Editing Francesco Algarotti (section)

== Personal life and career ==
Algarotti had made acquaintance with [[Antiochus Kantemir]], a Moldavian diplomat, poet and composer.<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6sFHnfb89A8C&dq=Algarotti+Sint+Petersburg+1739+wedding&pg=PA335| title = 'By the Banks of the Neva': Chapters from the Lives and Careers of the ... By Anthony Glenn Cross| isbn = 978-0-521-55293-6| last1 = Cross| first1 = Anthony| last2 = Cross| first2 = Anthony Professor| year = 1997| publisher = Cambridge University Press}}</ref> He was invited to visit Russia for the wedding of [[Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick]].<ref>Algarotti dedicated six of the letters that made up his ''Viaggi di Russia'' to John Hervey; the others to [[Scipio Maffei]].</ref> In 1739 he left with [[Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore|Lord Baltimore]] from [[Sheerness]] to [[Newcastle upon Tyne]]. Because of a heavy storm the ship sheltered in [[Harlingen, Friesland|Harlingen]]. Algarotti was discovering "this new city", which he called the great window ... to which Russia looks on Europe.<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg19b0fFbIIC&dq=Algarotti+Sint+Petersburg+1737&pg=PA228| title = The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture By James Cracraft| isbn = 978-0-226-11664-8| last1 = Cracraft| first1 = James| date = 26 October 1988| publisher = University of Chicago Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3Jccp2DawwMC&dq=Algarotti+window+to+the+West&pg=PA58| title = Cultures of Forgery: Making Nations, Making Selves| isbn = 978-1-135-45827-0| last1 = Ryan| first1 = Judith| last2 = Thomas| first2 = Alfred| date = 13 May 2013| publisher = Routledge}}</ref> Returning from [[Saint Petersburg]], they visited [[Frederick the Great]] in [[Rheinsberg]]. Algarotti had obligations in England and came back the year after. Then Algarotti went together with Frederick to [[Königsberg]] where he was crowned.

[[File:The Chocolate Girl by Jean-Étienne Liotard.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Nandl Baldauf, la belle chocolatière (1743/44). The [[pastel]] by Liotard was sold in 1745 by Algarotti to Dresden.<ref>Walter Koschatzky (Hrsg.): Maria Theresia und ihre Zeit, p. 313. Zur 200. Wiederkehr des Todestages. Ausstellung 13. Mai bis 26. Oktober 1980, Wien, Schloß Schönbrunn. Im Auftrag der Österreichischen Bundesregierung veranstaltet vom Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Gistel, Wien 1980.</ref>]]

Frederick, who was impressed with this walking encyclopedia, made him and his brother Bonomo [[Prussia]]n counts in 1740. Algarotti accompanied Frederick to [[Bayreuth]], [[Kehl]], [[Strasbourg]] and [[Moyland Castle]] where they met with Voltaire, who was taking baths in [[Kleve]] for his health.<ref>MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, pp. 142–145.</ref> In 1741 Algarotti went to [[Turin]] as his diplomat.<ref name= Smeall2010 >{{cite thesis|last=Smeall|first=Cheryl Lynn|year=2010|title=How to Become a Renowned Writer: Francesco Algarotti (1712- 1764) and the Uses of Networking in Eighteenth-Century Europe|publisher=McGill University|type= PhD|url=https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR77555&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=1019473467|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429043403/https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR77555&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=1019473467|archive-date=29 April 2021}}</ref> Frederick had offered him a salary, but Algarotti refused. First, he went to [[Dresden]] and Venice, where he bought 21 paintings, a few by [[Jean-Étienne Liotard]] and [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo]] for the court of [[Augustus III of Poland]].<ref>[http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/blog/framework-empire-flora-giovanni-battista-tiepolo The Empire of Flora by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo] at Legion of Honor</ref><ref>[http://www.hermitage.nl/en/tentoonstellingen/venetie/schoonste_schijn.htm Eighteenth-century Venetian Art] at Hermitage Amsterdam</ref> Algarotti did not succeed in inducing the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]] to launch a treacherous attack upon Austria.<ref>MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 191.</ref>

===Algarotti and the other arts===
[[File:Giovanni Paolo Panini - Interior of the Pantheon, Rome - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|200px|The interior of the [[Pantheon (Rome)]] by [[Giovanni Paolo Pannini]], ordered by and belonging to the art collection of Algarotti<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=K_zR2mHWPmoC&dq=Algarotti+Pannini+Pantheon&pg=PA111| title = Tiepolo's Cleopatra by Jaynie Anderson| isbn = 978-1-876832-44-5| last1 = Anderson| first1 = Jaynie| year = 2003| publisher = Macmillan Education AU}}</ref>]]

Algarotti's choice of works reflects the encyclopedic interests of the [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassic era]]; he was uninterested in developing a single unitary stylistic collection, and envisioned a modern museum, a catalog of styles from across the ages. For contemporary commissions, he wrote up a list of paintings he recommended commissioning, including history paintings from [[Giambattista Tiepolo|Tiepolo]], [[Giambattista Pittoni|Pittoni]], and [[Piazzetta]]; scenes with animals from [[Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione|Castiglione]], and [[veduta]] with ruins from [[Giovanni Paolo Pannini|Pannini]]. He wanted ''"suggetti graziosi e leggeri"'' from [[Antonio Balestra|Balestra]], [[François Boucher|Boucher]], and [[Donato Creti]].<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=K_zR2mHWPmoC&dq=Algarotti+Pannini+Pantheon&pg=PA111| title = ''Tiepolo's Cleopatra Door'', by Jaynie Anderson, p. 109| isbn = 978-1-876832-44-5| last1 = Anderson| first1 = Jaynie| year = 2003| publisher = Macmillan Education AU}}</ref> Other artists he supported were [[Giuseppe Nogari]], [[Bernardo Bellotto]], and [[Francesco Pavona]].

In 1747 Algarotti went back to Potsdam and became court chamberlain, but left to visit the archeological diggings at [[Herculaneum]].<ref>MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 192.</ref> In 1749 he moved to Berlin. Algarotti was <!--involved in the production of operas and--> involved in finishing the architectural designs of [[Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff]] who had fallen ill. In February 1753, after several years residing in Prussia, he returned to Italy, living most of the time in Bologna, where he was friendly with [[Laura Bassi]], the first salaried female teacher in a university. In 1759 Algarotti was involved in a new opera-style in the city of [[Parma]]. He influenced [[Guillaume du Tillot]] and the [[Philip, Duke of Parma|Duke of Parma]].

[[File:Adolph-von-Menzel-Tafelrunde2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Gathering on [[Sanssouci]] in the Marble Hall, with Frederick II. (the Great) of Prussia, [[Voltaire]], [[Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens|d'Argens]], [[Julien Offray de La Mettrie|La Mettrie]], [[James Francis Edward Keith|James Keith]], [[George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal|George Keith]], Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg, Christoph Ludwig von Stille, and Algarotti. The painting was lost in 1945.]]

Algarotti's ''Essay on the Opera'' (1755) was a major influence on the librettist [[Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni]] and the composer [[Tommaso Traetta]], and in the development of [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck's]] reformist ideology.<ref>Orrey, p. 81</ref> Algarotti proposed a heavily simplified model of ''opera seria'', with the drama pre-eminent, instead of the music, ballet or staging. The drama itself should "delight the eyes and ears, to rouse up and to affect the hearts of an audience, without the risk of sinning against reason or common sense." Algarotti's ideas influenced both Gluck and his librettist [[Calzabigi]], writing their ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]]''.<ref name="Orrey83">Orrey, p. 83</ref>

In 1762 Algarotti moved to [[Pisa]], where he died of tuberculosis. Frederick the Great, who several times had needed Algarotti for writing texts in Latin, sent in a text for a monument to his memory on the [[Camposanto Monumentale|Campo Santo]].