Tommaso Minardi

1787 Faenza – 1871 Rome

In 1803, after completing his apprenticeship under Giuseppe Zauli, the painter Tommaso Minardi, a native of Emilia, continued his training as an artist in Rome, where he moved in the circle around Felice Giani and Vincenzo Camuccini. At this stage of his creative career his style was strongly influenced by Roman Neoclassicism, as the present large-format drawing impressively confirms. Later, under the influence of the Nazarenes, Minardi was to become a champion of what was known as Purismo, an art trend inspired by the Italian painting of the Trecento and propelled by opposition to the Classical tradition which reached back as far as Raphael. Minardi’s long and varied career thus mirrors the antagonisms that dominated European painting between 1800 and 1850.