Giovanni Costa Biography
Giovanni Costa, known as Nino (Rome, 15 October 1826 – Marina di Pisa, 31 January 1903), was an Italian painter, soldier and politician. A leading exponent of nineteenth-century Roman painting, he contributed to the spread of naturalistic ideas even among members of the Macchiaioli painting movement. He is also remembered for having actively participated in Garibaldi's campaigns of 1848-49 and 1859. Giovanni, known as Nino Costa, was born in Rome in 1826. His father was a representative of the Roman industrial bourgeoisie. During his youth he received a classical education, remained fascinated by the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and dedicated himself to painting, attending, again in his hometown Rome, around 1848, the studios of Camuccini, that of Coghetti and finally that of Podesti and Clerici. However, he has a propensity for nature and for painting from life which distances him from these artists, intrinsically linked to neoclassical and romantic experiences. A convinced supporter of national unity, Nino Costa took part in the first war of independence, also following Garibaldi. In the Roman Republic of 1849 he was a municipal councilor. When the Republic falls he has to flee. After the restoration, between 1850 and 1851, he made a trip to Naples: here he probably had contacts with painters of the Posillipo school who refined his natural propensity for the realistic representation of the landscape.
