Silvestro Lega

Silvestro Lega (8 December 1826 - 21 September 1895) was an Italian realist painter. He was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was also involved with the Mazzini movement.

Biography

Lega was born in Modigliana, near Forlì, to an affluent family. From 1843 to 1847 he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, studying drawing under Benedetto Servolini (1805–79) and Tommaso Gazzarini (1790–1853), then studying painting, briefly, under Giuseppe Bezzuoli. During 1847 he attended Luigi Mussini’s school, where the teaching emphasized the 15th-century Florentine principles of drawing and orderly construction. Then and for some years afterwards he continued to attend the Scuola del Nudo of the Accademia.

As a Garibaldian volunteer, Lega participated in the military campaigns for Italian independence (1848–9) before resuming his training, this time under Antonio Ciseri, completing his first large-scale painting, Doubting Thomas (1850; Modigliana, Osp. Civ.). In 1852 he won the Concorso Trienniale dell’Accademia with David Placating Saul.

He died in Florence in 1895 of stomach cancer.

Partial list of works

• Il sacro cuore di Gesù, oil painting
• La casa di don Giovanni Verità, 1855, oil on canvas, 37 x 28, Livorno, museum Civico
• Episodio della guerra del 1859 - Ritorno di bersaglieri italiani da una ricognizione, 1861, oil on canvas, 57,5 x 95, Florence, Art-Modern gallery, Palazzo Pitti
• Ritratto di Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1861, oil on canvas, 111 x 78,4, Private collection
• Tra i fiori del giardino, 1862, oil on canvas, 49 x 59, Private collection
• Il primo dolore, 1863, oil on canvas, 39,5 x 50, Genoa, Provincial Palace
• L’educazione al lavoro, 1863, oil painting, 87 x 65, Hotel Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Private collection
• L’elemosina, 1864, oil on canvas, 71,8 x 124, Private collection
• La nonna, 1865, oil on canvas, 59 x 70, Private collection
• Due bambine che fanno le signore - Divertimento infantile, 1865, oil on canvas, 57,5 x 94, Private collection
• Il canto di uno stornello, 1867, oil on canvas, 158 x 98, Florance, Art-Modern Gallery, Pitti Palace
• Un dopo pranzo, 1868, oil on canvas, 75 x 93,5, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera
• La visita, 1868, oil on canvas on wood panel, 31 x 60, Rome, National Art-Modern Galery
• I promessi sposi, 1869, oil on canvas, 33,5 x 77, Milan, Museum of Science of Leonardo da Vinci
• La lettura, oil on paper laid down on wood, Bari, Provincial art-Gallery
• Donna con edera, oil on board, Genoa Nervi, Raccolte Frugone Gallery
• Una madre, 1884, oil on canvas, 191 x 124, Private collection
• Gabbrigiana in piedi, 1888, oil on canvas, 140 x 86, Private collection
• Pagliai al sole, oil on board, 28 x 38, ca 1890, Piacenza, Gallery Ricci Oddi

References

• Broude, Norma (1987). The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03547-0
• Steingräber, E., & Matteucci, G. (1984). The Macchiaioli: Tuscan Painters of the Sunlight : March 14-April 20, 1984. New York: Stair Sainty Matthiesen in association with Matthiesen, London. OCLC 70337478

External links

• Silvestro Lega in Artcyclopedia