Mauro Antonio Tesi
(Montalbano 1730 – 1766 Bologna)

Design for a corner of a ceiling painting.

Pen, brown ink and brown wash on paper; mounted; 196 x 258mm

Mauro Antonio Tesi was an Italian painter, engraver and architect. He was largely self taught and worked as both a decorative and an architectural painter in Bologna, Pistoia and Florence. He was a friend of Francesco Algarotti (1712-1764), who saws in him the restorer of the noble taste of architectural painting. Tesi became one of the greatest Emilian quadraturists of the eighteenth century, cultivating the architectural decoration of the great noble palaces.

Literature: Anna Matteucci – I decoratori di formazione bolognese tra Settecento e Ottocento. Da Mauro Tesi ad Antonio Basoli. Mondadori, 2002.

Provenance: private collection

EUR 1400,-