Cristiano Banti (1824-1904) - Scena medievale

Cristiano Banti (Santa Croce sull'Arno, January 4, 1824 – Montemurlo, December 4, 1904) Medieval Scene 1860/70
dimensions with frame 40x22. the frame is not part of the work and is offered as a courtesy
private collection Milan
The work accompanies the following documentation
certificate of guarantee from the art gallery
expertise European Union art experts
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Biography
Born in Santa Croce sull'Arno, province of Pisa, to a well-to-do bourgeois family (rumors of the time suggest he was possibly the son of Madame Maria Ottavia Vettori, of whom the Banti family were factors, since she, his godmother, named him heir), his neoclassical academic training at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Siena under Francesco Nenci was followed by a clear turn toward the methods of the Macchiaioli, with whom he came into contact after moving to Florence in 1855, where he frequented the artists of the Caffè Michelangiolo.

His early paintings with historical subjects (Galileo before the Inquisition Tribunal of 1857, silver medal at the Florence Arts Exhibition, Torquato Tasso and Eleonora d'Este of 1858) are influenced by Domenico Morelli and Saverio Altamura. Alongside the Macchiaioli, he was interested in rendering nature painted en plein air and in effects of light, experimenting among the first with the use of the black mirror (ton gris), a painting technique experimented by Gabriel Decamps and Paul Delaroche consisting in painting nature by looking at it through a dark mirror to better filter the contrasts of light and shade.

He painted mainly historical subjects but mostly painted for himself: his comfortable economic condition allowed him to host in the Montorsoli and Montemurlo villas, inherited from the Marchesa Vettori, artist friends in difficulty, and to collect works by his friends Telemaco Signorini and Vincenzo Cabianca, as well as Giovanni Boldini, Silvestro Lega, Giovanni Fattori, Giuseppe Abbati, Antonio Fontanesi and other precious objects, such as Japanese vases, Murano glass.

In 1859 he was in La Spezia with the Macchiaioli painters Telemaco Signorini and Vincenzo Cabianca, drawing inspiration from the city and its gulf.

With Cabianca he moved to Piantavigne, near Castelfranco di Sopra, continuing to seek effects of light in the depiction of peasant women caught in moments of daily life and imbued with intimate nobility. Meanwhile, in 1861, a trip to Paris led him to the Barbizon school, the works of Corot and Constant Troyon. On a second trip to Paris in 1875, he would make two more trips to London in 1879 and 1887 where he met James McNeill Whistler. His collection, dispersed after his death, also included Corot and Courbet, products of his Parisian experiences.

In 1870 he was a juror at the Parma National Exhibition. In 1884 he was appointed professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and was part of the Commission to reorganize the Uffizi. Anna Franchi, in 1902, cites him in her volume Arte e artisti toscani, highlighting his importance in the mivimento of the Macchiaioli.

In 1904, at eighty years old, he dies in Montemurlo in his wife Leopolda's villa, who had made him father of eight children, among whom Alaide, the late fiancée of Giovanni Boldini, a protégé of her father who portrayed her on several occasions (1865 Portrait of Alaide Banti in gray, 1885 Portrait of Alaide Banti by the fireplace, Portrait of Alaide Banti at the piano, Portrait of Alaide Banti with the parasol, Portrait of Alaide Banti on the red sofa), while part of the family is depicted in La Famiglia Banti of around 1860.

An important core of his works, together with other Macchiaioli pieces from his old collection, is exhibited at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Florence, thanks to the bequest of Adriana Banti Ghiglia in 1955.

“There was a time when I wrote: To be famous means to be mediocre; today I willingly repeat this sentence, because circumstance gives me the occasion. [...]. One of the truly foremost Italian artists and at the same time one of the least known is the painter Cristiano Banti. His name is as far from celebrity as his genius is far from mediocrity.”
(Adriano Cecioni)