ArtistCastelli, Alessandro

Artist Years1809-1902

Artist NationalityItalian

TitleHunters in a Landscape

Yearca. 1850-60

MediumPainting > Oil

Dimensionscanvas: 31 X 40 inches

Accession NumberRC1631

NotesAlessandro Castelli was an Italian painter and engraver. The son of Giosefatte, he had the first teachings from his uncle, a watercolorist who was called Simone Pomardi. He studied at the Accademia di San Luca and found a job as a designer at the Chamber Calcography. He loved nature and carefully observed a place, then the landscape fell into an almost unreal dimension, while retaining a compositional balance of clear neoclassical derivation. At the National Institute for Graphics, in Rome, his engravings entitled Studio di Paesaggioare are preserved along with drawings and engravings of plants. The Napoleonic Museum in Rome has a series of watercolors with indoor views of the Villa Paolina, dated 1835.

In 1846, Castelli presented three landscapes: External View of the Cathedral of Cefalù, View of Cefalù and View of the island of Capri, works in which he manifested a clear derivation from Neapolitan vedutismo. In 1849 the painter-soldier participated in the defense of the Roman Republic and drew drawings from episodes of the Roman movements of 1948.

In 1860 Alessandro Castelli traveled to Paris, Berlin and London. In 1867, Napoleon III, at the Salon de Paris, bought some of his paintings. Castelli had there exhibited Mort d'Abel, Golgotha, Orage dons les Marais Pontius and Vue du lac Trasimène.

After 1870, Castelli returned to Rome. With Nino Costa he associated with Italian and foreign painters who took from the true landscapes of the Roman countryside. To this period date the works Eruzione del Vesuvius, (Rome, Academy of S. Luca), the Death of Pliny, (Rome, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art) and the Night on Golgota (Municipal Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rome).

For Alessandro Castelli the landscape was a sum of scattered elements that contributed to the feeling of beauty, the horrid, the melancholy, the placid. A background with a landscape also accompanied his religious or historical paintings, such as the Marie at the Tomb and Hannibal Crossing the Alps. His most significant work in later years is The Nera in Narni, preserved in Rome, at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art.

After 1871 Alessandro Castelli lived in Florence, Urbino and Turin. In 1874 he was elected an academic of S. Luke. He taught in the Academies of Rome, Florence and Urbino. In 1886 he was one of the founders of the association "In Arte Libertas". At the Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi, a portrait of him is preserved, signed G. De Sanctis and dated 1869.
(source: wikipedia.org)