Francesco Albotto

1721 – 1757

Italian painter. Until quite recently, little was known of the life of this 18th-century Venetian painter who only lived for 37 years. He was a young assistant to Marieschi at the time of Marieschi's death in 1741. He was also a view painter and he married the widow of Marieschi and called himself the "second" Marieschi. He continued to produce pictures for the busy Venetian market, usually of decidedly good quality but rather reminiscent of Marieschi. His pictures are quite rare. His imitations of the master's work have created a good deal of confusion between the two artists. Ultimately, however, Albotto's style began to ossify and he started to repeat himself, making it less difficult to separate his work from that of Marieschi. Few paintings by him are signed, though one sold in New York in 1972 had an inscription on the verso "Francesco Albotto F. in Cale di ca Loredan S. Luca" . His technique was very close to that of Marieschi, using a tell-tale splodging of the paint to create a feeling of decaying architectural features. His perspective drawing is also much influenced by his master, using a fine brown paint and a stencil to delineate his architectural focal points.

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