First in a new series looking at Renaissance painting from Italy, centred on Florence, shows some of the masterpieces of the ‘gap’ before the Gothic.
Italy
In 1855, he joined the Macchiaioli and painted small oil sketches en plein air, which he later turned into finished landscapes in the studio. And histories.
The story of a Renaissance city-state on Sardinia, a good mother, and the state funeral of a great Greek general on Sicily – some of the paintings shown.
A major influence in Italian art in the 1800s, he was highly skilled in telling stories, and solved problems which had troubled the Masters before.
Narrative painting was popular and becoming increasingly sophisticated two millennia ago.
Conclusions: did he paint Impressions, and was he a member of the Impressionist group?
Another wonderful batch of what are most probably his paintings.
The final four and a half years of De Nittis’s career were busy, productive, and successful.
Almost forgotten today, he was technically brilliant, and a full-bore Impressionist. Here is his life and paintings to 1879.
His richly colourful paintings of women are reminiscent of Renoir at his best, and some of his later studies of nudes appear to owe much to the influence of Degas.
The Eclectic Light Company 