ROME.- Ottocento Art Gallery is offering important masterpieces coming from several private collections gathered in the usual monthly exhibition aimed to the sale. The selection starts from an oil on canvas, made by Cesare Fracassini. Cesare Fracassini (or Fracassi) (December 18, 1838 – December 13, 1868) was an Italian painter, mainly of large mythologic or religious topics. He was born in Rome, and studied painting there with Tommaso Minardi before enrolling in the Accademia di San Luca, where he executed several frescoes for San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. He lived alongside the painter Cesare Mariani as a young man. He often collaborated or obtained commissions with his friend Paolo Mei, as well as a colleague of Guglielmo de Sanctis and Bernardo Celentano. He died in 1868. One of his most important pictures is The Martyrs of Gorinchem, painted for a beatification ceremony in the Vatican. In 1857, he was awarded first prize at the Concorso Clementino. He painted a St Jerome for the church of San Sebastian on via Appia. He also painted a Daphne and Chloe for an exposition in Florence. He painted the curtain or sipario for the Teatro Argentina in Rome with Numa takes the counsel of the Egerian Nymph. He painted a large canvas of Apollo and Phaeton with the Solar chariot, among others for the theater, and also painted a sipario for the theater of Orvieto. He was commissioned to paint a number of canvases for the decoration of San Lorenzo fuori la Mura. Fracassini was admired for his speed of painting. Ottocento Art Gallery presents his The lesson to the parrot (1862) which definitely stands out for the brightness of his elegant search for truth.
The further important artwork offered by Ottocento Art Gallery is a remarkable oil by a German painter active in the second part of the 19th century. In this painting, the building depicted on the right, called La casina di Raffaello for the presence of frescoes from the maestro’s school, was destroyed during the fighting of 1849. The selection of the proposal displayed by Ottocento Art Gallery continues with a wonderful view by Alessandro La Volpe depicting The Cavaiola river near Cava dei Tirreni.
Others important paintings complete the exhibition, such as a view of Murano depicted by Vittore Zanetti Zilla. Zilla was born in Venice, where he attended a technical school and at the same time began to approach painting by frequenting the studio of Giacomo Favretto, a family friend. After obtaining his secondary school leaving certificate in 1882, he decided to learn the rudiments of art under the guidance of Egisto Lancerotto. In 1884 he left to do his military service in Naples and Sicily, subsequently he returned to Venice and then moved with his family to the Abruzzo for several years, where he worked as a teacher. However, he continued his artistic research and in 1898 he started out on a journey through Europe, developing close contacts above all with the French landscapists. He took part in the Esposizioni Internazionali d’Arte di Venezia from the first edition in 1895 onwards (with a one-man show in 1914), making a name for himself with his lagoonscapes characterised by their decorative style not devoid of French influences. He experimented with watercolour and varnished tempera, which enabled him to obtain bright pure colours. He also participated in international exhibitions including the one in Munich in 1893 and the one in Buenos Aires in 1910. After the Caporetto defeat during World War I, he fled to Milan where he was to live in the years to follow. He organized two one-man shows at the Galleria Pesaro, in 1918 and 1920. He died in Milan.
The selection of 20th century artworks closes the exhibition, with artworks by Corrado Cagli, Giulio Turcato, Gruppo N, Valerio Adami. In particular, Gruppo N Group N was an Italian group of artists active in Padua between 1960 and 1966 and composed of Alberto Biasi, Ennio Chiggio, Toni Costa, Edoardo Landi e Manfredo Massironi.
