Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti

Bagetti was an architect and painter specialist views. Although trained as an architect at the University of Turin, is known for his collaboration with the French army during the first Napoleonic campaign of Italy. His landscapes are the tale of daily living between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

To this period belongs a successful series of views representing the victorious battles of Napoleon in the years 1796-1800. It should be said that for the execution of his designs, Bagetti studied directly on topographic maps. He would also, before drawing his sketches in the field, collecting information from eye-witnesses or protagonists of the story. Thanks to the technical knowledge acquired in studies as an architect, he was able to portray a reality particularly loyal.

His watercolors are crisp and detailed. The balancing act between the various parts of the whole, provides the feeling of a harmonious whole in which there is no perception of details that impair the unity of effect. Although the description is detailed, everything is proportioned and designed to allow the viewer to embrace the set with a single glance. Trained in music under the guidance of Bernard Octane who devoted himself to painting, Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti learned the technique of watercolor by Pietro Giacomo Palmieri.

On 23 December 1782 he obtained from the Royal University of Turin, the qualification as an architect, civil and military. From 1792 he taught topographical drawing and was in the service of Victor Amadeus III as a royal designer of views and landscapes. From 1793 followed the royal armies of Sardinia in the county of Nice and Toulon with the task of drawing all the feats of arms of that campaign. After returning to Turin, in 1797 he was appointed professor of topography at the School of Engineers and the Royal Artillery Corps. In the French occupation became part of the Office topographic Piedmont with the rank of Captain Engineer Geographer.

It was later assigned all’Armata of Italy as chargé d’artiste exécuter les vues des sites les plus interessants aux affaires des principales quelles the war goes donner lieu. One of the first tasks entrusted to him was the depiction of the Battle of Marengo, emblematic battle that gave rise to the myth of Napoleon. For his merits in the field was named capitain ingénieur géographe artists.

From 1802 to 1805, on secondment to the topographical section of Piedmont under the command of Captain Joseph Marie François de Martinel, crossed the territory between the Italian Riviera, the Maritime Alps and the Po Valley, drawing the views of the major battles fought in the French army during the First Italian Campaign. Then followed the Army of Northern Germany and participated in the Russian Campaign, producing the graphic documentation of the most important military operations on those fronts.

In 1806 he moved to Paris. Between 1806 and 1807 created a second set of views in the former Republic of Venice. In 1807, at the behest of Napoleon, the complete set 68 of his watercolors was placed in the Gallery of the Palace of Fontainebleau. In 1811 the emperor attributed to him the Legion of Honor for scoring a map with a bird’s eye view of Italy, from the Alps to Naples, while in 1812 he exhibited at the Paris Salon and was awarded a medal ‘gold.

In 1815, after the fall of the empire he returned to Turin, to teach at the military academy topography and watercolor painting at the Academy of Fine Arts was also at the service of Savoy, for whom he painted the landscapes used to decorate the Castle Moncalieri, including View of Moncalieri and The Rite of S. Michele. In 1827 he published a treatise entitled Analysis unit effect in painting and imitation in the fine arts. His sketches on the field were used as the basis for a series of watercolors and gouaches made by the engineer and geographer Gautier by surveyors and Pasquieri Bucler d’Albe.

From the mid-nineteenth century pairs of his works were multiplied thanks to the work of Morel and Parent. Around 1830, under the guidance of the Director of the Department of French war, Général Pelet, it was begun incision of the works of Bagetti, who served to the catalog, Vues des champs de bataille. The painter died in Turin April 29, 1831. In 1834 Louis-Philippe of France ordered to transfer the 68 watercolors in Versailles Castle renovated as Musée de l’Histoire de France.

His works are preserved at the Musée de l’Armée de Vincennes near Paris, the Musée de l’Histoire de France Versailles and Trianon and the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Accademia Albertina, the Royal Palace, the National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento and the Royal Library of Turin. Source: Wikipedia.