Carlo Arienti (21 July 1801, Arcore – 21 March 1873, Bologna) was an Italian painter; known primarily for historical and Biblical scenes.
Biography
He was born to Gaetano Arienti, the Director of the botanical gardens in Mantua. His interest in art began at an early age. He initially taught himself by copying the works he saw at the Palazzo Ducale and the Palazzo del Te. When he was thirteen, his father died and the family fell into poverty. Later, when he had come of age, he moved to Milan and enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, where he studied with the painter, Luigi Sabatelli, and the sculptor, Camillo Pacetti.[1] He helped provide for his family by making drawings and engravings for upper class patrons. His public debut came in 1823.
The Expulsion of Frederick Barbarossa from Alessandria
Thanks to financial assistance from an old friend of his father, he was able to attend the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He was there until 1829, when he returned to Milan and exhibited six paintings at the Brera. In 1831, he created a scene from an opera by Vincenzo Bellini, which attracted commissions for historical paintings from several of the noble Lombard families.[2]
During this period, the historian Carlo Giuseppe Londonio [it], who was President of the Accademia Brera, called him to serve as a Professor for three years, standing in for his former teacher, Sabatelli, who was engaged in painting frescoes at the Palazzo Pitti. Although depressed by the death of his wife, he was able to complete commissions for Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and King Charles Albert of Sardinia. These works, and others like them, earned him a chair at the Accademia Albertina in 1843. He remained there, in Turin, until 1859.[2]
In 1855, he displayed two paintings at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Both had been created during the Revolutions of 1848. One was a scene from the Pazzi Conspiracy. The other, commissioned by King Charles Albert, depicted the expulsion of Frederick Barbarossa from Alessandria, with the King in the role of "Gagliaudo", a quick-witted peasant who supposedly ended Barbarossa's siege.[3] At the time, Northern Italy was struggling to gain independence from the Austrian Empire and was seeking to make allies of the French. The publicity given to his paintings was part of that process.
In 1869, he entered a competition and was awarded several large commissions, but suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and unable to complete them. He continued discharging his duties, with the help of two assistants but, in 1871, all three were implicated in irregularities committed during an admissions contest and he was dismissed.[4] He died two years later and is interred in the cemetery at the Certosa di Bologna, next to his second wife, Lorenzina.
References
^Giuseppe Rovani, Le tre arti. Considerate in alcuni illustri italiani contemporanei, Vol.2, 1874, reissued in 2004 by Lampi di Stampa ISBN978-88-488-0303-8
^"L'arte in Italia", Bona, Turin, Vol.V, #1, 1873, pp.46
Further reading
Cesare Masini, Vita del commendatore Carlo Arienti pittore della Real Casa, Regia Tipografia, Turin, 1873
Aurelio Minghetti, Vita del pittore Carlo Arienti, Edizioni de L'arte, Milan, 1942
Fernando Mazzocca, "Il contributo nazionale alla politica artistica sabauda: Hayez, Arienti e Podesti", In: Cultura figurativa e architettonica, Vol.I, 1980, pp. 429-437
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carlo Arienti.
