Name Ivan Belsky | ||
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Ivan Ivanovich Belsky (Russian: Iván Ivánovich Bél'skii. 6 January 1719, Saint Petersburg — 13 January 1799, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian painter. He was part of the "Belsky Dynasty" of painters of the Eighteenth Century and one of the first teachers at the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he taught history painting.
Biography
In 1740, together with his brother Alexei Ivanovich, he was enrolled at the "Kantselyariya ot stroenii" (Chancellory of Buildings), where he studied under Ivan Vishnyakov and others. While there, he participated in drawing up plans for the cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
He worked on the interior design of many Royal residences, especially the Peterhof Palace. Furthermore in 1755 he painted imitations of amber in the construction of the famous Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. In 1769, he became a full member of the Academy. He subsequently became the supervisor of Mikhail Lomonosov's mosaic workshop and painted icons for the Grand Church of the Winter Palace.
His free-standing art works are few. The best known are "arhierei vo vremya sluzheniya liturgii" (Bishop Presenting the Divine Liturgy, 1770), and "Golova apostola Petra" (Head of the Apostle Peter, 1783), both in the Tretyakov Gallery.