GAGLIARDI, PIETRO. - Painter, b. in Roma in 1809, d. at Frascati on 18 Sept. 1890. He is among the most characteristic representatives of Roman academic taste, which emerged after the forms of the purists. Correct in drawing and precise in outline, he painted some fine portraits and a very large number of frescoes, as well as several paintings on sacred subjects, using colours both acidulous and cloying in tone, and placing the figures in affected and conventional poses.
He painted a great many frescoes in the churches of Roma, where his masterpiece is said to be the insipid Crucifixion in the church of S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni, in which other compositions are also by his hand (1847-1878). He subsequently worked at S. Paolo fuori le Mure, depicting the Conversion of the Saint and The Saint Present at the Martyrdom of s. Stefano.
In 1868 he painted, again in Roma, in S. Agostino, as a counterpart to the Isaiah of Raffaello, five further figures of prophets and various scenes on sacred subjects. He also painted frescoes at S. Maria in Aquiro, S. Marcello, the church of the Spirito Santo dei Napoletani, SS. Quirico e Giulietta, S. Vito, etc. Outside Roma he worked at Vigevano, where works by him are found in the Duomo, in the church of the Sacramentine, in S. Francesco, and in the church and monastery of the Maddalena. He also worked at Castel Gandolfo in the villa Torlonia, in the Basilica Costantiniana of Albano, and at Frascati for the Galleria Shakespeariana of Romualdo Gentilucci.