Editing Francesco Algarotti (section)

===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]].