Giacomo Leopardi | The Lonely Sparrow / Il Passero Solitario, 1835

D'in su la vetta della torre antica,

Passero solitario, alla campagna

Cantando vai finchè non more il giorno;

Ed erra l’armonia per questa valle.

Primavera dintorno

Brilla nell’aria, e per li campi esulta,

Sì ch’a mirarla intenerisce il core.

Odi greggi belar, muggire armenti;

Caspar David Friedrich | Il sognatore, 1835 | Hermitage Museum St Petersburg

Cristiano Banti | Macchiaioli painter

Cristiano Banti (4 January 1824 - 4 December 1904) was an Italian genre and landscape painter. He was a leading figure in the Macchiaioli movement of Tuscany.

Banti was born into a middle class family in Santa Croce sull'Arno. A scholarship enabled him to study at the Accademia di belle arti di Siena with Francesco Nenci.

At this time, he worked in the Neo-Classical style and produced what is perhaps his best-known work, Galileo Facing the Inquisition.

In 1854, he moved to Florence and became an habitué of the Caffè Michelangiolo, an important meeting place for local artists.

It was here that he had his introduction to the Macchiaioli movement.

Sergio Cerchi, 1957 | Figures and Geometries

Italian artist Sergio Cerchi was born in Florence, where he still lives and works.

He was educated at the Art Institute d'Arte di Porta Romana and studied at the Cherubim Conservatory courses.

From childhood, Sergio Cerci was "torn" between music and the visual arts: two indivisible passions cultivated with tenacity and determination, forcing him to simultaneously attend the workshops of local artists and play in various musical groups.

He began painting at the age of 15, trying different techniques and approaches before his personal style matured.

Orazio Borgianni | Baroque painter

Orazio Borgianni (6 April 1574 - 14 January 1616) was an Italian painter and etcher of the Mannerist and early-Baroque periods. He was the stepbrother of the sculptor and architect Giulio Lasso.

Borgianni was born in Rome, where he was documented in February 1604. He was instructed in the art of painting by his brother, Giulio Borgianni, called Scalzo.

The patronage by Philip II of Spain induced him to visit Spain, where he signed an inventory in January 1605.

He returned to Rome from Spain after April 1605 at the height of his career, and most of the work of his maturity was carried out 1605–16.

Cesare Dandini | Baroque painter

Cesare Dandini (1 October 1596 - 7 February 1657) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his native city of Florence.

He was the older brother of the painter Vincenzo Dandini (1609-1675).

His nephew, Pietro was a pupil of Vincenzo, and Pietro's two sons, Ottaviano Dandini and the Jesuit priest Vincenzo also worked as painters in Florence.

According to the biographer Baldinucci, Cesare first worked under Francesco Curradi, then Cristofano Allori, and finally Domenico Passignano.

Lucio Olivieri, 1934 | Figurative sculptor

Lucio Oliveri is a contemporary Italian sculptor who lives and works in his native city of Milan.

For some year now, he has identified himself in a personalized figurative that aims to express states of mind and human attitudes through the synthesis/essential of the human figure.

Lucio Oliveri's artistic vocation was sparked in 1954 at the age of nineteen at the time of his father's death, when he decided to make a plasticine portrait of him.

In the 1970s he attended a sculpture course at the Centro Artistico Culturale Milanese for seven years under the guidance of Franco Zazzeri, completing his self-taught training.

Paolo Veronese | Pittore Rinascimentale

Paolo Caliari, detto Paolo Veronese nacque a Verona nel 1528, da un Gabriele tagliapietra e da Caterina; morì a Venezia il 9 aprile 1588. Suo primo ed effettivo maestro, ricordato dai documenti, fu il pittore Antonio Badile (1518-1560) presso il quale il giovane Veronese fu a bottega; e non molto maggiore importanza per il principiante dovette avere l'arte di Domenico Brusasorci (nato nel 1516): ambedue codesti pittori non certo grandissimi discendevano da Gianfrancesco e Giovanni Caroto, artisti di quella branca che s'ingegnava a orientare la pittura veronese verso Venezia.

Sulla prima formazione tecnica di Veronese dovettero anche avere efficienza i maestri bresciani Romanino, Moretto e Savoldo, presenti con opere a Verona al suo tempo. Scarsamente tuttavia: ché il giovane Caliari aveva in sé troppa forza per poter soggiacere all'inferiorità espressiva dei citati; e, per quel tanto che volle seguire la loro via, preferì farlo rivolgendosi direttamente alla fonte delle novità tecniche ch'essi portavano in patria: a Venezia, cioè, la quale esercitò subito su di lui il suo altissimo fascino.

Napoleone Nani (1841-1899) | Pittore di Genere

Nani, Napoleone - Nacque a Venezia da Luigi e da Elisa Fortes il 18 maggio 1839 e fu battezzato nella parrocchia di S. Geremia. Iscritto all'Accademia di belle arti della città natale dal 1853, subito ottenne premi e riconoscimenti: nel 1854 per gli "elementi di figura", nel 1856 per l’"invenzione della figura palliata" e per i "nudi in disegno" sia aggruppato sia semplice; nel 1858 per l’"insieme storico in cartone" nella sezione pittura.

Già agli inizi degli anni Sessanta iniziò la sua duplice attività d’insegnamento ed espositiva.

Venne nominato nel 1862 aggiunto provvisorio all'insegnamento degli elementi di figura, statuaria e anatomia dell’Accademia di Venezia, dove espose nel 1863 Il figlio del pescatore e, nel 1864, Mezza figura di donna (n. 123; Milano, Archivio studio Paul Nicholls).