Elia Interguglielmi (1746 – 16 May 1835) was an Italian painter of the Neoclassical style, active in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Biography

Elia Interguglielmi was born in Naples in 1746. He initially worked under Gaspare Fumagalli in Palermo. He is documented in Naples until 1762, where he formed his style by working as a draughtsman at the Reale Opificio delle Pietre Dure and trained in the studios of Giuseppe Bonito and of Antonio Dominici, a Sicilian painter active in Naples. He then moved to

, where his first paintings, of scenes from the ''Life of St. Anne'' (1767; Palermo, Sant'Anna della Misericordia), were influenced by

Vito D'Anna Vito D'Anna (14 October 1718 – 13 October 1769) was an Italian painter, considered the most prominent painter of Palermitan rococo and one of the most important artists of Sicily. Biography He was the father of Alessandro D'Anna, the brother- ...

, who had taught Dominici and who was a leading figure in the art world of 18th-century Palermo. The scenes from the Life of the Virgin (Palermo, Chiesa degli Agonizzanti, 1782) are directly influenced by Neapolitan painting, especially that of

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Early l ...

and

Francesco Solimena Francesco Solimena (4 October 1657 – 3 April 1747) was a prolific Italian Baroque painter, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. Biography Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino in the province of Avellino. H ...

. Between c. 1780 and 1810, Interguglielmi executed decorative frescoes in palazzi and villas in Palermo and in Piana dei Colli (

Bagheria Bagheria (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, located approximately 10km to the east of the city centre. Etymology According to some sources, the name ''Bagheria'' (by way of old Sicilian ''Baarìa'') or ...

), becoming one of the leading figures in the transition from the late

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

. Among such works are frescoes in the Palazzi Santa Croce–Sant'Elia (c. 1790), Gangi (1792), Mirto (1793) and Coglitore (1796), all in Palermo. In the frescoes in the Villa Bordonaro Adriana at Colli, also attributed to Interguglielmi, he created an illusion of deep space through the classical device of a perspective of colonnades. Towards the end of the 18th century Interguglielmi moved his workshop to Bagheria, where the aristocracy from Palermo built their country houses. In his later years he responded to a central European decorative style, which had already spread to Naples, in which

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

and Neoclassical elements were harmoniously united. The fresco ''Glory of the Virtuous Prince'' (c. 1785–90; Bagheria, Villa Valguarnera) initiated this successful period. There followed frescoes (1796–7) in the Villa Trabia, Bagheria, where the unity of the architecture is emphasized by the painted decoration, which was inspired by recent discoveries in

Herculaneum Herculaneum is an ancient Rome, ancient Roman town located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like the nearby city of ...

and by the

Pompeian style The Pompeian Styles are four periods which are distinguished in Roman art#Painting, ancient Roman mural painting. They were originally delineated and described by the German archaeologist August Mau (1840–1909) from the excavation of wall painti ...

of the Adam brothers and the porcelain of

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English China (material), fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons L ...

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Interguglielmi 1746 births 1835 deaths 18th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Naples Rococo painters 19th-century Italian male artists 18th-century Italian male artists Artists from the Kingdom of Naples Artists from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies