Antonio Agosti (1785‑1865): ‘dilettante’ d’arte e collezionista bellunese

Abstract

Antonio Agosti was born and raised in Belluno, where he became one of the most prominent figures of the city during the first half of the nineteenth century. Despite this, his life and work have not yet been fully investigated. Agosti served as the city’s podestà for fourteen years and is remembered for his unusual passion for the fine arts, which led him to write two travel notebooks about Belluno and its province between 1819 and 1829. In addition to presenting the manuscripts, the article aims to reconstruct the count’s private collection, which consisted primarily of Venetian paintings from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. These paintings, which spanned the works of Antonio da Tisoi to Giambattista Tiepolo, were acquired by the count over the course of his lifetime.

Keywords

• Antonio Agosti. Art lover. Belluno. Primitives. Private collecting. Tiepolo. Travel notebooks