Giovanni Battista Rezzonico (1 June 1740 – 23 February 1785) was an Italian

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Life

He was born in

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 ...

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

, son of Aurelio Rezzonico, 3rd

Baron of the Holy Roman Empire (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in i ...

(Venice, 12 January 1692 - 1759), and wife (1721) Anna Giustiniani (1702? - ?). His four siblings included Quintilia Rezzonico, wife in 1741 of Ludovico Widmann (1719 - 1763), with issue (including Carlo Aurelio Widmann), Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico and Abbondio Rezzonico. He was the nephew of Pope

Clement XIII Pope Clement XIII (; ; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. He was installed on 16 July 1758. ...

(Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico or Carlo Rezzonico Senior) (1602–1680). His brother Carlo (1724–1799) was also a cardinal and Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals from 1769 to 1799. On 10 September 1770, he was named a cardinal by

Clement XIV Pope Clement XIV (; ; 31 October 1705 – 22 September 1774), born Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 May 1769 to his death in September 1774. At the time of his elec ...

and installed on 12 December 1770. He died as Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola in Carcere. He participated in the 1774–1775 papal conclave. In the 1760s, he engaged

Giovanni Battista Piranesi Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric " ...

to enhance the structure of Rome's Santa Maria del Priorato Church and its plaza, providing both with new decoration.

References

1740 births 1785 deaths Republic of Venice clergy 18th-century Italian cardinals {{italy-RC-cardinal-stub