Francesco Tironi (c. 1745-1797 Venice)

Tironi, a native of Friuli, was a priest and according to his necrology was about fifty-two years old at the time of his death on 1 March 1797. He is known primarily as a draughtsman specialising in Venetian views, twenty-four of which were engraved by Antonio Sandi and then published by Furlanetto in 1779. It is from these that an extensive oeuvre for Tironi has been established, including sheets in the Albertina, Vienna, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Whitworth Art Gallery, Liverpool, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. In the past, works by both Apollonio Domenichini (formerly known as the Master of the Langmatt Foundation Views) and early pictures by Francesco Guardi have been wrongly attributed to Tironi.

We are grateful to Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original.