After initial studies in Dalmatia, Antonio Bellucci arrived in Venice in 1675, where he was influenced by the painters Pietro Liberi, Andrea Celesti and Antonio Zanchi. His contact with Austria began in 1692, when he produced four altarpieces for the church in Klosterneuburg. From 1695 to 1700, he then worked in Vienna, and after a two-year sojourn in Venice returned there. In Vienna he created frescoes and canvases for the Liechtenstein Palais (including the 'Triumph of Hercules' and allegorical scenes) that are similar in style to works by the Bolognese painter Carlo Cignani. In 1705 he moved to Düsseldorf, to the court of elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, and stayed there until the elector's death in 1716. Together with Antonio Pellegrini, he produced a number of paintings for the newly built Bensberg Palace (now Munich, Alte Pinakothek). Finally, from 1716 to 1722 he worked in England, where he painted decorations for Buckingham Palace and various aristocratic country houses. With his many travels across Europe, Bellucci was a typical representative of the Venetian itinerant artist. He represents the transition from the Venetian Late Baroque to the Rococo of the eighteenth century.
