Giuseppe Isola

L'allegoria del Commercio dei Liguri in the Maggior Consiglio hall in Doge's Palace, Genoa. Giuseppe (Tommaso Giuseppe) Isola (Genoa, April 7, 1808 – Genoa, July 21, 1893) was an Italian painter.

Biography He was the son of Gaetano Isola and Maria Annunziata Rolleri, during his youth he displayed his works in his father's furniture shop. His talent was noticed by marquess Giancarlo Serra, who became his patreon and allowed him to study painting in the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti and afterwards to travel Tuscany, Latium and Lombardy to improve his skills. In Liguria, Giuseppe focused on learning the fresco styles commonly used by artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

His artistic debut took place in 1834, when he presented his portrait titled La Congiura di Gian Luigi Fieschi in the Accademia Ligustica. Giuseppe also presented Il conte di Carmagnola condannato a morte dal Senato di Venezia si congeda dalla famiglia and l'Assassinio di Alessandro de' Medici in1836.

Maria Drago wrote a letter in 1838 to her son Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian national activist, noting how Isola was arrested and questioned in regards to his painting La morte di Opizzino d'Alzate, 1837, as the faces of the conjurants depicted in the work were similar to several patriots from Genoa.

Starting from 1841 Isola created some works commissioned by the Savoia family, such as the paintings Alcuni drappelli de' dragoni del re sbaragliano i Francesi sotto Mondovì and La strage degli innocenti which he made in Turin, where he was nominated as honorary historical painter at the court of Charles Albert of Sardinia, as well as several frescos in the halls of Palazzo Reale in Genoa.

Gallery

List of Works Giuseppe Isola's most notable wortks are as follows: Colombo in catene, 1863, Genoa, Palazzo Rosso Ritratto di Niccolò Paganini, 1835, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Genova Nervi Ritratto del Dottor Guasconi, 1835, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Genova Nervi Ritratto di Monsignor Ridolfo Brignole Sale, 1835, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Genova Nervi Ritratto di Papa Pio IX, 1847, donated to the Accademia ligustica di belle arti Ritratto di Raffaele de Ferrari o del duca di Gallico, Genoa, Palazzo Rosso Ritratto di Santo Varni, 1836 Ritratto di fanciulla, 1893 Autoritratto, 1870, Florence, Uffizi, a copy of a self-portrait donated in 1863 to the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti Frescos in the genoa churches of Nunziata (1840), San Giorgio (1857),Consolazione (1874) San Francesco da Paola and Sant'Ambrogio in Varazze Giano consegna a Giove le chiavi del tempio della Guerra, 1843, fresco in the hall of Palazzo Reale in Genoa Giove manda sulla terra la Giustizia e la Prosperità, fresco in the dance hall of Palazzo Reale, Genoa Il riposo di Giove, fresco in the study of Palazzo Reale, Genoa Nettuno con tritoni, 1864, fresco in the loggia of Palazzo Reale, Genova Il commercio dei Liguri, 1866, fresco on the roof of the Maggior Consiglio hall in Doge's Palace, Genoa Trionfo della Scienza in Liguria, 1871, fresco in the main hall of the Università di Genova, destroyed during World War II