Mikhail Scotti

Mikhail Ivanovich Scotti or Michele Pietro Scotti (Russian: Михаил Иванович Скотти; 29 October 1814, Saint Petersburg - 11 March 1861, Paris) was a Russian history, portrait and religious painter of Italian ancestry.

His father was the decorative painter, Ivan Karlovich Scotti (Giovanni Battista Scotti, 1776-1830), who was probably born in Northern Italy and brought to Russia at the age of ten by his father, Carlo, also a painter, who was invited there by Giacomo Quarenghi.

He received his primary education at Saint Catherine's catholic school. After his father's death, he was adopted and raised by the artist, Alexei Yegorov, who had himself been an orphan. He also audited classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts, and was awarded a silver medal for drawing from life. He graduated with a gold medal in 1835. For a time, he worked on the Shepelev estate, near Ardatov, giving drawing lessons and painting icons.

Shortly after, he went to Italy, by way of Germany with Count Pavel Kutaisov, chairman of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, and remained there until 1844. That year, he painted icons for the Russian Orthodox chapel at the embassy in Istanbul. In 1845, he created another series of icons for Saviour Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod, for which he was awarded the title of "Academician".

After 1849, he went to Moscow to replace Fyodor Zavyalov as a teacher and inspector at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His students there included Konstantin Makovsky, Nikolai Nevrev, Vasily Perov and Sergei Gribkov. He also continued to paint numerous religious works; notably at the Annunciation Church in Saint Petersburg, under the direction of its designer, Konstantin Thon.

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