Gabriele Castagnola (14 November 1828 – 30 August 1883) was an Italian

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

and painter, in the academic style.

Life and work

He studied at Genoa's Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti from 1840 to 1847 then, from 1849 to 1852, he worked as a magazine illustrator. For the next five years, he was primarily involved with creating lithographic prints. In 1858, he began to focus on paintings with historical and literary themes. This occupied him for a decade, and was his most successful period. Many of these works depicted scenes from the ongoing

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. During this time, he continued his studies. In 1860, he went to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

to attend the private school operated by

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 ...

. In 1865, he settled permanently in Florence. That same year, he was named an 'Academician of Merit" at his alma mater in Genoa. Two years later, his painting of the assassination of Alessandro de'Medici was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, at the Italian pavilion. This experience would prompt him to join with several other painters in a protest against the selection committee for works to be sent to the Exposition. He frequented the

Caffè Michelangiolo Caffè Michelangiolo was a historic café in Florence, located in Via Larga (now renamed Via Cavour). During the nineteenth century Wars of Italian Independence, it became a major meeting place for Tuscan writers and artists, and for patriots and ...

, a gathering place for the city's writers and artists, and was a close associate of the fresco painter,

Nicolò Barabino Nicolò Barabino (1831–1891) was an Italian academic painter of religious and historical subjects, active in Florence and Genoa. Biography He was born in Sampierdarena. His initial studies were at the Genovese Accademia Ligustica di Belle ...

, who was also from Genoa. In his later years, he painted fewer historical scenes; preferring to focus on

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

scenes instead.The Gallery of the Accademia Ligustica Many of these involved love and romance. He was also fond of portraying nuns.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castagnola, Gabriele 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 1828 births 1883 deaths Painters from Tuscany 19th-century Italian male artists

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links