Francesco Giuseppe Casanova Francesco Giuseppe Casanova Francesco Giuseppe Casanova (1 June 1727, London – 8 July 1803, near Mödling) was an Italian painter who specialised in battle scenes. His older brother was Giacomo Casanova, the famous adventurer, and his younger brother was Giovanni Casanova; also a well-known painter. He was born in London, where his parents, Zanetta Farussi, an actress, and Gaetano Casanova, an actor and dancer, had a theatrical engagement. It was rumoured that his father was actually the Prince of Wales (who shortly after became King George II); whether for scurrilous motives or publicity is unclear. They returned to Venice when
Giacomo Casanova the habits of my degraded fellow musicians." He and some of his fellows, "often spent our nights roaming through different quarters of the city, thinking up the most scandalous practical jokes and putting them into execution ... we amused ourselves by untying the gondolas moored before private homes, which then drifted with the current". They also sent midwives and physicians on false calls. Good fortune came to the rescue when Casanova, unhappy with his lot as a musician, saved the life of a Venetian patrician of the Bragadin family, who had a stroke while riding with Casanova in a gondola