Dante Gabriel Rossetti | The Sonnet / Il sonetto

The Sonnet

A Sonnet is a moment's monument,-

Memorial from the Soul's eternity

To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Mary Cassatt | Impressionist painter

Mary Cassatt (born May 22, 1844, Allegheny City [now part of Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, U.S. - died June 14, 1926, Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, France), American painter and printmaker who was part of the group of Impressionists working in and around Paris. She took as her subjects almost exclusively women and children.

Cassatt was the daughter of a banker and lived in Europe for five years as a young girl. She was tutored privately in art in Philadelphia and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1861-65, but she preferred a less academic approach and in 1866 traveled to Europe to study with such European painters as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Thomas Couture.

Her first major showing was at the Paris Salon of 1872; four more annual Salon exhibitions followed.

Riccardo Benvenuti (1939-2018)

Riccardo Benvenuti è stato uno dei più noti ed apprezzati pittori contemporanei lucchesi.

Si è diplomato all'Istituto Passaglia dove tornerà anni dopo come insegnante di Pittura, Storia dell'Arte e Figurino.

Continuerà ad insegnare in diverse scuole della provincia di Lucca fino al 1985, ed è proprio durante questi anni che la sua attività di artista diventa prolifica e riconosciuta in diverse parti del mondo.

Nel 1958 organizza la sua prima personale mostra d'arte al Circolo Ufficiali di Lucca.

Jusepe de Ribera | Baroque painter

José de Ribera, José also spelled Jusepe, Josef, or Giuseppe, byname Lo Spagnoletto (Italian: “The Little Spaniard”), (baptized February 17, 1591, Játiva, Spain - died September 2, 1652, Naples [Italy]), Spanish painter and printmaker, noted for his Baroque dramatic realism and his depictions of religious and mythological subjects.

He was born in Spain but spent most of his life in Italy. Little is known of his life in Spain, though he is said by the painter and biographer Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco to have received his first training there under Francisco Ribalta.

Orazio Gentileschi | Baroque painter

Orazio Gentileschi, original name Orazio Lomi(born 1562, Pisa [Italy] - died February 7, 1639, London, England), Italian painter, one of the more important painters who came under the influence of Caravaggio and who was one of the more successful interpreters of his style.

His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was trained in his studio, also became a noteworthy Baroque artist.