Gabriele Castagnola

GABRIELE CASTAGNOLA (Genoa, 1828 - 1883)
"Friars", 1875.
Oil on canvas.
It has a Puncture in the upper margin, slight damage and restorations.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 110 x 72 cm.
Gabriel Castagnola was an Italian artist born in Genoa and active in Florence. He worked in oil painting and chromolithography in an academic style. This style of painting and sculpture is derived from the Academies where most artists received their formal training and is characterized by its high finish, use of mythological or historical subjects and moralistic tone. Castagnola's paintings tend to be somewhat sentimental and often focus on themes of love and romance. High Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi's romance with the young novice Lucrezia Buti is a recurring theme in his pieces, as are nuns in general.

His works include: Filippo Lippi e Lucrezia Buti (1863), Scena Romantica (1864), Ciociara, Jeune Fille au Balcon (1865), Faust and Marguerite (1870), Lippi declaring his love to the nun/Lippi with the nun (1870) ), Filippino Lippi and his lover (1871), Love or duty (1871), A nun observing two butterflies (1872), Reading Together (1872), Rosen (1873), Scena Galante, Romantic Couple Assis Sur un Banc (1873) , The Embrace of Fra Filippo Lippi and Lucrezia Buti (1874), The Meeting (1875), Nun Admiring the Lovebirds (1875), La Monaca e il Pittore, Amor Cortese (1876), The Kindly Gesture (1876) and Seduction ( 1877).