Antonio Luigi Giovanni Beni (19 January 1866 – 30 December 1941) KSS was an Italian painter and architect, exponent of the neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance movement.

Life

Born in 1866 in San Giacomo di Musestrelle, near

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

, Antonio Beni became famous in the city for his eclectic works, which oscillate between the

Byzantine style Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the ...

and a

pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

puritanism, supported by a profound inspiration of faith. He had studied with painters

Pompeo Marino Molmenti Pompeo Marino Molmenti (8 November 1819 in Villanova in Motta di Livenza – 17 December 1894 in Venice) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born in Friuli to Francesco Molmenti, an engineer of comfortable means, who had followed his older ...

and

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono bega ...

in the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, and with

Pietro Saccardo Pietro Saccardo (September 28, 1830 in Venice – November 19, 1903 in Chirignago-Zelarino, Chirignago) was an Italian architect. He was born and resided in Venice. Architectural works Among his works from 1881 are restorations of Villa Pisani ...

who was ''proto'' or architect of the

St Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica (; ), is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cath ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. Author of important frescoes and churches as an architect, has enriched numerous churches and chapels in the dioceses of Treviso,

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

and

with his works. His most prestigious work is the fresco the apse of the

Treviso Cathedral Treviso Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Treviso, Veneto, northern Italy, dedicated to Saint Peter. It is the seat of the bishop of Treviso. History The church originates from the 6th century and stands in an area where during the An ...

. In addition to the design of numerous churches, he was the creator of many paintings owned by public museums or private collectors in Italy and in other countries.E. Brunello-R. Padovan: “Arte e fede. Antonio Beni un pittore ritrovato” Treviso, 2007

References

1866 births 1941 deaths Artists from Treviso 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian architects 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-19thC-stub