Silvestro Lega

Silvestro Lega (8 December 1826 – 21 September 1895) was an Italian realist painter. He was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was also involved with the Mazzini movement.

Biography

He was born in Modigliana, near Forlì, to an affluent family. From 1838 he attended the Piarist College, where his skill at drawing became evident. From 1843 to 1847 he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, studying drawing under Benedetto Servolini (1805–79) and Tommaso Gazzarrini (1790–1853), then studying painting, briefly, under Giuseppe Bezzuoli. During 1847 he attended Luigi Mussini’s school, where the teaching emphasized the 15th-century Florentine principles of drawing and orderly construction. Then and for some years afterwards he continued to attend the Scuola del Nudo of the Accademia.

As a Garibaldian volunteer, Lega participated in the military campaigns for Italian independence (1848–49) before resuming his training, this time under Antonio Ciseri. In 1850 he completed his first large-scale painting, Doubting Thomas (Modigliana, Osp. Civ.). In 1852 he won the Concorso Trienniale dell’Accademia with David Placating Saul. Subsequently, Lega's style began moving towards Realism and away from the Purismo of Mussini. Together with his Macchiaioli friends Odoardo Borrani, Giuseppe Abbati, Telemaco Signorini and Raffaello Sernesi, he started painting landscapes en plein air.

From 1861 to 1870, he lived with the Batelli family, near the Affrico river, and started a relationship with the elder daughter, Virginia. The children and women of the Batelli family were the subjects of many of his paintings during this happy period of his life.

In 1870, he was awarded the silver medal at the Parma's National Exposition. In that same year, Virginia Batelli, his companion, died of tuberculosis. Three of Lega's brothers also died at about this time. In 1878 he took part in the preparations for the Paris Universal Exposition. At the Florentine Promotrice in 1879, Lega—who never traveled outside Italy—saw two Impressionist paintings by Camille Pissarro, which he admired.

He became a frequent guest of the Tommasi family, and a tutor of the sons of the family. The art historian Norma Broude says that "like the Batellis before them, [the Tommasis] welcomed Lega into their family circle and provided for him the warm and close-knit family environment in which he and his art could flourish." In 1886, he painted one of his most famous works, the Gabbarigiane.

By the mid-1880s, Lega was almost blind, and perceived only large masses. He produced many paintings in Gabbro, where he was a guest of the Bandini family. He participated at the Exposition Universelle (1889) and at the Promotrice of Florence.

Lega died in Florence in 1895 of stomach cancer.

Style Lega's artistic career may be divided into two periods: the first is the calm phase, where he looked at the world optimistically. The second is the disturbed phase, associated with his poor economic conditions and with his depression after Virginia's death.

Efrem Gisella Calingaert says:the originality of Lega’s style lies in the way he adapted a contemporary use of colour, based on direct experience of the motif, to a traditional type of composition and carefully defined forms. This is illustrated by the Singing of the Ballad (1867; Florence, Pitti), which, together with A Visit (1868; Rome, G.N.A. Mod.) and The Pergola, constitute the most important works of Lega’s mature period and perhaps of his whole career. In the Singing of the Ballad the simplicity and balance of the composition, the transparency of the colours and rendering of atmosphere, the monumentality of the figures in profile and their pyramidal forms invest the scene with the solemnity of a painting by Piero della Francesca.

Partial list of works

Il sacro cuore di Gesù, oil painting La casa di don Giovanni Verità, 1855, oil on canvas, 37 x 28, Livorno, museum Civico Episodio della guerra del 1859 - Ritorno di bersaglieri italiani da una ricognizione, 1861, oil on canvas, 57,5 x 95, Florence, National Gallery of Modern Art, Palazzo Pitti Ritratto di Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1861, oil on canvas, 111 x 78,4, Private collection Tra i fiori del giardino, 1862, oil on canvas, 49 x 59, Private collection Il primo dolore, 1863, oil on canvas, 39,5 x 50, Genoa, Provincial Palace L’educazione al lavoro, 1863, oil painting, 87 x 65, Hotel Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Private collection L’elemosina, 1864, oil on canvas, 71,8 x 124, Private collection La nonna, 1865, oil on canvas, 59 x 70, Private collection Due bambine che fanno le signore - Divertimento infantile, 1865, oil on canvas, 57,5 x 94, Private collection Il canto di uno stornello, 1867, oil on canvas, 158 x 98, Florence, National Gallery of Modern Art, Palazzo Pitti Un dopo pranzo, 1868, oil on canvas, 75 x 93,5, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera La visita, 1868, oil on canvas on wood panel, 31 x 60, Rome, National Gallery of Modern Art I promessi sposi, 1869, oil on canvas, 33,5 x 77, Milan, Museum of Science of Leonardo da Vinci La lettura, oil on paper laid down on wood, Bari, Provincial art-Gallery Donna con edera, oil on board, Genoa Nervi, Raccolte Frugone Gallery Una madre, 1884, oil on canvas, 191 x 124, Private collection Gabbrigiana in piedi, 1888, oil on canvas, 140 x 86, Private collection Pagliai al sole, oil on board, 28 x 38, ca 1890, Piacenza, Gallery Ricci Oddi

Gallery