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Antonio Puccinelli | Macchiaioli painter

Antonio Puccinelli (19 March 1822, Castelfranco di Sotto - 22 July 1897, Florence) was an Italian painter; one of the group known as the "Macchiaioli".
He was the son of a tailor and was planning to follow his father in that trade, but a group of local citizens noticed his talent for art.
Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to attend the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, where he studied with Giuseppe Bezzuoli.



In 1846, he won the Grand Prize there for his painting "The Young Moses Tramples the Crown of Pharaoh", now at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna.
During the Revolutions of 1848, he enlisted in the Tuscan Expeditionary Corps and fought in the First Italian War of Independence.

After the war's end, he received another scholarship and spent three years in Rome (1849-1852), where he worked with Tommaso Minardi and was influenced by purismo.
He was also attracted to the works of Dominique Ingres.
He was among the first artists to become habitués of the Caffè Michelangiolo, which was a favorite meeting place of the Macchiaioli (a group that rejected the prevailing Academicism), until 1870.
His first painting in the new style came in 1852, with La passeggiata del Muro Torto (Walking Tour at the Muro Torto).


Shortly after, he opened a studio in Florence and became a Professor at the Accademia.
In 1859, he was awarded a prize at the Concorso Ricasoli for his portrait of Vincenzo Gioberti.
He also participated in the Esposizione Nazionale of 1861.
His success there resulted in an appointment as a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna.

In 1862, he married Francesca Guasconi, with whom he had been having a relationship for ten years.
This was probably a last wish, as she died shortly thereafter and he married Adelaide Badioli, a cousin of one of his students.
In the years after 1872, for unknown reasons, his output gradually decreased.
In 1897, he retired from the Accademia in Bologna and died not long after. | © Wikipedia









Antonio Puccinelli (Castelfranco di Sotto, 19 marzo 1822 - Firenze, 22 luglio 1897) è stato un pittore Italiano.
Allievo dell'accademico Bezzuoli, la prima fase artistica di Puccinelli ricalca i temi storico-religiosi e le nozioni apprese dal maestro: "La strage degli Innocenti" (1852) è prodotta con la tecnica del realismo fotografico, con nitidezza ed estrema precisione nella definizione dei particolari della figura di donna che fugge con il suo bambino.
La frequentazione con Tommaso Minardi, uno dei principali esponenti del movimento Purista, è determinante nella sua evoluzione artistica, che si configura in un progressivo allontanamento dai canoni accademici.


Il soggiorno a Venezia tra il 1852-1853, dove Puccinelli studia i grandi classici veneti come Tiziano, influenza alcune opere successive come "La visita" e soprattutto "La strage degli innocenti", nella quale è possibile ravvisare anche lo studio delle opere di Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

"La Passeggiata del Muro Torto" del 1852, uno dei primi esempi di dipinto di vita mondana all’aperto, è considerata un’opera anticipatrice del movimento Macchiaiolo per l'utilizzo della luce proveniente dal colore, vero elemento costruttivo del dipinto, di uno stile vivace ed immediato nella sua esecuzione. | © Wikipedia