Giovanni Costa (15 October 1826 – 31 January 1903), often known as Nino Costa, was an Italian

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and patriotic revolutionary.

Biography

Giovanni Costa, Donne che imbarcano legna a Porto d'Anzio

Giovanni Costa was born in Rome on 15 October 1826, the fourteenth of the sixteen children of Gioacchino Costa (died 1842) and Maria Chiappi (died 1857). His father was from

Santa Margherita Ligure Santa Margherita Ligure ( lij, Santa Margaita) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about southeast of Genoa, in the area traditionally known as Tigullio. It has a port, used for b ...

and as a young man had moved to Rome, where he opened a wool-spinning factory and achieved wealth and position. The family lived in a large house in Piazza San Francesco a Ripa, in

Trastevere Trastevere () is the 13th ''rione'' of Rome: it is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin ''trans Tiberim'', literally 'beyond the Tiber'. Its coat of arms depicts a golden head of a lio ...

, close to the factory. When he was 12 Giovanni was introduced to the neo-classical painter Baron

Vincenzo Camuccini Vincenzo Camuccini (22 February 1771 – 2 September 1844) was an Italian painter of Neoclassic histories and religious paintings. He was considered the premier academic painter of his time in Rome. Biography Camuccini was born in Rome, and fir ...

, who encouraged him to work from nature and from what he saw around him. Soon after was sent to the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

college at

Montefiascone Montefiascone is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, central Italy. It stands on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena, about north of Rome. History The name of the city derives from that of the Falisci (''Mons Fa ...

, where remained for five years. Costa returned to Rome in 1843, the year after the death of this father, and for two years attended the Collegio Bandinelli in the

via Giulia Via or VIA may refer to the following: Science and technology * MOS Technology 6522, Versatile Interface Adapter * ''Via'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae * Via (electronics), a through-connection * VIA Technologies, a Taiwan ...

, founded by Bartolommeo Bandinelli in 1678, where he was taught drawing by Luigi Durantini. He then worked for short time in the studio of Vincenzo Camuccini before entering the schools of the

Accademia di San Luca 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 ...

, where he studied under

Francesco Coghetti Francesco Coghetti (12 July 1801 – 20 April 1875) was an Italian painter and art school administrator. Biography He was born to a wealthy family which enabled him to be educated at prestigious private schools. After completing his primary studi ...

Francesco Podesti Francesco Podesti (21 March 1800 – 10 February 1895) was an Italian painter, active in a Romantic style. Together with Francesco Hayez and Giuseppe Bezzuoli, he is considered one of the greatest Italian painters of the first half of the 19th c ...

and Filippo Agricola. He fought under

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

in 1848, and served as a volunteer in the war of 1859; his enthusiasm for Italian unity was actively shown again in 1870, when he was the first to mount the breach in the assault of Rome near the

Porta Pia Porta Pia is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Port ...

Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Costa Nino, Strada in pianura

He had settled meanwhile at

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 ...

, where his fight for the independence of art from worn-out traditions was no less strenuous. Here he completed a ''Donne sulla spiaggia di Porto d'Anzio'' (Girl on the Beach of Porto d'Anzio). He also became known as a landscape-painter of remarkable originality, and of great influence in the return to minute observation of nature. He painted, mainly rustic scenes involving herders and cattle. He was a major inspiration to the artists known as 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 ...

, and also had many English and American friends and followers, notably

Elihu Vedder Elihu Vedder (February 26, 1836January 29, 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet, born in New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of ''The Rubaiyat of Om ...

, Matthew Ridley Corbet (1850–1902) and his wife Edith Corbet, and

Lord Carlisle Lord Carlisle may refer to: * Mark Carlisle, Baron Carlisle of Bucklow * Earl of Carlisle, a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England See also

* Alex Carlile, Baron Carlile of Berriew {{disambiguation, tndis ...

, and was closely associated with

Corot CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly th ...

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 ...

, whom he met while visiting Paris.. In 1853, he established a lifetime friendship with a young

Frederick Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical antiqui ...

, who was then sojourning in Rome. His exile from Rome lasted until 1862. An exhibition of his pictures was held in London in 1904, and he is represented in the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. He died at

Marina di Pisa Marina di Pisa is a seaside resort of Tuscany, in central Italy. It is a ''frazione'' of the provincial capital of Pisa, which lies about 10 km to the east. Geography Marina di Pisa lies on the left bank of the Arno River, where it flows i ...

on 31 January 1903.

References

;Attribution *

Biography

References

Further reading