{"id":120747,"date":"2025-01-12T10:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T09:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/?post_type=artisti&p=120747"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:54:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:54:23","slug":"francesco-hayez","status":"publish","type":"artisti","link":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/en\/artisti\/francesco-hayez\/","title":{"rendered":"Francesco Hayez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francesco Hayez<\/h1>\n

He was born in Venice.<\/p>\n

Hayez studied under Francesco Fedeli called Magiotto<\/a> and Lattanzio Querena<\/strong>, who inspired his taste for color.<\/p>\n

He also studied at the Accademia with Matteini, an excellent draughtsman who likely spurred him to establish a personal approach to portraiture.<\/p>\n

Hayez recalled in his memoirs that Teodoro Matteini taught him a great lesson:<\/p>\n

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“Each pencil mark, each brush stroke must have a reason.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, he advised him to create art with integrity and honesty.<\/p>\n

In 1809 he won the Pensionato prize in Rome where he met Ingres and Overbeck<\/a> and befriended Antonio Canova and other major Neoclassicists and Purists.<\/p>\n

He then returned to Venice where he perfected his fresco technique.<\/p>\n

In 1820, in Milan Francesco Hayez exhibited his first historical painting<\/strong> about a subject from Sismondi’s History of the Italian Republics: Pietro Rossi, prigioniero degli Scaligeri a Pontremoli<\/em> (Pietro Rossi, Prisoner of the Scaligeri’s in Pontremoli, Milan, Barbiano di Belgioioso Collection), which earned him a place among the Romantics.<\/p>\n

He taught at the Brera Academy in Milan from 1850 until his death.<\/p>\n

Hayez painted many historical subjects throughout his life, from his youthful Sicilian Vespers (Gallery of Modern Art, Rome) to the Massacre of Jerusalem, which he donated to the Accademia in Venice at an old age.<\/p>\n

A talented portraitist<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Francesco Hayez was also a talented portraitist<\/strong>. He definitively captured the features of Rosmini, Alessandro Manzoni, Gioacchino Rossini, and Cavour \u2013 all at the Brera in Milan \u2013 and created a compelling gallery of elegant 19th-century gentlewomen, including The Princess of Sant’Antimo (Museo di San Martino, Naples), Juva Branca (Villa Reale, Milan), Selene Taccioli Ruga (Litta Modignani Collection, Milan), and Mariquita d’Adda Falc\u00f2 (private collection, Venice).<\/p>\n