Cornaro crest





Bortolo Cabianca



BORTOLO CABIANCA was a talented stuccoist whose most notable identified work is the series of stucco decorations and three-dimensional frames executed for Proc. Andrea Antonio Giuseppe Cornaro (H-29) at Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese in 1716 to enhance and surround the elaborate fresco cycle to be created there by Mattia Bortoloni in the following year.

The selection of Bortolo Cabianca for the decorative treatment at Piombino Dese may have derived from the fact that his brother, the talented Venetian sculptor Francesco Cabianca (c. 1665-1737), was engaged during the same period in creating the stucco decoration at Ca' Cornaro della Ca' Granda in Venice for Proc. Andrea's Cornaro cousins in the S. Maurizio line of the family.

Bortolo was awarded the Piombino Dese commission only after first executing earlier in 1716 a series of decorations for Proc. Andrea at his palazzo in S. Massimo Parish at Padua.


© 1997-9 C. I. Gable