Andrea Gastaldi (April 18, 1826 – January 9, 1889) was an Italian painter, primarily of historical canvases and portraits.

Biography

Gastaldi was born and died in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. He studied at the

Accademia Albertina The Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti ("Albertina Academy of Fine Arts") is an institution of higher education in Turin, Italy History In the first half of the seventeenth century, there was a "University of Painters, Sculptors and Architects" ...

under Michele Cusa, Giovan Battista Biscarra, and Carlo Arienti. He then traveled to Florence and Rome during 1850–1851 and 1853–1859; and spent some time in Paris studying in the studio of the history painter

Thomas Couture Thomas Couture (; 21 December 1815 – 30 March 1879) was a French history painter and teacher. He taught many notable contemporary figures of the art world, such as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge, Pierre Puvis de Chava ...

. He met also

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (; Paris, 17 July 1797 – Paris, 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subje ...

. In 1860 at the Promotrice of Turin, with the painting of ''

Pietro Micca Pietro Micca (6 March 1677 – 30 August 1706), also known as Pierre Micha, was an Italians, Italian soldier who became a national hero of the Duchy of Savoy for his sacrifice in the siege of Turin, defence of Turin against the Kingdom of France, ...

'', he won the institute award funded by the Marchese Di Breme, and was nominated to be professor of painting at the Albertina. Among his other works depicting historical or literary subjects is ''The Prisoner of Chillon'' (1854, Promotrice at Turin). This work is based on a poem by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

and was made into an acquaforte engraving by Alberto Maso Gilli in 1864 in an Album of the Promotrice. Other works include: '' Gerolamo Savonarola in jail'' (1856); ''L'Innominato'' (1860); and '' Atala'' (1862). The latter is the half-Christian and half-Seminole maiden at the center of a Romantic style novel by the French author Chateaubriand, and which culminates in her chaste suicide. A number of other painters including

Girodet Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (; or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion ...

Luis Monroy Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, and

Rodolfo Amoedo Rodolfo Amoedo (11 December 1857 – 31 May 1941) was a Brazilian painter, designer and decorator. Biography His interest in art and decoration began when a family friend invited him to do work on the now defunct Teatro São Pedro. In 1873, he ...

also depicted this subject. Gastaldi made two versions of the painting ''Sogno di Parisina'' (including the 1852 version at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

in Philadelphia, and a second 1867 version in Turin). The tragic story of Parisina was popularized by writers including

Matteo Bandello Matteo Bandello ( 1480–1562) was an Italian writer, soldier, Dominican friar and bishop, best known for his novellas. His collection of 214 novellas made him the most popular short-story writer of his day. Biography Matteo Bandello was b ...

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Spanish Baroque literature, Baroque literature. In the literature of ...

, and in 1816, Lord Byron. In the last version, the Duke of Ferrara ascertains his wife's infidelity, when she mentions her lover's name during sleep. The enraged Duke contracts the murder of the lover, who happens to be his bastard son; he has the assassins do so in front of the Duke's wife. Bartolomeo Giuliano also painted the same subject in 1861 and 1863 (Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin). Gastaldi's wife, Léonie Lescuyer-Gastaldi, was also a painter, who had trained with

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals (animalière). She also made sculptures in a Realism (arts), realist style. Her paintings include ''Ploughing in the N ...

. Gastaldi's brother Lorenzo was the archbishop of Turin from 1871 to 1883. Among Gastaldi's pupils were Giovan Battista Carpanetto,Notes for exhibition of ''Solo Donna''
by Gianfranco Schialvino in the city of Bra in 2011, page 62. Giacomo Gandi, Michelangelo Merano, and

Giacomo Grosso Giacomo Grosso (23 May 1860 in Cambiano - 14 January 1938 in Turin) was an Italian painter. Biography After spending his childhood at Glaveno seminary, Giacomo Grosso enrolled at the Accademia Albertina in Turin in 1873, thanks to a scholarship ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gastaldi, Andrea 1826 births 1889 deaths Accademia Albertina alumni Academic staff of Accademia Albertina 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian romantic painters 19th-century Italian male artists