Fidelio Bruni

Italian painter, engraver, teacher. Great-grandfather of Lev Bruni and Tatyana Bruni. Descended from Florentine humanist and historian Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370–1444). Son of Antonio Baroffi Bruni (1767–1825), a painter and sculptor from Ticino in Italian Switzerland, who moved to Russia with his family (1807). Studied under Alexei Yegorov, Andrei Ivanov and Vasily Shebuyev at the Imperial Academy of Arts on funds supplied by Viscount Giulio Renato de Litta (1809–18). Awarded a minor silver medal (1813) and graduated with a first-class certificate (1819). Lived and worked in Italy (1819–36), where he copied works by the Old Masters. Returned to St Petersburg (1836), where he painted portraits and icons for churches and cathedrals (1836–38). Made two more trips to Italy (1839–41, 1843–45), working mainly in Rome. Designed frescoes for St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg (1841–53). Taught at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1836–38, 1846–71), where he headed the mosaic studio (from 1866). Second-class professor (1836), first-class professor (1846), rector of painting and sculpture (1855–71). Curator of the Imperial Hermitage Picture Gallery (1849–64). Died in St Petersburg and buried at the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1875). Member (1824) and honorary professor of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, honorary member of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna (1846), professor of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence (1851), member of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan (1862).