AZEGLIO, MASSIMO TAPARELLI d'. - Politician and man of letters, b. in Torino on 24 Oct. 1798, fourth child of Cesare and Cristina Morozzo di Bianzè, d. on 15 Jan. 1866. Of a brilliant and independent character, he received a careful and strict family upbringing and soon keenly felt the contrast between the closed, traditionalist milieu of the Restoration and the new spirit and new ideals of the century. His decision to go to Roma in order to devote himself to painting and prepare to live by his own work tore him away from the narrow Piedmontese environment and helped him become Italian. During the Roman period, indeed, the Italian and the new man matured in d'A., making him hostile to conspiracies and uprisings and keeping him, unlike his brother Roberto, apart from the Piedmontese revolution of '21. Yet he did not escape the attraction of the national idea, and he soon thought of Italy in terms of moderate liberalism.
Painting, which nevertheless won him praise and remuneration,
