The foremost Italian art critic of his day, a cosmopolitan snob of great charm, whose friendship with some of the leading men of Europe--notably the French philosopher Voltaire and Frederick the Great of Prussia--played a part in spreading Venetian culture. His writings proclaimed a watered-down version of the Neoclassicism which was then gaining ground in Europe [though not yet in Venice]. For some years he influenced the practice of his friends Tiepolo ['restraining his wilder fantasies' as he claimed], and Canaletto [encouraging his architectural capricci], as well as Piazzetta and other Venetian painters. His real importance lies in his having helped to make acceptable the bolder ideas of other men and thus to break down the cultural isolation of Italy. He was a notable collector of paintings and drawings, and was employed by Frederick Augustus II [1696-1763], Elector of Saxony, to buy pictures for the Dresden GemÉldegalerie.
[Chilvers, Ian, Harold Osborne, and Dennis Farr, eds. Oxford Dictionary Of Art. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.]
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