Antonio Zona (Self Portrait) Antonio Zona (1814 – February 1, 1892) was an Italian painter, active in a style fusing

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

and Romantic style.

Biography

He was born in Gambarare, a neighborhood of

Mira Mira (), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–400 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus. ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a varia ...

. He attended the Royal

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, where he studied under

Ludovico Lipparini Lodovico Lipparini (February 17, 1800 – March 19, 1856) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born at Bologna, and was instructed in that city, where he brought himself into notice at the age of fifteen. In 1820 he was in Rome and Naples, ...

One of his colleagues was

Pompeo Marino Molmenti Pompeo Marino Molmenti (8 November 1819, Villanova in Motta di Livenza – 17 December 1894, Venice) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born in Friuli to Francesco Molmenti, an engineer of comfortable means, who had followed his older brot ...

. With the decline of

neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

, the Academy was in ferment over changing styles of painting. In Venice, Zona befriended the followers of the

Scapigliatura ''Scapigliatura'' () is the name of an artistic movement that developed in Italy after the Risorgimento period (1815–71). The movement included poets, writers, musicians, painters and sculptors. The term Scapigliatura is the Italian equivalent of ...

lifestyle, Bartolomeo Granelli and

Ippolito Caffi Ippolito Caffi (1809–1866) was an Italian painter of architectural subjects and seascapes or urban vedute. Biography He was born at Belluno. His first works were produced at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice. By 1830, he had won awards for h ...

, frequenting the same caffè Calcina on the Zattere. Among Zona's mentors and teachers over the following years were

Odorico Politi Odorico Politi (Udine, 27 January 1785 - Venice, 18 October 1846) was an Italian painter. Life and career Odorico Politi was born in Udine, and studied in Venice at the Accademia di Belle Arti with Teodoro Matteini. In 1812 he returned to Udine ...

Michelangelo Grigoletti Girolamo Michelangelo Grigoletti (29 August 1801 – 11 February 1870) was an Italian painter, active in a Neoclassical style. Biography Born at Pordenone to a humble family, he was encouraged by an uncle priest who arranged for him to enrol ...

, and

Pietro Selvatico Pietro is an Italian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: People * Pietro I Candiano (c. 842–887), briefly the 16th Doge of Venice * Pietro Tribuno (died 912), 17th Doge of Venice, from 887 to his death * Pietro II C ...

. In 1857, he had accepted a commission by the Austrian Monarch Franz Joseph for a canvas depicting the ''Encounter of Titian and Veronese at the

Ponte della Paglia Ponte della Paglia is a bridge in Venice, Italy. The current structure dates from 1847, and the original structure was built in 1360. The original structure was the oldest stone bridge in Venice. The name of the bridge is understood to come from bo ...

'' (Galleria della Accademia). The painting was praised for its evocation of the style of a classic Titian painting. In 1859, Zona declined his next major commission, by Prince Maximilian, for a canvas titled ''L’ingresso degli austriaci a Venezia.'' By 1860, he had moved to Milan for some years, and instead painted some canvases with a patriotic theme, including ''Venezia che desolata abbraccia la liberata Milano'' (1860) and ''Un canto funebre'' (1862 and alluding to the funeral of Count Cavour). These paintings were less well received, for example by Pompeo Molmenti in 1903, because they seem to be constrained to echoing antique styles. A new era in Italy, was felt to require a new style. Zona returned to Venice for most of his life. He was eclectic, painting

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

, history, landscapes and portraits in oil and watercolor. For the

Camera dei Deputati The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meani ...

, he painted a portrait of King Umberto in 1880; he also painted a portrait of honorable Giovanni Battista Vare, and in 1883 exhibited at Milan a portrait of a young lady. Among his landscapes was a ''Il tramonto dalla Villa Medici in Rome'' and a large number of

vedute A ''veduta'' (Italian for "view"; plural ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre ...

of Venice and other places in Italy. He also painted an ''Ophelia'' exhibited in 1884 at Turin; and ''Maria la simpatica'', a peasant girl, exhibited in 1881 at Milan. Lo Zona was knighted and official of the Order of Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro. ''Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi: pittori, scultori, e Architetti.''
by

Angelo de Gubernatis Count Angelo De Gubernatis (1840–26 February 1913), Italian man of letters, was born in Turin and educated there and at Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times. Life In 1862 he wa ...

. Tipe dei Successori Le Monnier, 1889, page 561. Zona died in Rome on February 1, 1892.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zona, Antonio 1814 births 1892 deaths 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Venice Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia alumni Italian genre painters 19th-century Italian male artists