Giovanni Battista Biscarra

Biscarra learned the rudiments of art from Pietro Benvenuti at the Accademia di Firenze in Florence, where his family had taken refuge during the French occupation of Savoy and the Piedmont.

After many years of study at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, he graduated with the painting The Prodigal Son Weeps For His Errors (c. 1813, private collection).

There, he studied at the Accademia di San Luca where he refined his skills as a student of Vincenzo Camuccini and became friends with the leading artists of Roman neoclassicism, including Antonio Canova, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Pietro Tenerani, and several others.

By sovereign decree of 17 September 1821 he was named the "first painter of His Majesty, Head and Master of the Schools of Painting and Drawing, and Director of the Academy of the Nude".

[1] His earliest works hearkened back to the Baroque period, but then he quickly progressed after moving to Rome toward a neoclassical style akin to that of Jacques-Louis David.

The Royal Palace of Turin and various churches of that city have works of Biscarra including The promulgation of the Albertine Civil Code.