Antonio Bellucci

Antonio
Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Antonio Bellucci (19 February 1654 – 29 August 1726) was an Italian soldier who became a painter of the Rococo period and was best known for his work in England, Germany, and Austria. He was one of the many Venetian-trained artists of his time, including Ricci, Tiepolo, Amigoni, and others, who sought commissions north of Italy, providing patrons with the then-popular Italianate grand-manner frescoes for private palaces.

Born and died in Pieve di Soligo. He initially trained with Domenico Difnico in Sebenico (Šibenik) in Venetian Dalmatia (now part of Croatia). By 1675, he was working in Venice, painting St Lorenzo Giustiniani praying for the city’s deliverance from the plague of 1447 (c. 1691) for the church of San Pietro di Castello. He painted a Nativity for the church of the Ascension at Venice. Several of the landscapes of Antonio Tempesta are enriched with figures by Bellucci.

Among his pupils were Antonio Balestra and perhaps Jacopo Amigoni.

In 1692, he completed four altarpieces depicting various saints for the church of

for Charles VI.

From 1705 to 1716, he travelled to

From 1716 to 1722, Bellucci worked in England, where he fulfilled several commissions for

, are attributed to him. [3] There is an almost Romantic self-portrait of Belluci, shirt open, at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.^[4] The reproduction here does not legibly show that on his breast is written the word 'pictor' (painter), perhaps indicating that to be an artist was his heart's desire. He returned to his native country late in life, and died in Soligo.

• The King's Sick Son (c.1700) Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel)

• 
  Portrait of Procurator, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
• 
  The Rape of Europa, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
• 
  Ascension of Jesus Christ, Great Witley Church, Worcestershire

• Grove Encyclopedia biography on Artnet
• Ticozzi, Stefano (1830). Dizionario degli architetti, scultori, pittori, intagliatori in rame ed in pietra, coniatori di medaglie, musaicisti, niellatori, intarsiatori d'ogni etá e d'ogni nazione' (Volume 1). Milan: Gaetano Schiepatti. p. 139.