Giulio Cantalamessa (1 April 1846 – 12 September 1924) was an Italian painter and art critic.

Biography

He was born in

Ascoli Piceno Ascoli Piceno (; la, Asculum; dialetto ascolano: Ascule) is a town and ''comune'' in the Marche region of Italy, capital of the province of the same name. Its population is around 46,000 but the urban area of the city has more than 93,000. Geo ...

. Against his parents wishes, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna under

Antonio Puccinelli Antonio Puccinelli (19 March 1822, Castelfranco di Sotto - 22 July 1897, Florence) was an Italian painter; one of the group known as the "Macchiaioli". Biography He was the son of a tailor and was planning to follow his father in that trade, ...

. He then worked under

Antonio Ciseri Antonio Ciseri (25 October 1821 – 8 March 1891) was a Swiss-Italian painter of religious subjects. Biography He was born in Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland. He went to Florence in 1833 to study drawing with Ernesto Bonaiuti. Within a year, ...

in Florence for a year. In 1868 he paints ''Plauto in atto di scrivere una scena faceta'', which wins a first prize at the Fermo Exhibition of 1869. In 1871, he moved to Rome. In 1873, he painted ''Francesco Stabili (Cecco d' Ascoli)'' for the commune of Ascoli. He also painted a number of religious subjects for churches in the Marche, and portraits. In 1883, his health made him stop painting a large canvas depicting ''Pope John X fatto strozzare da Marozia nelle prigioni''. He went on to become active in inventorizing the galleries in Modena (1894 with help from

Corrado Ricci Corrado may refer to: Places *Anticoli Corrado, comune in the City of Rome *Monte Vidon Corrado, comune in the Province of Fermo People Given name *See Corrado (given name) Surname *Andrea Corrado (1873-1963), Italian ship owner *Andrea Di Corrado ...

and

Adolfo Venturi Adolfo Venturi (3 September 1856, Modena – 10 June 1941, Santa Margherita Ligure) was an Italian art historian. His son, Lionello Venturi, was also an art historian. Biography He received his education in Modena and Florence, and in 1878 ...

), Venice, as well as the

Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist ...

in Rome. Late in life, and despite illness, Cantalamessa examined the ''

Isleworth Mona Lisa The ''Isleworth Mona Lisa'' is an early sixteenth-century oil on canvas painting depicting the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's ''Mona Lisa'', though with the subject ( Lisa del Giocondo) depicted as being a younger age. The painting is thou ...

'' and was reported to have said of it: "This is the best ''Mona Lisa'' that I have seen except the Louvre, which was in my hands for nearly two months. It is undoubtedly from Leonardo's studio, but I cannot give a further opinion. For this picture documentary evidence is of primary importance because the ''Mona Lisa'' in the Louvre has been there so long".John R. Eyre, ''The Two Mona Lisas: Which was Giacondo's Picture?'' (J.M. Ouseley and Son, Ltd., 1923), p. 35.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantalamessa Giulio 1846 births 1924 deaths People from Ascoli Piceno 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian art critics 19th-century Italian male artists