Domenico Fetti | Baroque painter

Biography from: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Domenico Fetti (1589-1623) was born in 1589, almost certainly in Rome, and is known to have been educated at the Collegio Romano.

He probably received his initial artistic training from his father, Pietro Fetti, a painter, perhaps from Ferrara, about whom very little is known.

Contemporary sources refer to Domenico Fetti as a student of Ludovico Cardi, called Il Cigoli (1559-1613).

Domenico could have entered Cigoli's shop as early as 1604, the year in which the Florentine painter came to Rome.

Orsola Caccia (1596-1676) | Mannerist painter

Orsola Maddalena Caccia, born Theodora Caccia (1596-1676) was an Italian Mannerist painter and Catholic nun.

She painted religious images, altarpieces, and still lifes.

The daughter of painter Guglielmo Caccia and Laura Olivia, she was baptized Theodora Orsola on December 4, 1596.

In 1620, she entered the Ursulines convent at Bianzè, where she changed her name to Orsola Maddalena after she took her vows.

Pietro Gabrini | Genre painter

Pietro Gabrini (Rome, 1856-1926) was an Italian painter and watercolourist who worked in variety of mediums on diverse subject matters.

A pupil of Guglielmo de Sanctis, he soon devoted himself to painting historical and literary subjects - "Romeo and Juliet", exhibited in Rome in 1885.

From the mid-1980s he also tackled genre subjects and landscapes, creating watercolors of the Roman countryside.

Luigi Pirandello | Sogno di Natale, 1896

Sentivo da un pezzo sul capo inchinato tra le braccia come l'impressione d'una mano lieve, in atto tra di carezza e di protezione. Ma l'anima mia era lontana, errante pei luoghi veduti fin dalla fanciullezza, dei quali mi spirava ancor dentro il sentimento, non tanto però che bastasse al bisogno che provavo di rivivere, fors'anche per un minuto, la vita come immaginavo si dovesse in quel punto svolgere in essi.

Era festa dovunque: in ogni chiesa, in ogni casa: intorno al ceppo, lassù; innanzi a un Presepe, laggiù; noti volti tra ignoti riuniti in lieta cena; eran canti sacri, suoni di zampogne, gridi di fanciulli esultanti, contese di giocatori. . . E le vie delle città grandi e piccole, dei villaggi, dei borghi alpestri o marini, eran deserte nella rigida notte. E mi pareva di andar frettoloso per quelle vie, da questa casa a quella, per godere della raccolta festa degli altri; mi trattenevo un poco in ognuna, poi auguravo:

- Buon Natale - e sparivo. . .

Tiziano Vecellio | La Madonna di San Niccolò dei Frari, 1533-1535

Salvatore Quasimodo | Natale / Christmas

Natale. Guardo il presepe scolpito,

dove sono i pastori appena giunti

alla povera stalla di Betlemme.

Anche i Re Magi nelle lunghe vesti

salutano il potente Re del mondo.

Jacopo Tintoretto | The Madonna of the Stars, c. 1575-1585 | National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Galileo Chini | Art Nouveau painter

One of the leading players in the Art Nouveau style, or Liberty style as it is known in Italy, the Tuscan painter Galileo Chini (1873-1956) - who was also a graphic artist and a ceramicist) - occupies a unique place in the panorama of Italian art.

Born in Florence, Galileo Chini pursued his artistic studies in a sporadic, desultory manner, attending the Scuola Libera di Nudo at the city's Accademia di Belle Arti for a while, but without ever gaining any kind of diploma from it, he was to break off his studies in order to work as an artisan in the workshop of his uncle, a restorer and decorator.

Giuseppe Amisani | Belle Époque painter

Italian portrait painter of the Belle Époque Giuseppe Amisani (1881-1941) was an important figure in his lifetime, though almost entirely forgotten today - his name is not included in the principal works of reference in the twenty-first century.

He was a close contemporary of Umberto Boccioni and of Pablo Picasso, but completely ignored currents such as Futurism and Cubism which changed the face of fine art in the twentieth century, preferring to satisfy the tastes of his clients, who were the noble, rich and the famous of his time.

His reputation was for elegance and for the fresh colours of his palette.

A retrospective exhibition of his work at the Castello Sforzesco of Vigevano in the province of Pavia in 2008 was the first dedicated to him in fifty years.

Juana Romani | Belle Époque painter

Biography from: Sotheby's

Born in Velletri, Italy, Joana Carolina Carlessimo, called Juana Romani, moved with her family as a young girl to Paris, where she first encountered painting as an art school model.

At age nineteen, Romani began her training as the pupil of Jean-Jacques Henner before becoming a student of Ferdinand Roybet, and later, his mistress.

Like Roybet, she chose historical subjects and painted many portraits of young, mysterious women in costume.

Gottardo Segantini | Divisionist painter

Biography from: The British Museum

Gottardo Guido Segantini (1882-1974) - Painter and etcher. The eldest son of the painter Giovanni Segantini.

Born in Pusiano near Brianza in the province of Como.Gottardo SegantiniHe moved with his family to Savognin in Switzerland in 1882 and to Maloja in 1894.

In 1899 Gottardo Segantini spent a few months at the Accademia di Brera before going on to Zurich to study engineering at the Technical University (now ETH) where he learnt the technique of etching, and began painting in 1902.

Ettore Roesler Franz | Vanished Rome / Roma sparita

Ettore Roesler Franz, painter and watercolorist, son of Luigi and Teresa Biondi, was born in Rome on May 11, 1845 and here died on March 26, 1907.

Founder and President of the Society of Watercolor Artists in Rome, he is among the Italian painters of the nineteenth century who most exposed and have established himselves in Italy and abroad.

He can be considered as one of the most valuable examples of the late nineteenth century of Realism genre and among the best Italian watercolourists ever.

Leonardo Bazzaro | Pittore naturalista

Considerato uno dei principali esponenti del naturalismo lombardo, al pari di Eugenio Gignous e Filippo Carcano, la produzione artistica di Leonardo Bazzaro (1853-1937) è maggiormente concentrata su soggetti paesaggistici dove viene esaltata la rappresentazione del quotidiano familiare.

Nei primi anni di attività, Bazzaro si orienta su vedute prospettiche di interni di chiese e di noti palazzi milanesi, con un'impronta verista di matrice sei-settecentesca derivata dal maestro Giuseppe Bertini: gli ex compagni di Brera gli attribuiscono il soprannome piccolo Velasquez, ad attestare la forte intensità espressiva raggiunta in queste prima fase.

Gioacchino Toma | Genre painter

Gioacchino Toma (24 January 1836 - 12 January 1891) was an Italian art instructor and painter, noted primarily for historic, realistic and genre subjects in a Romantic style.

Toward the end of his life, Toma authored his autobiography, Memories of an Orphan (Ricordi di un Orfano, Giannini and Figli, 1886) relating a series of memories to his son, Gustavo: his difficult childhood; his tenacity; his desire for redemption; and his civil and political commitment.

Vincenzo Volpe | Verismo painter

Vincenzo Volpe (December 14, 1855 – February 9, 1929) was an Italian painter.

From 1874 to 1890, he painted mostly genre scenes.

From 1891 to 1896, he concentrated on religious art, then returned to genre works and portraits.

Vincenzo Volpe was born in Grottaminarda, Campania.

His family moved to Naples when he was eight, and in 1871 he enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti there and studied with Domenico Morelli.

Maxmilian Ciccone, 1972 | Figurative painter

Italian painter Maxmilian Ciccone was born in the beautiful mountainous region of Calabria, near Catanzaro.

As a child, was evident his artistic inclination which later led him to study art at the Liceo Artistico of Catanzaro.

Without ay further education, his art career has continued to grow steadily.

His intense passion for art lead him to study painters of the past, such as: Caravaggio, Shishkin and Kramskoi.

Raffaello Celommi | Genre / seascape painter

Raffaello Celommi (19 April 1881 - 3 March 1957) was an Italian genre and seascape painter.

He was born in Florence to the painter Pasquale Celommi and his Florentine mother, Giuseppina Giusti.

Within a few months, he developed respiratory ailments, and his mother moved to Roseto degli Abruzzi, a sea-side town in the province of Abruzzo, hoping the marine air would benefit him.

His childhood nickname was Felluccio.

Livio Možina, 1941 | Realist painter

Livio Možina is an Italian painter, born in Trieste. He started painting at the age of 28 as an autodidact, and in 1971 he held his first solo exhibition.

He concentrated in particular on still life and landscapes.

His experience is very personal and has its roots in hyperrealism.

Giambattista Bassi | Master of Verismo

Gian Battista Bassi was an Italian painter. In his day he was defined as the "Master of Verismo".

Born in 1784 in Massa Lombarda, Giambattista Bassi joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 1810, and thanks to one of his paintings, he was awarded a three year stay in Rome.

Among many, he became friends with Tommaso Minardi, Antonio Canova and Pietro Giordani, thanks to whom Bassi was able to obtain his first important commission: two paintings for the King of Naples.

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,

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.