Pietro di Gottardo Gonzago

(b Longarone, nr Venice, 25 March 1751; d St Petersburg, 6 Aug 1831). Italian painter, stage designer and landscape designer, also active in Russia. He studied in Venice (1769-72) under Giuseppe Moretti and Antonio Visentini (1688-1782) and finished his education in Milan (1772-8), studying with the stage designers Bernardino, Fabrizio and Giovanni Antonio Galliari. He was considerably influenced by the works of Canaletto and Piranesi. He made his d?but as a stage designer in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala in 1779 and designed over 60 productions in Milan, Rome, Genoa and other Italian cities. From 1792 he worked in Russia, where he went on the recommendation of Prince Nikolay Yusupov, who was at that time the chief director of music and pageantry at the court of Catherine II.

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