Cosroe Dusi

Cosroe Dusi (July 28, 1808 – October 9, 1859) was an Italian painter in the Neoclassical style, active for many years in St Petersburg, Russia, painting mainly sacred and historical subjects. Dusi was nicknamed by his contemporaries the "modern Tintoretto", for his liveliness of invention and rapidity at painting.

Cosroe was born in Venice. He enrolled in 1820 at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, where his mentor was the painter Teodoro Matteini, who had also taught the influential Hayez. At the Academy, Dusi studied alongside Michelangelo Grigoletti.

After graduating in 1827, the Academy awarded Dusi a room near the school and he exhibited the large historical canvas, The Death of Alcibiades, followed by Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, exhibited in 1831 at the Brera. In 1829 at the annual exhibition of the Accademia, he displayed The Nymph Salmacis seduces the innocent Hermaphroditus, a Virgin and child with St John, and two small paintings depicting scenes from writings of Gaspare Gozzi. In 1830 he married Antonietta Ferrari, daughter and sister respectively of the sculptors Bartolomeo and Luigi Ferrari. Luigi had also studied at the Academy with Dusi.

In Venice, Dusi collaborated in the production of illustrations for books and lithographic series. For the journal of Il Gondoliere, he made a lithographic portrait Leopoldo Cicognara, that was used in Cicognara's obituary in 1834, and was based on a prior oil painting by Ludovico Lipparini. Dusi, along with Grigoletti and Michele Fanoli, completed a series of lithographs depicting various trades of Venetians, published by Galvani. The subjects were mostly genre figures (fishmongers, chimney sweeps, etc.) or portraits (including singers, actors, and dancers). The Museo Correr of Venice has engravings and lithography by Drusi.

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