Born on 16 October 1809 in Belluno, to Giacomo and Maria Castellani, sent to Pardo after the pupils of the Belluno brothers Antonio Federici and Antonio Tessari Watts, where he was welcomed by the cousin of the painter Pietro Paoletti, who collaborated with neoclassical painters. In this seriously applied but breathless environment, Giovanni Demin, C. Read the full biography
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Born on 16 October 1809 in Belluno, to Giacomo and Maria Castellani, sent to Pardo after the pupils of the Belluno brothers Antonio Federici and Antonio Tessari Watts, where he was welcomed by the cousin of the painter Pietro Paoletti, who collaborated with neoclassical painters. In this seriously applied but breathless environment, Giovanni Demin, C. stayed until moving to Venice, where he was admitted to the Academy which he attended regularly from 1827 to 1829. He followed the courses of Tranquillo Orsi (perspective) and Teodoro Marteni (figures and naked). Over time, he became uncomfortable with the bottleneck of the institution and, while continuing to study (for 30 years he won the Perspective Award), he began to free himself from it. Towards the end of his third decade he began to love the idea of going to Rome, arriving there in January 1832 and settling back in Paoletti, who had moved there a few years earlier. He improved his craft by frequenting the workshop of this "historical and religious" painter, but clearly recognized his profession as a commentator.
At the beginning of 1833 C. separated from Paoletti and dedicated himself to painting and drawing, drawing inspiration from city and country life on his own.
With the exception of the very fragile Via Crucis (1831) in the parish church of Caerano di San Marco (Treviso), no works are known before the trip to Rome. The oldest are actually 34 years old: Trinità dei Monti at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Ca' Pesaro, Venice, the Orangerie of Villa Borghese at the Museum of Rome, Piazza Siena in Rome (owned by Castro's Roma). The problem of perspective, understood in the manner of Canaletto, remains at the basis of his research, if in 1835 he printed in Rome the first edition of The lessons of practical perspective, a modest publication for pedagogical purposes (p. The second edition is dated Naples 1838; the third edition, Venice 1841). The first painting that really caught his attention, the Feast of Snots, also attests to the persistence of his interest in perspective, the first draft of which dates back to 37 years (he replied 42 times: in the most famous example is Ca' Pesaro, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen).
Until 1843 he was very active: his residence was in Rome, but he constantly moved to other cities for exhibitions and work commissions. In 1939 he exhibited in Milan, in 1940 in Trieste, and was often in Venice, even for a few months. In 1841, in Padua, he painted four Roman landscapes in oils for the circular room of the Caffè Pedrocchi. In the same year, in Venice, the artist painted the Grand Canal and the Salute under the snow, a theme he repeated several times over time and perspective (Belluno Civic Museum, Revoltella Museum of Trieste, Avon Card Fei Collection of Venice) . In 1843 he dates various paintings to Rome, including the Pope's Blessing in St. Peter's Square (Museum of Rome), the Arch of Constantine and the Temple of Venus and Rome (Avon Caffe Collection, Venice), St. Peter and Cass L' interior of the Colosseum of the Santo Angelo di Terr and the Chiaro di Luna, both in Ca' Pesaro. In the autumn of '43 he went to the East, but first stayed a few weeks in Naples, which he painted clearly (Ca' Pesaro). After the first stop in Athens (view of the Parthenon, at Ca' Pesaro), he crossed Turkey, Palestine, Egypt (Arena of Constantinople, Isthmus of Suez, caravans in the desert, at Ca' Pesaro) visible with other themes ). In 1844 he returned to Rome and then to Venice.
Between 1844 (return from the East) and 1849 (exile), Ca' Pesaro's series of Venetian-themed works is still in the Canaletto style. Some are quite delightful (morning effects in the square), but all show that in Venice C.'s inspiration was expressed with sufficient freedom in Rome and the East, still bound by eighteenth-century models. In 1848 he left Rome to fight in Austria. He fought at Visco and Ialmico, was captured in Friuli, escaped and returned to Venice, where he remained until the fall of the Republic (1849). Some of the non-fiction paintings are from this time, such as the bombing of Marghera, the bomb explosion on the lagoon, and other paintings held at the Renaissance Museum in Venice. Having left Venice due to the Austrian ban, he settled in Genoa (1849), where he supported himself by painting views of the city and the Riviera (Ca' Pesaro). From here he moved to Turin (1850) after a short stay in Switzerland (Paesaggio Lancia, Ca' Pesaro). In 1851 he exhibited a view of Hyde Park (lost) at the World's Fair in London. In 1854, after a stay in Spain (paintings at the Correll Museum in Venice), he participated in the Universal Exhibition in Paris with three works (catalogue 1855, p. 2): the Louvre and the Boulevard St. Petersburg from that period. Dennis (Ca' Pesaro) at night. In 1855 he returned to Rome, where he reopened his studio, and only in 1857 did he enthusiastically return to some of his most famous paintings: Rome seen from the Pincio (Noferi Collection, Florence); Inside the Colosseum, the aqueduct in the Roman countryside (Museum of Rome); the Colosseum illuminated by the Great Bengal Fire (Ca' Pesaro) and three landscapes of Tivoli (one at Ca' Pesaro, two at the Museum of Rome). In 1858, again in Venice, he was tried for "public violence", presumably during a riot in '49; acquitted, he settled in the city. Some famous paintings date back to 1858: Serenade in front of the tourist port, Carnival in Piazza San Marco (Ca' Pesaro). In 1859 his situation as a patriot became increasingly dangerous due to his frequent trips to Lombardy and Piedmont. In July 1960 he was arrested and locked up in the political prison of S. Severo (painted in the Correr Museum). Released three months later, he immediately went to Milan. He then crossed Naples and Campania, where Garibaldi's attack was underway. He painted on the banks of the Volturno and in 1861 The Entry into Naples (Ca' Pesaro) by Vittorio Emanuele. Returning to Venice, he resumed his active work: in 1965 he painted the Venice Pier at sunset and the Serenade in front of the Piazzetta di S. Marco (both in Ca' Pesaro). After declaring war on Austria in July 1866, he left Venice, first for Florence and then for Taranto. He died in Lissa on 20 July 1866, in the sinking of the "Re d'Italia", from which he had closely depicted the events of the war.
Trained on the Venetian model of the eighteenth century, C. often managed to free himself from this suggestion, especially in the Roman-themed paintings, which represented the dynamism of colors and the decay of contours, the point at which his abilities reached. In the Venetian production, however, it seems to be limited by pre-existing patterns, however in the following years it expands and makes it a unique scene (Molo Venezia at sunset, 1865, Ca. 'Pesaro). He often dealt with unusual topics, such as hot air balloon flights (he himself participated in the ascension with the French cosmonaut F. Arban in Rome on 5 April 1847), especially the "nocturnal" theme. The success of the work led him to believe, misunderstood, that it was a "novelty" in the field of painting. Very active, impetuous, courageous and highly patriotic, his paintings show a clear and serene vision, focus on truth and are sensitive to the influence of light and color, but have little understanding of the achievements of contemporary European painting. He wrote a lot, often with the effect of sweet and sincere poetry. His works are in Ca'Pesaro in Venice, at the Gall. nature. Artistic mode. Rome, in the Roman Museum, in the Belluno Civic Museum, in the Revoltella Museum of Trieste, in the Treviso Civic Museum. Among the private collections, the collection of Giuseppe Avon Caffi, great-grandson of Venezia, deserves mention.
