Luigi Agretti (16 August 1877,

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

– 17 November 1937, La Spezia) was an Italian painter and decorator. He used a formal repertoire of late Neoclassical origin. Throughout his career, he alternated between

easel painting An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, easels are traditionally used by painters to support a painting while they work on it, normally ...

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es, and ornamental decorations. His works, whether in oil or fresco, are characterised by attention to detail, with precision in drawing. He worked on sacred, profane, historical and mythological subjects.

Biography

Luigi Agretti started learning art from his father, Cesare Agretti, a painter and decorator who settled in La Spezia from his native Perugia. At the age of fifteen, in 1891, he traveled to

Monte Castello di Vibio Monte Castello di Vibio is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 30 km south of Perugia. Monte Castello di Vibio borders the following municipalities: Fratta Todina, San Venanzo, Tod ...

, in the province of

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, where he already received his first solo project: the decoration of the Teatro della Concordia (restored in 1993 and still active today), which is considered the world's smallest theater, with ninety-nine seats. In 1895, in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, he won a scholarship for young artists and was able to go to

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 ...

, where he attended the

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 ...

and simultaneously worked for his mentors

Domenico Bruschi Domenico Bruschi (13 June 1840 – 19 October 1910) was an Italian painter and educator. Bruschi also designed tapestries, Renaissance revival wooden furniture, sculptures in stucco and stained glass windows. Bruschi served as the chair of Orname ...

and

Annibale Brugnoli Annibale Brugnoli (22 February 1843 – 11 December 1915) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre and historical pieces, in oil and fresco. Biography He was born in Perugia, where he initially studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia unde ...

, assisting them in many projects in Rome,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

(Palazzo Cesaroni),

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

, and

Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pren ...

(Duomo). Due to the numerous works he created in Perugia, the Perugia Academy of Fine Arts appointed him as an "Academic of Merit" in 1903 and offered him a chair for teaching

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...

and pictorial anatomy. However, he declined the position to remain in his city. Upon returning to

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

, he painted frescoes in the parish churches of Neirone, San Pellegrino di Sturla, Favale di Malvaro, and the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in

Arcola Arcola may refer to: Places ; Australia * Arcola, Grafton, a heritage-listed house in New South Wales ;Canada * Arcola, Saskatchewan, a town in the Province of Saskatchewan * Arcola Airport, an airport in the Province of Saskatchewan ;England * ...

. He created three fresco medallions in the atrium of the ticket office of the train station in his city as we as canvases, including ''Le nozze di Psiche'', ''Mater Amabilis'' (exhibited in Florence in 1900), an ''Allegoria della guerra,'' ''Tricolore'' (preserved in the Pinacoteca Comunale of La Spezia), and several landscapes, kept in the Pinacoteca in Imola. In 1934, he participated in the Fascista Belle Arti di La Spezia, the First Provincial Exhibition, with works such as''Sulla Magra'' and ''Pesca agli Stagnoni.'' A few years later, he passed away at the age of sixty in his city, which honored him by naming a street after him.

Works

Frescoes

* Churches:

Neirone Neirone ( lij, Neion) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about east of Genoa. Neirone borders the following municipalities: Favale di Malvaro, Lorsica, Lumarzo, Mocònesi, T ...

(

Province of Genoa The Province of Genoa (Italian ''Provincia di Genova'') was a province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Genoa. It was replaced by Metropolitan City of Genoa. Overview It has an area of and a total population of about ...

Favale di Malvaro Favale di Malvaro ( lij, O Favâ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about east of Genoa. Favale di Malvaro borders the following municipalities: Lorsica, Mocònesi, Neirone, ...

(Province of Genoa), ''San Pellegrino'' Genova Sturla; Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta La Spezia, Tremossi di Borzonasca (Province of Genoa), Caregli, Church of Santa Maria Maddalena Castelnuovo Magra (Province of La Spezia), Annunziata Ceparana di Bolano (

Province of La Spezia A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

), San Francesco Lerici (Province of La Spezia) (decorations on the parish vault), Santa Illuminata Monte Castello di Vibio (Province of Perugia). * Sanctuaries: Madonna degli Angeli di Arcola (Province of La Spezia), San Nicolò Arcola (Province of La Spezia). * Atrium of the La Spezia Stazione Centrale. * Crozza Palace

Canvases

* ''Mater Amabilis'' (ritratto della madre) * ''Le quattro stagioni'' * ''Le nozze di Cana'' * ''Caterina de' Medici giunge a La Spezia'' * ''la Madonna in Egitto''.

Other

* ''Le nozze di Psiche'' on the ceiling of the hall and various decorative panels in the Villa Marmori-Ceretti in La Spezia, * The frieze of ''Sala dei Matrimoni'' (former Palazzo Cenere – ex Town Hall of La Spezia). * The frieze of the former Cozzani Theatre in La Spezia. * Decorative panels of a theatre in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California. * Decorations of the Fabbricotti Castle in Bocca di Magra. * Project for the Church of San Francesco in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

: ''Trasporto della Salma di Dante, Visione del Paradiso, Trionfo della Religione.''

Gallery

File:Teatro della Concordia - Monte Castello di Vibio 3.jpg, alt=, Fresco in the Teatro della Concordia, Monte Castello di Vibio, 1892 File:L'Industria affresco nell'atrio della Stazione Centrale 1897.jpg, alt=, ''Industria,'' fresco in the atrium of the La Spezia Stazione Centrale 1897 File:Il Commercio affresco nell'atrio della Stazione Centrale 1897.jpg, alt=, ''Commercio'', fresco in the atrium of the La Spezia Stazione Centrale 1897 File:La Spezia affresco nell'atrio della Stazione Centrale 1897.jpg, alt=, ''La Spezia'', fresco in the atrium of the La Spezia Stazione Centrale 1897 File:Affreschi di Agretti nella biblioteca Mazzini.JPG, alt=, Frescoes in the ballroom of Palazzo Crozza, La Spezia 1900 File:Affreschi di Agretti(2) nella biblioteca Mazzini.JPG, alt=, Fresco in the vault of the staircase of Palazzo Crozza, La Spezia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agretti, Luigi 1937 deaths 1877 births 20th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian painters People from La Spezia