Gagliardi, Pietro

GAGLIARDI, PIETRO. - Painter, b. in Rome in 1809, d. in Frascati on 18 Sept. 1890. He is among the most characteristic representatives of the Roman academic taste, which established itself after the forms of the Purists. Correct in drawing and precise in contours, he painted some good portraits and a very large series of frescoes, as well as some paintings on sacred subjects, using colors of a tart and sweetish tonality at once, and placing the figures in affected and conventional attitudes.

He painted a great deal in fresco in the churches of Rome, where his masterpiece is identified in the pallid Crucifixion of the church of S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni, in which other compositions are also by his hand (1847-1878). He later worked at S. Paolo fuori le Mura, depicting the Conversion of the Saint, and the Saint present at the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

In 1868 he painted, again in Rome, in S. Agostino, as a counterpart to Raphael's Isaiah, five other figures of prophets and various scenes on sacred subjects. He also painted frescoes at S. Maria in Aquiro, at S. Marcello, in the church of the Spirito Santo dei Napoletani, in SS. Quirico and Giulitta, at S. Vito, etc. Outside Rome he worked in Vigevano, where there are works by him in the Cathedral, in the church of the Sacramentine, in S. Francesco, in the church and monastery of the Maddalena. He also worked at Castel Gandolfo in the Villa Torlonia, in the Constantinian Basilica of Albano, and at Frascati for the Shakespearian Gallery of Romualdo Gentilucci.

Emilio Lavagnino