Achille Glisenti

Key facts

Lived

1848–1906, Italian^[1]

Movement

• genre painting

^[1]

Wikipedia

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• What is Achille Glisenti known for?+

  Achille Glisenti is known for his scena galante paintings. These paintings depict figures in seventeenth-century dress posed in domestic or garden settings, painted with close attention to fabric texture and period detail.
• What is Achille Glisenti's most famous work?+

  It is difficult to identify Achille Glisenti's single most famous work, as references to his art are scant. However, he appears to have produced a number of paintings on religious and mythological subjects. These include depictions of the Holy Family, as well as scenes from classical mythology, such as Apollo and Daphne, Diana and Endymion, and Diana and Actaeon. Glisenti also created works on historical themes, for example, The Capture of Jerusalem by Titus and The Death of Germanicus. Other subjects include: The Death of Sapphira, The Finding of Moses, The Judgment of Solomon, The Massacre of the Innocents, and The Triumph of David. He also painted multiple versions of some subjects, such as The Flight into Egypt and The Holy Family.
• What should I know about Achille Glisenti's prints?+

  Achille Glisenti was active during a period that saw significant artistic and political change in Italy. To understand his prints, it is helpful to consider the context of Italian^[1] art and publishing during the mid-20th century. During the 1940s, despite wartime restrictions and material shortages, there was considerable activity in the Italian art world. Numerous exhibition catalogues and art books were produced. Milan and Rome were important centres for artistic activity and publishing. Edizioni di Corrente, Edizioni Garotto, and Edizioni della Spiga were among the publishers producing books on artists, often accompanied by original prints or drawings. These publications helped to promote modern art and artists during a difficult time. The Galleria del Secolo in Rome held exhibitions of contemporary artists, and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna reopened with an exhibition of contemporary Italian art. These events provided important venues for artists to display their work. The covers of publications from this period sometimes featured neo-Constructivist designs. The availability of acid-free paper suggests a concern for the preservation of printed materials.
• What style or movement did Achille Glisenti belong to?+

  Achille Glisenti was associated with Futurism, an Italian^[1] art movement that began in the early 20th century. Futurism aimed to capture the dynamism, speed, and energy of modern life. Futurist artists sought to represent motion and the sensation of speed in their works. They were inspired by technological advancements such as trains and automobiles. They incorporated elements of Cubism, such as fragmentation and multiple perspectives, but diverged from Cubist aesthetics by focusing on movement and the relationship between an object and its environment. Key figures associated with Futurism include Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, and Gino Severini. The Futurists produced manifestos outlining their artistic principles, such as the importance of "lines of force" to convey a visual synthesis of an object and its motion. They aimed to express the sensation of velocity and the "unique form of spatial continuity".
• What techniques or materials did Achille Glisenti use?+

  Technical knowledge is essential to understanding art history. The techniques painters used were not always uniform; many recipes existed for binders, which were composed of various substances in differing percentages. These variations changed the structure and usage. Even if the components of the binders can be identified, determining the percentages remains difficult, yet this is the decisive factor for the binder type. Egg tempera's basic formula, according to Cennino Cennini, includes egg yolk, white, and white vinegar. However, countless tempera recipes have existed since antiquity, changing the amounts or ingredients, thereby influencing the usage and characteristics. The transition from tempera to oil painting was gradual. Oleoresin percentages added to tempera allowed colours to be used with densities and nuances similar to oil paint, while remaining water-soluble. Water allowed relatively fast partial drying, enabling easy layering. As oily proportions increased, water could no longer dissolve the colour, requiring turpentine instead. At this point, they are oil colours, not tempera.
• What was Achille Glisenti known for?+

  Achille Glisenti is not mentioned in the provided texts. The texts contain short biographical entries for artists ranging from the 14th to the 20th century. These include Gentile da Fabriano (c. 1370-1427^[1]), an Italian^[1] painter known for his colour and gilding; Orazio Gentileschi (1563-c. 1639/40), who combined Florentine Mannerism with Caravaggio's style; François Pascal Simon Gérard (1770-1837), a portraitist and historical scene painter; Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), noted for his vivid depictions of horses and his move away from Classicism; Franz Gertsch (born 1930), a Photo-Realist painter and woodcut artist; Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), a fresco painter who depicted Florentine life; and Il Guercino (1591-1666), a leading painter of the Bolognese school. Other artists mentioned are Matthaus Günther (1705-1788), a fresco painter, and Renato Guttuso (1912-1987), a Social Realist painter.
• When did Achille Glisenti live and work?+

  Information on Achille Glisenti's life and career is scarce in the provided texts. However, other figures are mentioned who were active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. For example, Friedrich Gilly (1772-1800^[1]) designed a Lutheran church in 1791 and the Friedrichsdenkmal in 1796, achieving celebrity in Berlin. In 1797, he travelled to Paris and London, returning to Berlin in December 1798. In 1799, Gilly married Marie Ulrike Hainchelin and became a professor at the Bauakademie (Academy of Architecture). He co-founded the Privatgesellschaft junger Architekten (Private Society of Young Architects) with Johann Heinrich Gentz (1766-1811). Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) resolved to study architecture under Gilly after seeing the Friedrichsdenkmal plans. Alessandro Antonelli (1798-1888^[1]) was also active in the first half of the 19th century, designing daring stone buildings.
• Where can I see Achille Glisenti's work?+

  Achille Glisenti's works appear in several museum collections. In Italy, these include the Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Milan), the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica (Milan), the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Rome), the Museo Civico (Turin), the Museo d’Arte Moderna (Venice), and the Museo Civico Borgogna (Vercelli). Other Italian^[1] institutions holding his works are the Banca Commerciale Italiana, the Piceni-Testi Collection, and the Fondazione Regionale Cristoforo Colombo (Genova). You can also find his pieces at the Museo del Bijou di Casalmaggiore and the Museo Richard-Ginori della Manifattura di Doccia (Sesto Fiorentino). Outside Italy, museums include the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (Winter Park, Florida), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond), and the Wolfsonian at Florida International University (Miami Beach).
• Who did Achille Glisenti influence?+

  It is difficult to identify specific individuals who were directly influenced by Achille Glisenti. Italian^[1] art of the early 20th century was complex, with many regional variations. A reverence for the past existed alongside avant-garde ideas. The brief Metaphysical school, including Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carra, attempted to reform Renaissance perspective and volumetric figures. They created disquieting atmospheres through irrational form juxtapositions. By 1920, many had returned to traditional styles inspired by classical Italian art, particularly Giotto and Uccello. Italian Divisionism, with artists such as Gaetano Previati, Giovanni Segantini, and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, developed a modern language of colour and light. Futurists recognised them as individual and creative, adopting their poetic use of colour. Umberto Boccioni described early Futurism as "a violated and synthesised Impressionism". Futurists like Giacomo Balia signed manifestos and exhibited in Paris. They used Divisionism in an instinctive way, applying divided colours for strident tones. They were also influenced by French Impressionism, which had previously been extraneous to Italian art.
• Who influenced Achille Glisenti?+

  Achille Glisenti's artistic influences are complex, with no single dominating figure. The Futurists, with their emphasis on modernity and dynamism, certainly played a role. Key figures of the movement, such as Umberto Boccioni, F.T. Marinetti, and Gino Severini, may have shaped his aesthetic sensibilities. Other artists who explored similar themes, or whose work Glisenti might have encountered, include Carlo Carrà and Luigi Russolo. The broader European art scene also likely had an impact. Artists like Picasso, Modigliani, and Henri Matisse were active during Glisenti's career. It is also possible that Glisenti drew inspiration from earlier Italian^[1] masters, such as Masaccio or Paolo Uccello, though this is less clear. Ultimately, a full understanding of Glisenti's influences would require a close examination of his body of work and the cultural context in which he operated.
• Who was Achille Glisenti?+

  Achille Glisenti was an Italian^[1] painter born in Brescia in 1848^[1]. He is known for painting elegant genre scenes in period costume and Orientalist subjects, which were popular with American and British collectors.
• Why are Achille Glisenti's works important today?+

  Achille Glisenti was part of a generation of Italian^[1] artists whose work sought to break from 19th-century formalism. Futurism, the movement Glisenti was associated with, was a war on conventionalism. Though some viewed its surface as trivial, it indicated an escape from traditional forms. Futurism affected modern art and taste. Fifty years ago, the Futurists envisioned trends in painting, sculpture, and decoration. Glisenti, along with others, fought for freedom in art, which benefited those who fought and those who had been indifferent to new expressions. Futurist manifestos served to destroy and create. The theories of Futurism can also be found in the ideas expressed by Boccioni and Soffici in their writings. Futurism's genuine contributions to art and Italian life are not speculation but a palpable reality.