painted mainly portraits, but around 1840, the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, after visiting his Venetian studio, invited Dusi to St Petersburg. In Russia, he painted portraits of the Grand Duke and members of the imperial family and the court, including General Suhozanet (1842), Kavos (1849), of Feodosiya Tarassova Gromova. His Mary Queen of Scots led to the scaffold granted him membership in the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg in 1842, another painting of Alcibiades among the Heterae, made him an academician (1843), and finally, his Deposition, obtained him a post of professor (1851). In Russia, he also painted still lifes and landscapes. He participated in the encaustic decoration of the wooden ceiling of the gallery of ancient painting of the Hermitage, depicting the Seasons and antique artworks and buildings, (based on drawings by Georg Hiltensperger). Dusi also painted numerous icons for the Cathedral of Saint Isaac in St Petersburg, later replaced by copies in mosaic, depicting: the Savior and Mary, Mother of God, for the right side of the altar iconostasis, a Last Supper, a Deposition, St Anastasia and St Catherine of Alexandria (1844-1855). He painted for private chapels of the buildings of the capital and country estates. Dusi decorate the ceiling of the Marinsky Theater and two curtains, both lost, one for the Bolshoi theater in Moscow, depicting Ilsolenne entrance of Prince Požorskij into Moscow, and the other, probably for the Alexandrine theater of St Petersburg in 1858. The czar awarded him the Order of St. Anne of third class and the Order of St Stanislaus of third class. Return to Venice In 1831, Dusi had been made honorary associate for the Venetian Academy, and he had over the years periodically revisited his native Venice. He returned to Venice to stay finally in 1856, and hoped without success, for a professorship in the academy. The Austrian painter Karl von Blaas was instead named to the professorship. His last known work, A vigil at home of Tintoretto, exhibited in Venice in 1857. He painted two altarpieces: St Anthony of Padua and a Deposition (1851) for the Venetian church of San Giovanni in Bragora. He died on October 9, 1859, in Marostica, near Vicenza. References 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 1808 births 1859 deaths Painters from Venice Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia alumni Russian painters Russian male painters Italian neoclassical painters 19th-century Italian male artists