{"title":"Minardi, Tommaso (1787–1871)","description":"\u003cp\u003eTommaso Minardi (1787–1871) was born in Faenza in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, where he studied drawing with the printmaker Giuseppe Zauli. Zauli imbued Minardi with his enthusiasm for 15th-century Italian art and introduced him to his large collection of engravings after the work of Flemish artists such as Adriaen van Ostade. Minardi was also strongly influenced by the Neo-classical painter Felice Giani, who ran a large workshop in Faenza.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1803 Minardi went to Rome on an annual stipend provided by Count Virgilio Cavina of Faenza, and he also received financial assistance from the Congregazione di S Gregorio. He was given the use of Giani’s studio and through him met Vincenzo Camuccini who, with Antonio Canova, dominated the artistic establishment in Rome at that time. In Rome Minardi's style gradually moved away from strict Neoclassicism towards the Purism associated with the German Nazarene movement, members of which were in Rome from around 1810.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1818 Canova proposed Minardi as Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Perugia, a post that he held from 1819 to 1821. In 1822 he was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, a position he held until 1858. Minardi was an influential teacher and lecturer, and at the Accademia Minardi opposed the formal and rational theories propounded by academic artists. He was deeply influenced by the German Nazarenes, who were in Rome from 1810, and became a leading figure of the Italian Purismo movement in the 1820s. The movement rejected Neoclassicism and sought to return to the formal values of the early Renaissance Italian art, as well as advocating a closer observation of nature, imbued with a deep sense of religiosity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Rome Minardi was also involved in the inspection and preservation of historic buildings as a member of the Commissione Centrale Antichità e Belle Arti. Later in life his output declined and his pupils were carrying out his designs. He died in Rome in 1871.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinardi's works can be found in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Wellcome Collection, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"tommaso-minardi-rubens-self-portrait-in-a-hat-copy-after-uffizi-gallery-painting-original-early-19th-century-watercolour-painting-ke-021","title":"Tommaso Minardi, Rubens' Self-portrait in a Hat, Copy after Uffizi Gallery Painting – Early 19th-century watercolour painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn original early 19th-century watercolour painting – Tommaso Minardi, Rubens' Self-portrait in a Hat, Copy after Uffizi Gallery Painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis intense and affecting portrait is a copy of a Rubens Self-portrait from 1623–5, painted by the 19th-century Italian artist Tommaso Minardi (1787–1871). Minardi is identified as the artist on the back of the painting, where he is described as 'Director of the Accademia di San Luca, Rome', where he taught from 1822 to 1858.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinardi was an influential teacher in Rome in the early 19th century. He was recommended to the post at the Accademia di San Luca by the sculptor Antonio Canova. A young and talented draughtsman, Minardi was lively and charismatic, deeply impressing the students of the academy and bringing a fresh perspective to the institution dominated by classicist painters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinardi's own work transitioned from Neoclassicism in his youth to Romanticism. He became a leading figure of the Italian Purismo movement in the 1820s (influenced by the German Nazarenes), which rejected Neoclassicism and sought to return to the formal values of the early Renaissance Italian art. The movement also advocated a closer observation of nature, imbued with a deep sense of religiosity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinardi acquired a deep knowledge of art history first-hand, through his role of inspecting, cataloguing and preserving antiquities and church artworks, as a member of two committees, at first in Perugia (the Commissione Ausiliaria Antichità e Belle Arti della Delegazione di Perugia) and later in Rome (the Commissione Centrale Antichità e Belle Arti, in Rome). He developed a reputation as a man of letters, frequently lecturing on art history and becoming increasingly influential in the direction and teachings of the Accademia in Rome, culminating with his election as president of the academy in 1837.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is interesting to view this copy of Rubens in this light: Minardi strongly honed his own craft and developed his art theoretical ideology through the study of earlier artists. Although Rubens's art represented a dramatic Baroque tradition that Minardi came to fight against, this self-portrait at the Uffizi has a direct restraint—an emphasis on light and dark and emotional connection—that likely appealed to Minardi's sensibilities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn watercolour with a surface varnish on thin card.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Somerset \u0026 Wood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55428853662025,"sku":"KE-021","price":2995.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/4306\/5161\/files\/KE-021.jpg?v=1790254965"}],"url":"https:\/\/somersetandwood.com\/fr\/collections\/minardi-tommaso-1787-1871.oembed","provider":"Somerset \u0026 Wood Fine Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}