Christoph Unterberger

Christopher Unterberger (27 May 1732 – 25 January 1798) was an Italian painter of the early-Neoclassical period.

He was born in Cavalese in County of Tyrol (today located in Trentino, Italy). He was initially taught drawing by an uncle, Franz Unterberger, and then in the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna, where Michelangelo Unterberger, was the co-director from 1751-1758. He then traveled to Venice and Verona, where he studied under Giambettino Cignaroli; and finally in 1758, to Rome.

In Rome, he befriended and fell under the influence of Anton Rafael Mengs, and copied the works of Pietro da Cortona, in whose style he produced two altar-pieces of St. Jules and St. Agnes for the cathedral of Brixen. In 1772, he joined the Accademia di San Luca under the sponsorship of Mengs. In 1772, he and Mengs were commissioned to decorate the Papyrus room in the Vatican Library with themes from classic Roman frescoes, including grotteschi and other painted ornament,

Starting in 1780, he led a team of artists replicating on canvas the Vatican Loggia designed by Bramante and Raphael. The commission had been communicated by Giacomo Quarenghi, the architect to Empress Catherine II of Russia. Quarenghi replicated the classic decoration gallery in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

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