Giacomo Conti (messina 1818 – Florence 1889) Kneeling Pilgrim, In Prayer In Front Of A Sculpture

1843, Black pencil, Dated and signed lower right: “Conti 1843” Italian purism, a Christian artistic and stylistic movement, follows in the wake of the German Nazarene trend. It was created in 1833 by the Hellenist Antonio Bianchini, before being theorized in 1842 with the publication of the first official manifesto of the movement entitled Purism in the Arts. It is like their leaders, the Italian Tommaso Minardi (1787-1871) and the German Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869), that the Purists carry their admiration and turn to the imitation of the primitives Italians, from Giotto to Raphael. Of Sicilian origin, it was between the Italian continent and his native island that Giacomo Conti worked throughout his life, from Naples to Florence without forgetting Siena. He alternately produces mythological, historical and religious paintings, of which our drawing is undoubtedly one of the preparatory studies. Painter of neoclassical training, evolving in the Catholic Nazarene movement of the 1840s, he studied in Rome between 1834 and 1836 at the Saint-Luc Academy with the most important Italian painters of the first half of the 19th century, such as Coghetti and Podesti. Italian Purism, a Christian artistic and stylistic movement, follows in the wake of the German Nazarene movement. It was created in 1833 by the Hellenist Antonio Bianchini, before being theorized in 1842 with the publication of the first official manifesto of the movement entitled Purism in the Arts. It is like their leaders, the Italian Tommaso Minardi (1787-1871) and the German Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869), that the Purists carry their admiration and turn to the imitation of the primitives Italians, from Giotto to Raphael. Of Sicilian origin, it was between the Italian continent and his native island that Giacomo Conti worked throughout his life, from Naples to Florence without forgetting Siena. He alternately produces mythological, historical and religious paintings, of which our drawing is undoubtedly one of the preparatory studies. Painter of neoclassical training, evolving in the Catholic Nazarene movement of the 1840s, he studied in Rome between 1834 and 1836 at the Saint-Luc Academy with the most important Italian painters of the first half of the 19th century, such as Coghetti and Podesti.