Adolfo Venturi


Adolfo Venturi was an Italian art historian. His son, Lionello Venturi, was also an art historian.

Biography

He received his education in Modena and Florence, and in 1878 started working as a curator at the Galleria Estense in Modena. In 1888 he was appointed general inspector of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma. In 1888, with Domenico Gnoli, he founded the journal, "Archivio storico d'arte". He would remain editor of the publication up until 1940. From 1896 to 1931 he served as chair of medieval and modern art at the University of Rome.
In 1923, author John R. Eyre reported Venturi's opinion on the Isleworth Mona Lisa, which had become known to the public a decade earlier, and was proposed to be a work of Leonardo da Vinci. According to Eyre:
Venturi's reputation as an art expert was called upon in 1929 in the Hahn vs. Duveen court case, a sensational trial that centered on the authenticity of a version of Leonardo da Vinci's La Belle Ferronière. Venturi deemed the painting at issue to be a "low copy".
In 1928, Venturi expressed doubt in a painting claimed to be Leonardo's Leda and the Swan which had been sold in an auction for $88,400. It was reported that Venturi, "while admitting that the execution is very fine and that the picture resembles the lost original, nevertheless declared that the painting is too precious, too classical, too elegant to be entirely a product from the master's brush".
Venturi died in Santa Margherita Ligure at the age of 85.

Published works

In 1901 he began publishing his magnum opus, "Storia dell'arte italiana", a multi-volume work on the history of Italian art that spanned from the Early Christian era to the 16th century. The following is a list of works by Venturi that have been published in English: