Luigi Ademollo

1764 Milan – 1849 Florence

The painter and etcher Luigi Ademollo ranks as one of the most individual representatives of Italian Neoclassicism. After attending the Milan Academy at an early age and spending some time in Florence, where he worked as a set designer, Ademollo went to Rome in 1785 in order to study the works of classical antiquity. There he met kindred spirits who, like himself, belonged to the artists’ association founded by Felice Giani, the Accademia dei Pensieri. In 1788, Ademollo settled in Florence, where he was admitted to the prestigious Accademia di Belle Arti and where he was to live and work until his death. Ademollo was an extraordinarily erudite master whose artistic imagination was based on a profound knowledge of classical literature. He was very active in Tuscany where his output was highly fruitful, as is documented by numerous monumental fresco paintings with historical and allegorical themes as well as by decoration cycles for churches, palaces and public buildings in Florence, Siena and Arezzo. Ademollo also distinguished himself as an illustrator and etcher, producing an extensive body of graphical work that runs to more than four hundred etchings.