Stefano Ussi

Last updated
Stefano Ussi
S.Ussi 1892 olio su tela 69x53 cm.jpg
Stefano Ussi, Self-portrait, 1892
Born3 September 1822
Died1901
Florence, Italy
Resting placeCimitero Monumentale delle Porte Sante, Florence
NationalityItalian
Education Academy of Fine Arts, Florence
Movement Orientalist

Stefano Ussi (3 September 1822 - 1901) was an Italian painter, known first for his history paintings, and later for depicting Orientalist, mostly Arabian and Moroccan subjects.

Contents

Biography

He was born in Florence and studied there at the Academy of Fine Arts under Enrico Pollastrini. Among his colleagues there were Pietro Benvenuti and Giuseppe Bezzuoli.

After studying at the Academy, he enrolled volunteer in the first war of independence, during which he was taken prisoner by the Austrian troops. After returning to Florence, he won the Triennale prize for the painting of the Resurrection of Lazarus in 1849, and presented works for the following years on historical and literary subjects at the exhibitions of the Florentine Società Promotrice di Belle Arti, which was led by Filippo Palizzi.

Associated with the Macchiaioli group of painters gravitating around the Caffè Michelangiolo, he achieved great success with The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens (Florence, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo Pitti), exhibited in Florence at the city's first Esposizione Nazionale in 1861 and was awarded a prize in Paris in 1867. This painting represents the expulsion in the 14th century by the Florentines of the tyrannical ruler of Florence, Walter VI, Count of Brienne and former Duke of Athens. An allegorical fresco (after 1343) of the event had been memorialized in the Palazzo Vecchio by Orcagna, who had lived through the events. In Ussi's time, the medieval events took on new patriotic connotations as the Italian Kingdom was being consolidated. [1]

Ussi is considered one of the Orientalist painters of the Ottocento. [2] He visited Egypt in 1869 on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal, and returned in 1872 by invitation of the Khedive. Along with his friend, the painter Cesare Biseo, and Edmondo De Amicis, he accompanied and an Italian diplomatic delegation to Morocco in 1875. De Amicis was later to publish the work of the artists. The numerous drawings he made during these travels provided material for him in later years.

The Viceroy of Egypt commissioned a large canvas depicting: The Feast of the Carpet or Pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1880, in Turin he displayed La Scorta del governatore Ben Alida ed il giovanetto suo figlio che precedono l'Ambasciata italiana; Moroccan Fantasy in honor of the Italian Embassy; and The Arab Family in the Desert. In 1881 at Milan, he exhibited Celebration of Mohammed in Tangier , another orientalist genre painting. He also displayed Un intermediario d'amore. Among his other works are Arab Cavalry; Fantasia araba attorno all'Ambasciata italiana al Marocco; Festa a Fez, data dall'Imperatore del Marocco; Araba al fonte; and Un Dervish in pompa solenne. [3] His painting of Donna araba al pozzo (1880) is displayed in the Museo Borgogna of Vercelli. [4]

He died in Florence.

Selected paintings

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence</span> Largest city in Tuscany, Italy

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 360,930 inhabitants in 2023, and 984,991 in its metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paolo Uccello</span> Italian painter and mathematician (1397–1475)

Paolo Uccello, born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. In his book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Giorgio Vasari wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective and would stay up all night in his study trying to grasp the exact vanishing point. Uccello used perspective to create a feeling of depth in his paintings. His best known works are the three paintings representing the battle of San Romano, which were wrongly entitled the Battle of Sant'Egidio of 1416 for a long period of time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palazzo Pitti</span> Renaissance palace and museum in Florence, Italy

The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronzino</span> Italian Mannerist painter (1503–1572)

Agnolo di Cosimo, usually known as Bronzino or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, Bronzino, may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddish hair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palazzo Mozzi</span> Renaissance palace in Oltrarno, Florence, Italy

Palazzo Mozzi or Palazzo de' Mozzi is an early Renaissance palace, located at the end of the Piazza de' Mozzi that emerges from Ponte alle Grazie and leads straight to the palace where via San Niccolò becomes via de' Bardi in the Quartiere of Santo Spirito in the Oltrarno section of Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The 13th-century palace housed the gallery of the highly successful antiquarian Stefano Bardini, of which the remnants were left to the commune, where they assembled the Museo Bardini or Mozzi Bardini, displaying Florentine art and artifacts up to the early Renaissance. The gardens elaborated against the hillside behind the palace were added mainly by Bardini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domenico Morelli</span> Italian painter

Domenico Morelli was an Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples, but also because of his rebelliousness against institutions: traits that flourished into the passionate, often patriotic, Romantic and later Symbolist subjects of his canvases. Morelli was the teacher of Vincenzo Petrocelli and Ulisse Caputo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Bezzuoli</span> Italian painter (1784-1855)

Giuseppe Bezzuoli was an Italian painter of the Neoclassic and Romantic periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enrico Pollastrini</span> Italian painter

Enrico Pollastrini was an Italian history painter and art school director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amos Cassioli</span> Italian painter (1832–1891)

Amos Cassiòli was an Italian painter, of battle scenes, historical canvases and portraits. He worked in a Purismo style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federico Andreotti</span> Italian painter

Federico Andreotti was an Italian painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cesare Biseo</span> Italian painter (1843–1909)

Cesare Biseo was an Italian painter, known primarily for his orientalist scenes.

Pietro Baldancoli was an Italian painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Battista Quadrone</span> Italian painter (1844–1898)

Giovanni Battista Quadrone was an Italian painter, mainly of genre scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gioacchino Toma</span> Italian painter

Gioacchino Toma was an Italian art instructor and painter, noted primarily for historic, realistic and genre subjects in a Romantic style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pompeo Marino Molmenti</span> Italian painter (1819–1894)

Pompeo Marino Molmenti was an Italian painter.

Emanuele Serrano was an Italian sculptor, mainly in terracotta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Pasini</span> Italian painter (1826–1899)

Alberto Pasini was an Italian painter. He is best known for depicting Orientalist subjects in a late-Romantic style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Berti (painter)</span> Italian painter (1830–1912)

Antonio Berti was an Italian painter, mainly portraits, landscapes, and romantic scenes.

Annibale Gatti was an Italian painter, known for history painting and fresco decoration in Tuscany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaetano Capone</span> Italian painter

Gaetano Capone (1845–1924) was an Italian painter, mostly depicting landscapes and genre subjects.

References

  1. Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi: pittori, scultori, e Architetti, by Angelo de Gubernatis. Tipe dei Successori Le Monnier, 1889, page 531-2.
  2. Announcement regarding exhibition: “The Orientalists. Enchantment and discovery in 19th century Italian painting”, October 2011 to January 2012.
  3. De Gubernatis; pages 532-34.
  4. Museo Borgogna Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine Donna araba al pozzo.

Other projects

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Stefano Ussi at Wikimedia Commons