'Domenico Corvi' (
1721 -
1803) was a prominent
Italian painter at the close of the 18th century, active in an early
Neoclassic style in Rome and surrounding sites.
Born in
Viterbo and died in
Rome. After some early works in Viterbo and
Palestrina, Corvi moved on to Rome to work under
Francesco Mancini. He worked in a Roman mileu where late-
Rococo of
Pompeo Batoni and the incipient
Neoclassicism of
Anton Raphael Mengs coexisted, and fashioned a style in between. His first major set of independent works in Rome are a series of canvases (completed in 1758 and currently in
Vedana, commissioned by the Cardinal Domenico Amedeo Orsini and including the altarpiece of ''St. Michael Archangel'' for the church of
Trinità dei Monti. In 1756, along with
Vincenzo Strigelli and
Anton Angelo Falaschi, he frescoed the Viterbese ''Oratorio del Gonfalone''. The patronage of the Antonelli family gains him the commission for three altarpieces (1754 and 1756) for the church of
Senigallia. He also painted for the church of Saint Marcello and a series of historical canvases for Palazzo Barberini. Corvi frescoed ceilings for the
Palazzo Doria Pamphili and
Borghese between 1770-78. In the Borghese villa, he frescoed a ''Triumph of Apollo'' (1771) and an ''Aurora''(1782). Again for the Borghese family, he helped restore the capella Paolina in
Santa Maria Maggiore and the Loggia of Lanfranco in the casino. He also painted for the church of San Marco, and the
Palazzo dei Conservatori. From 1774-1778, he completed canvas cycle for the Swiss Abby of
Solothurn in
Soletta. Corvi joined the artists’
Accademia dell'Arcadia and helped found the . He painted ''The miracle of Saint Joseph Calasanz Resuscitating a Child in a Church at
Frascati'' for the order of
Piarists (Scolopi). The painting was made to conmemorate the canonization of the saint on July 16, 1767; and is now in the
Wadsworth Atheneum. The "Charity of St. Thomas of Villanova'' was painted in 1795 for the church of SS. Trinità of Viterbo.
References
★ ''Renaissance to Rococo; Masterpieces from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art''. Edited by Eric Zafran. (2004) Yale University Press. New Haven and London. pp90-91.
★ [http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=biografie&scheda=corvi