Antonio Bellucci was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

 period, who was best known for his work in England, Germany, and Austria. He was one of the many Venetian-trained artists of his time, including Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.-Early years:He was born in Belluno, son...

, Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice...

, Amigoni

Jacopo Amigoni

Jacopo Amigoni , also named Giacomo Amiconi, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Rococo period, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe, where his sumptuous portraits were much in demand....

, and others, who sought commissions north of Italy, providing patrons with the then-popular Italianate grand-manner frescoes for private palaces.

Born and died in Pieve di Soligo

Pieve di Soligo

Pieve di Soligo is a town with a population of 12,096 inhabitants. It located at the northern province of Treviso, near the border with the province of Belluno in Veneto, Italy.-Notable people:...

. He initially trained with Domenico Difnico in Sebenico (Sibenik) in the Venetian colony of Dalmatia (now part of Croatia). By 1675, he was working in Venice, painting St Lorenzo Giustiniani praying for the city’s deliverance from the plague of 1447 (c. 1691) for the church of San Pietro di Castello

San Pietro di Castello (church)

The Basilica di San Pietro di Castello , commonly called San Pietro di Castello, is a Roman Catholic minor basilica of the Patriarch of Venice located in the Castello sestiere of the Italian city of Venice. The present building dates from the 16th century, but a church has stood on the site since...

. He painted a Nativity for the church of the Ascension at Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. Several of the landscapes of Antonio Tempesta

Antonio Tempesta

Antonio Tempesta was an Italian painter and engraver, a point of connection between Baroque Rome and the culture of Antwerp. He was born and trained in Florence and painted in a variety of styles, influenced to some degree by "Contra-Maniera" or Counter-Mannerism...

 are enriched with figures by Bellucci.

Among his pupils were Antonio Balestra

Antonio Balestra

Antonio Balestra was an Italian painter of the Rococo period.Born in Verona, he first apprenticed there with Giovanni Zeffio. By 1690 he moved to Venice, where he worked for three years under Antonio Bellucci, then moved to Bologna and then to paint in Carlo Maratta's workshop in Rome. In 1694, he...

 and perhaps Jacopo Amigoni

Jacopo Amigoni

Jacopo Amigoni , also named Giacomo Amiconi, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Rococo period, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe, where his sumptuous portraits were much in demand....

.

In 1692, he completed four altarpieces depicting various saints for the church of Klosterneuburg

Klosterneuburg

Klosterneuburg is an attractive small town in Lower Austria, Austria with a population of 24,442.It is located on the Danube, immediately north of Vienna, from which it is separated by the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg hills...

. From 1695-1700 and 1702- c. 1704, he lived in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. He painted the Triumph of Hercules and other allegorical ceilings at the Palais Liechtenstein

Palais Liechtenstein

Palais Liechtenstein may refer to:* Stadtpalais Liechtenstein , in the I. district of Vienna Innere Stadt* Gartenpalais , in the IX. district Alsergrund, currently houses the extensive art collection of the Liechtenstein princes...

 for Charles VI.

In 1705-1716, he travelled to Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

 to work for Johann Wilhelm, Elector of the Palatinate

Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine

Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine was Elector Palatine , Duke Palatine of Neuburg/Danube , Duke of Jülich and Berg , and Duke of Upper Palatinate and Cham...

, a member of the Wittelsbach

Wittelsbach

The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria , Counts Palatine of the Rhine , Margraves of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland , Elector-Archbishops of Cologne , Dukes of...

 family; he worked there almost continuously until his patron’s death in 1716. For Schloss Bensberg, he painted the Marriage of John William with Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici and Elector Palatine John William Handing the Baton of Command to his Son.

From 1716-1722, Bellucci worked in England, where he fulfilled several commissions for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, MP, PC was the first of fourteen children by Sir James Brydges, 3rd Baronet of Wilton Castle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 8th Baron Chandos; and Elizabeth Barnard...

, including ceilings at Cannons

Cannons (house)

Cannons was a stately home in Little Stanmore, Middlesex built for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos between 1713 and 1724 at a cost of £200,000 but which in 1747 was razed and its contents dispersed....

, the duke's country seat near London; at the neighboring "St Lawrence", Whitchurch

Whitchurch, London

Little Stanmore is a locality in the London Borough of Harrow in London, England.-Toponymy:Little Stanmore was named to distinguish it from Great Stanmore, which is now known as Stanmore. The parish was also known as Whitchurch. Whitchurch is a common English place-name meaning 'white church', and...

 the paintings of the Nativity and the Descent from the Cross, which are seen on either side of the altar, and the Transfiguration, which is above the Duke’s pew

Pew

A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...

, are attributed to him.

There is an almost Romantic

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

 self-portrait of Belluci, shirt open, at the Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...

, Oxford..
He returned to his native country late in life, and died at Soligo.