1720 in art

Events from the year 1720 in art.

Events

• May 2 – James Thornhill, Serjeant Painter to King George I of Great Britain, is knighted, the first native English artist to be so honoured.
• John Michael Rysbrack settles in London.
• Portraitist Rosalba Carriera moves temporarily from Venice to Paris.
• The interior decoration of Santo Sepolcro (Pisa) is restored.

Works

Antoine Watteau, L'Enseigne de Gersaint (1720): In one of Watteau's last paintings, the portrait of Louis XIV and his own artworks are being packed away.

• William Aikman – Portrait of the Duke of Argyll
• Rosalba Carriera – Maria Josepha of Austria
• Peter Scheemakers – Bust of John Dryden (Westminster Abbey)
• Antoine Watteau
  • The Judgement of Paris (approximate date)
  • The shop sign of Gersaint

Births

• January 19 – John Boydell, engraver (died 1804)
• January 20 – Bernardo Bellotto, Italian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching (died 1780)
• August 15 – Charles Norbert Roettiers, French engraver and medallist (died 1772)
• October 4 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (died 1778)
• November 30 – André Soares, Portuguese sculptor and architect (died 1769)
• date unknown
  • Pierre-Edmé Babel, French engraver (died 1775)
  • John Giles Eccardt, German-born English portrait painter (died 1779)
  • Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen, French painter and draftsman (died 1778)
  • Edme Dumont, French sculptor (died 1775)
  • Pietro Gaspari, Italian artist, known for veduta and capriccio in etchings and paintings (died 1785)
  • Carlo Magini, Italian painter of the Baroque period (died 1806)
  • Johannes Rach, Danish painter and draughtsman (died 1783)
  • Giuseppe Sanmartino, Italian sculptor during the Rococo period (died 1793)
  • Isak Wacklin, Finnish painter (died 1758)
  • Georg Caspar von Prenner, Austrian artist (died 1766), son of Anton Joseph von Prenner, Austrian artist (1683/98?–1761)
• date probably
  • Anton Giuseppe Barbazza, Italian painter and engraver of the Baroque period (died 1771)
  • Jonas Haas, German-born Danish engraver (died 1775)

Deaths

• March 6 – Pieter van Bloemen, Flemish painter (born 1657)
• June 3 – Cristoforo Munari, Italian painter specializing in still life (born 1667)
• October 10 – Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor emigrated from Spain (born 1640)
• November 19 - Hendrick van Streeck, Dutch Golden Age painter of church interiors and a sculptor (born 1659)
• date unknown
  • Giovanni Agostino Cassana, Italian painter of animals and subject pictures (born 1658)
  • Orazio Marinali, Italian sculptor, active mainly in Veneto (born 1643)
  • Tao Chi, Chinese landscape painter (born 1641)
  • Adriaen van Salm, Dutch draftsman and painter (born 1660)
• probable
  • Alberto Carlieri, Italian painter of the late-Baroque period (born 1672)