Giacomo Ernesto Eduardo Di Chirico (27 January 1844 – 26 December 1883) was an Italian painter. Together with

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Accademia di ...

and

Filippo Palizzi Filippo Palizzi (1818 – 1899) was an Italian painter. Biography Filippo Palizzi was born in Vasto (Chieti). He moved to Naples in 1837 and enrolled at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts, but withdrew after a few months to attend the private sch ...

, he was one of the most elite Neapolitan artists of the 19th century.

Biography

Giacomo Di Chirico was born in

Venosa Venosa ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the Vulture area. It is bounded by the comuni of Barile, Ginestra, Lavello, Maschito, Montemilone, Palazzo San Gervasio, ...

into a carpenter's family, the younger son of Luigi and Caterina Savino. In 1847, when Di Chirico was barely 3 years old, his father Luigi died, leaving the family

impoverished Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

. He attended a private school for boys from deprived families under the supervision of priest Giuseppe Gianturco, the brother of politician

Emanuele Gianturco Emanuele Gianturco (1857–1907) was an Italian legal scholar and politician who held different cabinet posts, including minister of public works, minister of education and minister of justice. He was also a member of the Parliament of which he ...

. He began working at a

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

shop to support his family economically but had become passionate about his painting hobby, after learning basic art techniques from his older brother, Nicola, a sculptor. Di Chirico had begun to create portraits of his customers, who expressed admiration for his work, and local citizens who saw his portraits began to request them. Feeling stimulated from such interest and their appreciation, Di Chirico decided to become a professional painter. He obtained a subsidy salary from the municipality of Venosa, was enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples and graduated after he had demonstrated optimal results from the studies. In 1865, Di Chirico became a disciple of Francesco de Sanctis, who taught him lessons in literature for two years. Between 1868 and 1871, Di Chirico refined his artistic technique while living in Rome, further strengthening his friendship with

and

. He returned to Naples to open an art studio. During his career, Di Chirico created masterpieces such as ''Buoso da Duera'', ''Quinto Orazio Flacco'', ''Corteggiamento'' and ''Donna lucana''. ''Sposalizio in Basilicata'', one of his best known paintings, was exposed in Paris (1877),

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(1879) and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(1882). It was purchased by the French merchant

Adolphe Goupil ''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...

. Di Chirico's works were exposed at the

Goupil & Cie Goupil & Cie is an international auction house and merchant of contemporary art and collectibles. Jean-Baptiste Adophe Goupil founded Goupil & Cie in 1850. Goupil & Cie became a leading art dealership in 19th-century France, with its headquart ...

in Paris. He received the title Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy from

Victor Emmanuel II Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title o ...

. Between 1877 and 1878, Di Chirico was made an honorary professor at the Academy of Art in Naples. He spent August (

Ferragosto Ferragosto is a public holiday celebrated on August 15th in all of Italy. It originates from Feriae Augusti, the festival of emperor Augustus, who made the 1st of August a day of rest after weeks of hard work on the agricultural sector. It becam ...

) in

Maiori Maiori (Campanian: ; originally ''Rheginna Maior'') is a town and ''comune'' on the Amalfi coast in the province of Salerno (Campania, Italy). It has been a popular tourist resort since Roman times, with the longest unbroken stretch of beach on ...

, where he met his wife Emilia D’Amato. He remained with her for the rest of his life and they had a daughter named Maria. One of his pupils was

Pietro Scoppetta Pietro Scoppetta or Scappetta (Amalfi, Province of Salerno, 1863 – Naples, 1920) was an Italian painter, painting in an Impressionist style using both oil and pastels. Biography He moved in 1891 to Naples to study painting at the Istituto of ...

. As his artistic career continued to reach new heights, so did the rise of his activity until 1882, when Di Chirico began to exhibit symptoms of

mania Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a mental and behavioral disorder defined as a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together wit ...

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary ...

and

cachexia Cachexia () is a complex syndrome associated with an underlying illness, causing ongoing muscle loss that is not entirely reversed with nutritional supplementation. A range of diseases can cause cachexia, most commonly cancer, congestive heart f ...

, a pattern of ailments that overlapped with the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh's illness. Di Chirico was confined to the Provincial lunatic asylum for his mental illness. In the asylum, his physical health continued to deteriorate, and he died during treatment in Naples in 1883 at age 39.

Artworks

File:Giacomo_Di_Chirico,_Buoso_da_Duera_(19th_century).jpg, Buoso da Duera File:Sposalizio in Basilicata.jpg, Sposalizio in Basilicata File:Donna lucana.jpg, Donna lucana File:Quinto Orazio Flacco.jpg,

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

File:Giacomo di Chirico Ministrant.jpg, Il ministrante

Honor

• Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy,

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

Enrico Castelnuovo Enrico Castelnuovo (February 12, 1839 – February 16, 1915) was an Italian writer who had an active role in the Italian unification movement. He was the father of Guido Castelnuovo Guido Castelnuovo (14 August 1865 – 27 April 1952) was an I ...

, ''La Pittura in Italia: l'Ottocento, Volume 2'', p. 805

Notes

Bibliography

*Richard Muther, ''The history of modern painting, Volume 3'', J.M. Dent & Co., 1907. *Enrico Castelnuovo, ''La Pittura in Italia: l'Ottocento, Volume 2'', Electa, 1991.

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20110205072127/http://www.giacomodichirico.com/ (in English)
Biografia di Giacomo Di ChiricoWedding of the Prefect of the Province of Basilicata in the South of Italy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Chirico, Giacomo 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Naples 1844 births 1883 deaths People from Venosa Academic art 19th-century Italian male artists