CARLONE (CARLONI). — A Lombard family of architects, sculptors, painters, and decorators active from the 15th to the 19th century in northern Italy, between Milan and Genoa, as well as in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
The most notable members of the family are:
ANDREA or GIOVANNI ANDREA, a painter born in Genoa in 1639, died there in 1697. A pupil in Rome of C. Maratta, he worked in Perugia and then in Rome itself, where in the church of the Gesù there is a fresco by him depicting the Glory of St. Francis Xavier. In Genoa, he painted an Allegory of Human Life in the Palazzo Rosso. His most renowned work, however, is considered to be a Magdalene now in the Uffizi.
CARLO ANTONIO, born in Scaria, died in Passau in 1798, worked primarily in Austria, at Admont, Garsten, and St. Florian, and later in Germany, where he contributed to the Benedictine abbey of Niederaltaich and in Passau, where he built the church for the Jesuits and that dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, as well as undertaking work in the Augustinian church.
CARLO INNOCENZO, a painter, was perhaps the most outstanding artist of the family. Born in Scaria in 1686, died in Vienna in 1775, he studied in Venice under Paolo Quaglia and in Rome under Trevisani before crossing the Alps to work in the cathedral of Ljubljana and then in Switzerland and Einsiedeln. His principal works, however, are in Germany, where he joined his father GIOVAN BATTISTA — a painter of some merit active mainly in Genoa — and where he worked for the Duke of Württemberg, the Electors of Cologne and Trier, the Elector of Bavaria, and others. His activity was especially notable in the Residenz at Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart, where he executed frescoes, paintings, and altarpieces.
Other works by him, all executed with a confident touch but not lacking in decorative value, are found in the Elector’s palace at Brühl, the castle at Heimsheim, the palaces of the Residenz at Passau and Stuttgart, and in Vienna, in the churches and at the Belvedere. Among other members of the family may be recalled the architect GIOVAN BATTISTA, brother of Carlo Antonio, active in Passau and Waldsassen; the decorators, especially stuccoists, CARLO ANTONIO (18th c.), DIEGO FRANCESCO (1674–1750), DOMENICO ANTONIO (18th c.), GIOVAN BATTISTA (18th c.), GIOACCHINO (18th c.), PIETRO FRANCESCO, an architect in Austria (17th c.), SEBASTIANO and SILVESTRO, architects (16th–17th c.), all active in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; and finally GIOVANNI CARLO, a painter who in 1693 decorated the church of the Soccorso in Vilshofen.