Antonio Gionima

(b Venice, 4 March 1697; d Bologna, 17 June 1732). Italian painter. The son of the painter Simone Gionima (1655/6-?1730), he was a pupil of Aureliano Milani. Among his first works were the five paintings in tempera depicting scenes from the Life of St Dominic (destr.), commissioned from Milani in 1710 for the church of the Mascarella, but executed by his pupil some years later. When Milani left Bologna for Rome in 1719, Gionima entered the studio of the genre painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi and quickly became his most important follower. He did not immediately abandon Milani's lessons, however, and the Seven Sorrowful Mysteries (1719; Bologna, Cassa di Risparmio), painted for the church of the Serviti, still shows Milani's Bolognese academicism, although there is in addition a Venetian warmth of colouring that Gionima must have learnt from Crespi. In the same year, Gionima painted the Reception of James Stuart by Cardinal Gozzadini at Imola (Rome, Mus. N. Castel S Angelo), possibly as a companion piece to Crespi's Meeting of James Stuart and Prince Albani (Prague, N.G., Sternberk Pal.), which it surpasses in brilliance and delicacy of colour.

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