Cosroe Dusi

Italian painter. Born in Venice (1808). Studied under Teodoro Mattini at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. Married Antonietta, daughter of Bartolomeo Ferrari (1831). Decorated churches in Venice, Trieste and Padova (1830s) and painted sets for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice (1837). Kept a diary every day for three years (1839–41), which later formed the basis of Franca Rizzi Martini’s novel Il suonatore di balalaica (2010). Invited by Tsar Nicholas I to Russia (1841), where he decorated palaces and churches and painted portraits, icons, history pictures and sets for theatres in Moscow and St Petersburg (1841–56). Academician (1842), professor (1851). Returned to Venice for health reasons (1856). Died in Marostica near Venice (1859).