The Life and Art of Francesco Maggiotto

Francesco Maggiotto was an Italian painter from Venice. Born in Venice, he was the son of Domenico Fedeli, with whom he shared the nickname "Maggiotto." In his early years, he was trained in the same style as his father. His early period was characterized by influences from Piazzetta, Pittoni, Tiepolo, and Zuccarelli. During this time, he painted La Pittura e la Natura, which was offered to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia and is currently stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia. While he imitated the style of Pietro Longhi, his work contained less irony and greater moralism.

As his career progressed, his style became more detached, leading to an increase in commissions regarding Mythology and Religion. In 1778, he painted a series of 168 small oil paintings on copper depicting ritratti di dogi, dogaresse, veneti patriarchi, cardinali e pontefici for the bibliophile Maffeo Pinelli. His later work adopted styles that anticipated neoclassicism, seen in his monochrome angels for the Scuola grande di San Giovanni Evangelista and paintings for the Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna. In 1771, he was appointed master of painting in the Venetian Academy, later becoming its president in 1790. His pupils included Francesco Hayez.

Scientific Pursuits and Discoveries

Beyond his work as a painter, Maggiotto engaged in scientific experiments, particularly in the field of physics and electricity. He built machines and wrote works regarding his experiences, including Saggj sopra l'attività della macchina elettrica costruita da Francesco Maggiotto ed alcuni riflessi attorno l'elettrico fluido and Considerazioni elettriche. He also invented and built telescopes and camerae obscurae. Due to his research, he was appointed a member of the Royal Society of London.

Maggiotto's work with electricity involved developing a machine capable of generating electric discharges through the triboelectric effect. He designed a model using a boxwood wheel with fixed crystals that rubbed against bearings made of crini covered in a thin sheet of brass. His experiments demonstrated that the electric discharge could pierce 20 large sheets of carton paper.