Diego Martelli (October 29, 1839 – November 20, 1896) was an Italian art critic who was one of the first supporters of

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

in Italy. He was a defender and associate of the Tuscan artists the

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to ...

, whom he often hosted at his estate in

Castiglioncello Castiglioncello (formerly ''Castiglione Mondiglio'') is a ''frazione'' of 3800 inhabitants of the ''comune'' of Rosignano Marittimo, in the province of Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. Located in a privileged position from the panoramic point of view, aw ...

Biography

Martelli was born in Florence, the son of a road engineer. He studied natural sciences at the University of Pisa.Broude 1987, p. 269. In 1855, while still in his teens, he became acquainted with the group of artists who frequented the

Caffè Michelangiolo Caffè Michelangiolo was a historic café in Florence, located in Via Larga (now renamed Via Cavour). During the nineteenth century Wars of Italian Independence, it became a major meeting place for Tuscan writers and artists, and for patriots and ...

in Florence who would become known as the Macchiaioli. In 1859 Martelli fought in the

Second Italian War of Independence The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Franco-Austrian War, the Austro-Sardinian War or Italian War of 1859 ( it, Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana; french: Campagne d'Italie), was fought by the Second French Empire and t ...

. In 1861 he inherited a large estate around Castiglioncello on a hill overlooking a cliff. Castiglioncello at the time was a small village of fishermen and farmers, as evidenced in the numerous paintings of the movement. Martelli's home there became a haven where his artist friends could work from nature, and he became an advocate and theoretician of the Macchiaioli. His writing on art in the 1860s championed the realism of artists such as

Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

and the

Barbizon School The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name f ...

.Broude 1987, p. 270. In 1862–63 he made his first visit to Paris, where he attended the Salon des Refuses. He encountered the work of

Manet A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...

, which he disparaged as "ugly" and "ostentatious". He traveled to Paris again in 1869. During his third trip to the French capital in 1870 he attended lectures on organic chemistry by

Michel Eugène Chevreul Michel Eugène Chevreul (31 August 1786 – 9 April 1889) was a French chemist and centenarian whose work influenced several areas in science, medicine, and art. His early work with animal fats revolutionized soap and candle manufacturing and led ...

, whose color theories were of great interest to Martelli.Calingaert 1988. With

Adriano Cecioni Adriano Cecioni (July 26, 1836May 23, 1886) was an Italian artist, caricaturist, and critic associated with the Macchiaioli group. Biography He was born in Florence into a middle-class family belonging to the local gentry. He began his artistic ...

and

Telemaco Signorini Telemaco Signorini (; August 18, 1835 – February 10, 1901) was an Italian artist who belonged to the group known as the Macchiaioli. Biography He was born in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence, and showed an early inclination toward the st ...

he founded the journal ''Gazzettino delle arti del disegno'' in 1867, and in 1873 he initiated the art journal ''Giornale artistico''. In the mid-1870s, letters he received from his friend

Federico Zandomeneghi Federico Zandomeneghi (; June 2, 1841 – December 31, 1917) was an Italian Impressionist painter. Biography Federico Zandomeneghi was born in Venice. His father Pietro and grandfather Luigi were neoclassic sculptors. The latter completed ...

, who had relocated to Paris in 1874, stimulated Martelli's curiosity about the Impressionists. His fourth and longest sojourn in Paris was from April 1878 to April 1879. The articles he wrote for various Italian journals during his stay reveal his developing interest in the formal and optical qualities of Impressionism, which supplanted his earlier enthusiasm for art that emphasized rural values and social concerns as exemplified by

Millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

. He spent time with Manet, and with

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...

who painted two portraits of him in 1879. Martelli's closest friendship among the Impressionists was with

Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). Hi ...

who, at Martelli's urging, exhibited two of his paintings in the Florence Promotrice of 1879. That they were poorly received, even by the Macchiaioli, was a disappointment to Martelli. Martelli continued to champion new art. In a lecture he delivered in Venice in 1895, he praised the Neo-Impressionists, who "on the basis of the theories of light and color combinations, scientifically explained by the chemist Chevreul, ... carry out experiments that today are ridiculed but that will probably be the triumphs of tomorrow." Martelli died in Florence on November 20, 1896. He left a collection of art to the city of Florence.Broude 1987, p. 118.

Notes

References

*Baumann, Felix Andreas, Jean Sutherland Boggs, Edgar Degas, and Marianne Karabelnik (1994). ''Degas Portraits''. London: Merrell Holberton. *Boime, Albert (1993). ''The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento: Representing Culture and Nationalism in Nineteenth-century Italy''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. * Broude, Norma (1987). ''The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. *Calingaert, Efrem Gisella (June 1988) "More 'Pictures-Within-Pictures': Degas' Portraits of Diego Martelli". ''Arts Magazine''. Volume 62. pp. 40–44. {{DEFAULTSORT:Martelli, Diego Italian art critics 1839 births 1896 deaths Journalists from Florence Italian male journalists University of Pisa alumni