Mauro Antonio Tesi (; January 15, 1730 – July 18, 1766), or, as he is sometimes called, after the name given him by his patron and admirer,

Francesco Algarotti Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera. He w ...

, "Il Maurino", was an Italian painter of the late-

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

period, active mainly in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. He is also considered an early proponent of the

Neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of the most promin ...

Biography

He was born in Montalbano near

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

. He was largely self-taught and worked as both a decorative and an

architectural painter Architectural painting (also Architecture painting) is a form of genre painting where the predominant focus lies on architecture, including both outdoor and interior views. While architecture was present in many of the earliest paintings and illum ...

in churches and both public and private buildings in Bologna and Florence. In 1764, he completed the nave ceiling frescoes for the small church of San Leone, Pistoia. He travelled with and illustrated the works of his compagnon Algarotti and designed the funeral monument on the Campo Santo in Pisa.Engraving in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

br>
/ref> One of his pupils was Valentino Baldi. He died in Bologna two years after Algarotti, it is said also by

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

Works

Two of his paintings can be seen in the

Residenzschloss Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg Palace, nicknamed the "Palace of Versailles, Versailles of Swabia", is a 452-room palace complex of 18 buildings located in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its total area, including the gardens, is the largest palatial es ...

Sources

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesi, Mauro Antonio 1730 births 1766 deaths Artists from the Province of Modena 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian Baroque painters 18th-century Italian male artists Artists from the Papal States