Pietro Longhi (November 5, 1702 – May 8, 1785)

Pietro Longhi was an Italian painter and engraver in the technique of etching, a representative of the Venetian school of the Rococo era. His son, Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813) was a portrait painter and etcher.

Pietro was born in Venice, in the parish of Santa Margherita, into the family of silversmith Piero Falca. In the register of births he is recorded as Pietro Falca, and the origin of the surname Longhi is unknown, it appears only in documents related to his artistic activity. As his son Alessandro testified, he received his initial training in the workshop of Antonio Balestra, and then, on the recommendation of the latter, spent some time in Bologna as a student of Giuseppe Maria Crespi.

On 27 September 1732 he married Caterina Maria Rizzi in the Venetian church of San Pantalon, and on 12 June 1733 his first child, Alessandro, was born, followed by ten more children, of whom, however, only Maddalena Anna, born in 1738, and Antonia Lucia, born in 1741, reached adulthood. In this year, the historiographer of the Venetian school Antonio Maria Zanetti mentions Longhi’s altarpiece “Adoration of the Magi” in the Venetian church of Santa Maria Mater Domini, from where it disappeared at the beginning of the 19th century, and was recognized by Martini only in 1964, with some uncertainty in attribution, in the Venetian Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista.

In 1734 he completed the frescoes on the walls and ceiling of the staircase of Ca’ Sagredo in Santa Sofia, depicting the “Fall of the Giants”, in which Bolognese influences have been detected, leading to the hypothesis of the artist’s trip to Bologna around 1733. In 1737 Longhi joined the “Brotherhood of Venetian Painters” (Fraglia dei pittori veneziani) and remained a member until 1773, and from 1740 he settled with Leonardo Emo in the parish of San Pantalone, in the building where he lived for the rest of his life.

On 31 December 1756, Pietro Longhi was admitted to the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts, directed by Tiepolo, and presented as his qualifying work the painting “Pythagoras the Philosopher”, which is now kept in the Galleria dell’Accademia, and taught at the Academy until 1780. In 1766, he became an honorary member. In 1763, Longhi directed the Academy of Drawing and Carving (l’Accademia di disegno e intaglio), founded by the Pisani family, which was closed in 1766.

His work as a portrait painter became increasingly important, in which his son Alessandro also took part. In 1779, Pietro Longhi took part in the election of Antonio Canova to the Venetian Academy; on 8 May 1785, after a ten-day illness, he died of chest pains.