Benigno Bossi (1727–1792) was an Italian engraver, painter, and stucco artist.

Life

He was born at

Arcisate Arcisate is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Varese, in the Italian region of Lombardy. The celebrated Arcisate Treasure of Roman silverware was found in the town in the nineteenth century. It is now in the British Museum The ...

Benigno Bossi
, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971) near

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. He was intended to have studied painting under

Pompeo Batoni Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous Allegory, allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign vis ...

, but that artist's death prevented it, and he was advised by

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...

and

Dietrich Dietrich () is an ancient German name meaning "ruler of the people", but also "keeper of the keys" or "lockpick" (either the tool or the profession). Given name * Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg (c. 1398–1440) * Thierry of Alsace (; 1099–1168), ...

to apply himself to engraving. He stayed for a time in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

and

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, but during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

he had to leave

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, and went in 1760 to

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

where he found patronage by the duke.Bryan 1886 He died in Parma on 4 November 1792. Some sources appear to misspell his name as Benigno Rossi.

Prints

He engraved the following prints: # ''Self-portrait''. # A ''Presentation in the Temple'' (1755). # Forty small etchings of Heads, and other subjects. # A ''Mascarade à la Grecque'' and a ''Suite des Vases'' after

Ennemond Alexandre Petitot Ennemond Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801) was a French-born architect, mainly active in the Duchy of Parma. Biography He was born in Lyon in 1727, and by 1741, he had joined the studio of the architect Jacques Soufflot. From there he moved to study ...

. # Four of ''Trophies '' (1771). # Four of the ''Attributes of the Seasons'' (1770). # Two of children. # Allegorical figures representing the Towns in

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. # A set of 29 plates after the drawings of

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, ...

References

Bibliography

* 1727 births 1792 deaths 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 19th-century Italian painters Italian painters of animals Painters from Milan 19th-century Italian male artists 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-18thC-stub