The family of Giovanni Maria Morlaiter —also known as Gianmaria Morlaiter— traced its roots back to the Puster Valley in the Alps. He had two sons, both of whom also became artists: Michelangelo, a painter, and Gregorio, a sculptor. Morlaiter trained under the Venetian sculptor Alvise Tagliapietra and began his professional career during the second decade of the eighteenth century, in a late Baroque style of great technical virtuosity akin to Rococo. He is best known for the depictions of fabrics in his work. Morlaiter was a founding member (1750), director (1756) and professor (1760) of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. He received numerous commissions in his home city of Venice, which was undergoing a period of economic bonanza thanks to its trading links, but he also made sculptures for Brescia, Padua, Treviso, Graz, Dubrovnik, Split and St. Petersburg.
Francesco Sorce catalogues the following major pieces by the Venetian artist: Presentation of Mary and St. Augustine in the church of St. Ignatius (Dubrovnik, Croatia, 1730); The Miracle of the Mule and Apparition of the Christ Child to Saint Anthony of Padua in the church of Santa Lucia (Venice, 1730); Jesus Disputing with the Doctors in the Temple in the Chapel of our Lady of the Rosary, in the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Venice, 1735); St. Scholastica and St. Benedict in the church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo de Giudecca (Venice, 1735); the sculptural decoration for the church of the Society of Jesus (ca. 1740-1750); the busts of Pope Benedict XIV and Cardinal Rezzonico in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption (Padua, 1746); the figures of St. Gerolamo Emiliani and Blessed Peter Acotanto in the church of San Rocco (Venice, 1765); and the statues Strength and Prudence in the Gatchina Palace (Russia, 1766).
The family of Giovanni Maria Morlaiter —also known as Gianmaria Morlaiter— traced its roots back to the Puster Valley in the Alps. He had two sons, both of whom also became artists: Michelangelo, a painter, and Gregorio, a sculptor. Morlaiter trained under the Venetian sculptor Alvise Tagliapietra and began his professional career during the second decade of the eighteenth century, in a late Baroque style of great technical virtuosity akin to Rococo. He is best known for the depictions of fabrics in his work. Morlaiter was a founding member (1750), director (1756) and professor (1760) of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. He received numerous commissions in his home city of Venice, which was undergoing a period of economic bonanza thanks to its trading links, but he also made sculptures for Brescia, Padua, Treviso, Graz, Dubrovnik, Split and St. Petersburg.
Francesco Sorce catalogues the following major pieces by the Venetian artist: Presentation of Mary and St. Augustine in the church of St. Ignatius (Dubrovnik, Croatia, 1730); The Miracle of the Mule and Apparition of the Christ Child to Saint Anthony of Padua in the church of Santa Lucia (Venice, 1730); Jesus Disputing with the Doctors in the Temple in the Chapel of our Lady of the Rosary, in the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Venice, 1735); St. Scholastica and St. Benedict in the church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo de Giudecca (Venice, 1735); the sculptural decoration for the church of the Society of Jesus (ca. 1740-1750); the busts of Pope Benedict XIV and Cardinal Rezzonico in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption (Padua, 1746); the figures of St. Gerolamo Emiliani and Blessed Peter Acotanto in the church of San Rocco (Venice, 1765); and the statues Strength and Prudence in the Gatchina Palace (Russia, 1766).