Fyodor Bruni

Fyodor Bruni
File:Bruni FA.jpg Portrait photograph by Andrey Denyer, c. 1865
Born	Fidelio Bruni (1799-06-10)10 June 1799 Milan
Died	30 August 1875(1875-08-30) (aged 76) Saint Petersburg
Resting place	Tikhvin Cemetery, Saint Petersburg
Education	Vasily Shebuyev, Alexei Yegorov, Andrey Ivanov
Alma mater	Imperial Academy of Arts (1818)
Known for	History painting
Notable work	The Brazen Serpent, 1833–1841
Spouse	Angelica Serni ​ (m. 1835)​
Children	5
Elected	Member Academy of Arts (1834) Professor by rank (1836)

Fedele Giovanni Baroffi Bruni, russified as Fyodor Antonovich Bruni (10 June 1799 – 30 August 1875) was a Russian painter and draughtsman of Swiss Italian descent, active during the Romantic period, best known for his history paintings. Along with his contemporaries Karl Bryullov and Alexander Ivanov, Bruni is considered among the most important Russian artisans during Tsar Nicholas I's reign.

Biography

His father, Antonio, was a Swiss Italian painter and art restorer who relocated to Russia in 1800 to work on a project at Saint Michael's Castle for Tsar Paul I. At the age of ten, he was enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with Alexei Yegorov, Andrey Ivanovich Ivanov and Vasily Shebuyev. He graduated in 1818 with the title "Artist Class XIV".

File:Портрет художника Федора Антоновича Бруни.jpg

Apolinary Horawski, Fyodor Bruni, 1871, oil on canvas; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

His father, believing that a Russian art education was insufficient, sent him for further studies in Italy. At the age of twenty-two, he created his first large-scale work ("The Death of Camilla"), which was exhibited in the Capitol. Ten years later, when the painting was shown in Saint Petersburg for the first time, it earned him the title of Academician. In the early 1830s, he began a monumental painting of "The Brazen Serpent", but before its completion, he was recalled to Saint Petersburg to work on a project at Saint Isaac's Cathedral and teach at the Academy. He arrived in 1836 and produced several works for the Kazan Cathedral as well. Mikhail Botkin and Arseny Meshchersky were among his first students at the Academy.

In 1838, he was able to return to Rome to finish his work on "The Brazen Serpent". Two years later, it was completed and moved to Saint Petersburg, where it was exhibited in one of the halls of the newly restored Winter Palace. It is now the largest canvas on display at the Russian Museum. Returning to Rome for a third time from 1841 to 1845, he produced twenty-five sketches that would be the basis for frescoes at Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Some of the frescoes were executed by Bruni himself, others by various artists under his direction. The work was completed in 1853, and the originals are now stored at the Russian Museum.

In 1849, he became the custodian of the gallery at the Hermitage Museum and was sent abroad twice to acquire paintings for the collection there. Six years later, he became Rector of the Department of Sculpture and Painting at the Academy.

As he grew older, however, he became reclusive, even distancing himself from his own students and disappearing for weeks at a time. In his efforts to sustain the academic tradition, he began to openly express his dislike for younger artists and was forced to resign in 1871 because of his behaviour. By the time of his death, he was an honorary Professor at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

Paintings

• The Brazen Serpent (1840)
  The Brazen Serpent (1840)
• Death of Camilla (1824)
  Death of Camilla (1824)
• Bacchante Plying a Cupid with Wine (1828)
  Bacchante Plying a Cupid with Wine (1828)
• Self-portrait (1810)
  Self-portrait (1810)
• Head of Christ wearing a crown of thorns
  Head of Christ wearing a crown of thorns
• Head of the Madonna (1840)
  Head of the Madonna (1840)
• The Virgin and Child (1858)
  The Virgin and Child (1858)
• The Virgin and Child in Roses (1843)
  The Virgin and Child in Roses (1843)

Further reading

General studies

Reference books

External links

Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Fyodor Bruni at the Russian Academy of Arts' official website (in Russian)