italian artists. In Italy, he worked as a theatrical set designer and decorator, and devoting himself successfully to the fresco decoration of many villas commissioned by noble Venetian families. He worked also in Udine in the Cathedral and in some palaces in Venice and Padua. His long and prolific activity, characterized by frequent changes of style, was continued by his son Marino, who carried out between 1802 and 1803 the frescoes in the Palazzo Caiselli in Udine. //