Pelagio Palagi

1775 Bologna – 1860 Turin

The painter, sculptor, draughtsman and decoration painter, Pelagio Palagi, trained at the Accademia Clementina in Bologna. His early work reveals influences of the classicism of Andrea Appiani and Luigi Sabatelli. In 1806 Palagi continued his studies at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, where he was greatly inspired by the work of Vincenzo Camuccini and Antonio Canova. From 1815 to 1832 the artist lived and worked in Milan, then an important and progressive artistic centre and the cradle of Italian Romanticism. Like his pupil, Francesco Hayez, Palagi successfully combined in his work both the classical tradition and the new Romantic trend. Palagi subsequently reached the pinnacle of his artistic career in the royal residence of Turin. Many surviving public monuments testify to his activities there. No less a figure than Stendhal held the artist in great esteem, mentioning him more than once in his major work The Charterhouse of Parma.