Andrea Appiani

Who was Andrea Appiani?

Andrea Appiani was an Italian neoclassical painter.

He was born in Milan. He had been intended to follow his father's career in medicine but instead entered the private academy of the painter Carlo Maria Giudici. He received instruction in drawing, copying mainly from sculpture and prints. He then joined the class of the fresco painter Antonio de' Giorgi, which was held at the Ambrosiana picture gallery in Milan. He also frequented the studio of Martin Knoller, where he deepened his knowledge of painting in oils; and he studied anatomy at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan with the sculptor Gaetano Monti.

His interest in aesthetic issues was stimulated by the classical poet Giuseppe Parini, whom he drew in two fine pencil portraits. In 1776 he entered the Brera Academy of Fine Arts to follow the painting courses of Giulio Traballesi, from whom he received a mastery of the fresco technique. Among his masterpieces are the frescoes depicting the four evangelists and doctors of the church that he painted for the cupola and pendentives for the church of Santa Maria presso San Celso.