Luigi Acquisti (1745–1823) was an Italian sculptor mainly known for his works in the neoclassical style. He was born in

Forlì Forlì ( , ; rgn, Furlè ; la, Forum Livii) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. It is the central city of Romagna. The city is situated along the Via E ...

the 29 March 1747 and died in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

in 1823. His works are distributed throughout Italy. Among them are reliefs of '' Arco della Pace'' in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

; the statue of the ''Vecchia Legge'' for the facade of

Milan Cathedral Milan Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Milano ; lmo, Domm de Milan ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary ( it, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente, links=no), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombard ...

; ''Mars and Venus'' for the

Villa Carlotta Villa Carlotta is a villa and botanical garden in Tremezzo on Lake Como in Northern Italy. Today the villa is a museum, whose collection includes works by sculptors such as Antonio Canova, Bertel Thorvaldsen, and Giovanni Migliara; painters su ...

Tremezzo Tremezzo is a ''comune'' (or municipality) of some 1,300 people in the Province of Como, in the Italian region Lombardy. It is located on the western shore of Lake Como between Mezzegra to the southwest and Griante to the northeast, and about ...

Lake Como Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...

; statues in

Palazzo Braschi Palazzo Braschi () is a large Neoclassical palace in Rome, Italy and is located between the Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Piazza di Pasquino. It presently houses the Museo di Roma, the "Museum of Ro ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

; and an ''Atlanta'' (c. 1806) for the Villa Belgiojoso Bonaparte in Milan.

Biography

Acquisti was still young when he moved to Bologna in order to study at the

Accademia Clementina The Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna ("academy of fine arts of Bologna") is a public tertiary academy of fine art in Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. It has a campus in Cesena. Giorgio Morandi taught engraving at the Accademia f ...

as a student of Filippo Balugani and

Carlo Bianconi Carlo Bianconi (1732 – August 15, 1802) was an Italian painter, engraver, and architect. Biography He trained in Bologna with Ercole Graziani the Younger in Bologna. He created many engravings of antiquities. In Bologna, he worked with ...

. He consecutively won the prestigious 1st class Marsili-Aldrovandi prize with his works ''Enea condotto dalla Sibilla ai Campi Elisi'' (1774) and ''Un Romano che rapisce una Sabina'' (1775). In 1785 he was nominated ''Academico del Numero'' in the figurative sculpture class, and in 1780 he became the ''Direttore di Figura''. He was an honorary member of the Gran Ducale Fiorentina academy (1782), the

Academy of St Luke The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

(1803), and the Academy of Mantova.

Bologna

His work in Bologna (1774–1791) was typified by the ''decorazioni all'antica'' or decorations in imitation of the Greco-Roman classics. His work is also imbued with a search of the magnificent and impressive as seen in his enormous statue for the ''Chiesa del Triregno'' (1781). His masterpiece from this period is found in the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

of the Santuario Santa Maria della Vita (1787).

Rome

In 1792 Acquisti left Bologna for Rome (1792–1807) which was influenced by Acquisti having been a member of the board for the Curlandese prize. In the 1789 edition he saw the neoclassic style typical of

Antonio Canova Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the cl ...

, in the marble

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

''Le arti incoronate dal Genio'' by

Giacomo De Maria Giacomo De Maria (1762–1838) was an Italian sculptor, active in Bologna. Biography He was a pupil of Domenico Piò. Among his works are:Valadier. During this period he decorated the

near

Piazza Navona Piazza Navona () is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the '' agones' ...

, and sculpted a large bas-relief for the main altar of the church of San Pantaleo. 1793/1794 he made a white marble bust of Duke Frederick August of Oldenburg for the Duke's monument in the vestibule of the St Lambert Church in Oldenburg, Germany.Ralph Hennings/Torben Koopmann: St. Lamberti-Kirche in Oldenburg, Berlin/Munich 2011, p. 64-65.

Milan

After 1807 Acquisti moved to Milan, where he produced among his most famous works such as the marble statue ''Atalanta'', the marble group ''Mars and Venus'', the statue of ''David'' on the façade of the

and reliefs on the Arco della Pace. These last works were completed in neoclassical style.

Return to Bologna

Acquisti returned to Bologna in 1814, from then until his death producing sculptures for the

Certosa of Bologna The Certosa di Bologna is a former Carthusian monastery (or charterhouse) in Bologna, northern Italy, which was founded in 1334 and suppressed in 1797. In 1801 it became the city's Monumental Cemetery which would be much praised by Byron and other ...

. However, in the only two works that are known to be his in the cemetery (another pair is attributed to him with the consensus of experts), the artistic level has diminished and the monuments are of a modest nature with sparse detail.

Legacy

Acquisti, along with

Giacomo Rossi Giacomo Rossi was an Italian poet, translator and librettist who settled in London early in the 18th century and wrote librettos for George Frideric Handel, between 1710 and 1729. According to Rossi ''Rinaldo'' was written by Handel in a fortni ...

, helped promote the transition from the graceful figures of the

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and the flowery

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

to the heroic scenes inspired by

Benedetto Alfieri 180px, Benedetto Alfieri from the treatise of "Leben des Vittorio Alfieri" Benedetto Innocenzo Alfieri (8 June 1699 - 9 December 1767) was an Italian architect, a representative of the late-Baroque or Rococo style. Biography and works Born in R ...

. Despite having travelled around Italy, he is considered a Bolognese artist due to having spent most of his childhood in Bologna, having been educated in Bologna, and producing many of his most important works in Bologna. He is buried in the

References

External links

Italycyberguide entry Villa Carlota site
*

biography of Acquist

*Comune di Bologna informational brochur

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acquisti, Luigi 1745 births 1823 deaths Burials at Certosa cemetery People from Forlì Artists from Bologna Neoclassical sculptors 18th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 19th-century Italian sculptors 19th-century Italian male artists 18th-century Italian male artists