DOI Heft:
Nr. 122 (May 1903)
DOI Artikel:Agresti, Olivia Rossetti: The art of the late Giovanni Costa
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0250
Giovanni Costa
the pictures and etchings of an English artist,
Charles Coleman, had on him; and his school
counts almost as many followers amongst English
painters as amongst Italian.
It is rare indeed in modern times to find an
artist who is also a man of action, and in whom
neither art nor action suffered by such a union.
Costa was such a one, and in this he reminds us
of his glorious predecessors in Italian art. This
rare combination lends a singular interest to his
life and work, and one might easily be tempted by
such a subject to outstrip the limits of a magazine
article.
Giovanni Costa was born in Rome in 1826, the
son of Gioacchino Costa and his wife Maria, and
the fourteenth of a family of sixteen children. His
parents were the wealthy owners of a prosperous
wool-spinning mill in the Trastevere district, where
the characteristic Roman type has been best
preserved, and which is famous for its beautiful
women ; and it was in this quarter of the great
city, in an invigorating atmosphere of work and
independence, that the child grew up.
Costa, after completing a regular course of the
classical education of the period, had no small
difficulty in persuading his relations to agree to
his following his natural bent; but his devotion
to his art and his evident vocation won the day.
As a mere child he had shown his love of colour,
of form, of the inspiring spectacles of nature, and,
as with most born artists, all obstacles^ succumbed
to his firm determination.
In Italy in those days painting had been reduced
to the execution of certain conventional subjects in
a prescribed manner, regardless of truth to nature
or originality of thought, and of this school of art,
if such it deserves to be called, Camuccini and
Agricola were the two foremost representatives.
Nino Costa passed his youth in an atmosphere
of decadent art and revolutionary enthusiasm.
His first master in art was that Baron Camuccini
just mentioned as heading the academic school,
but such teaching was not to the young man's
taste, and they soon parted company, Camuccini
offering his pupil this excellent advice: " Leave
masters, and begin to study from Nature for
yourself." Our painter was not slow to act on
this advice, and after a brief sojourn in the
studio of Podesti, another of the reputed artists
of the day, he bade good-bye for good to masters
and academical traditions.
But those were not days when a patriotic Italian
could devote himself exclusively to art, and the
heroisms of the Roman Republic of 1849 found
Costa both Republican and soldier. Already the
previous year he had joined the ranks of the
Roman Legion, under General Ferrari, and been
made sergeant at the siege of Vicenza, and in 1849
he was on Garibaldi's staff. He took part, under
Giacomo Medici, in the defence of the Vascello,
•apt
UNDER SORACHE" BY GIOVANNI COSTA
(In the possession of Douglas Fresh field, Esq.)
238
the pictures and etchings of an English artist,
Charles Coleman, had on him; and his school
counts almost as many followers amongst English
painters as amongst Italian.
It is rare indeed in modern times to find an
artist who is also a man of action, and in whom
neither art nor action suffered by such a union.
Costa was such a one, and in this he reminds us
of his glorious predecessors in Italian art. This
rare combination lends a singular interest to his
life and work, and one might easily be tempted by
such a subject to outstrip the limits of a magazine
article.
Giovanni Costa was born in Rome in 1826, the
son of Gioacchino Costa and his wife Maria, and
the fourteenth of a family of sixteen children. His
parents were the wealthy owners of a prosperous
wool-spinning mill in the Trastevere district, where
the characteristic Roman type has been best
preserved, and which is famous for its beautiful
women ; and it was in this quarter of the great
city, in an invigorating atmosphere of work and
independence, that the child grew up.
Costa, after completing a regular course of the
classical education of the period, had no small
difficulty in persuading his relations to agree to
his following his natural bent; but his devotion
to his art and his evident vocation won the day.
As a mere child he had shown his love of colour,
of form, of the inspiring spectacles of nature, and,
as with most born artists, all obstacles^ succumbed
to his firm determination.
In Italy in those days painting had been reduced
to the execution of certain conventional subjects in
a prescribed manner, regardless of truth to nature
or originality of thought, and of this school of art,
if such it deserves to be called, Camuccini and
Agricola were the two foremost representatives.
Nino Costa passed his youth in an atmosphere
of decadent art and revolutionary enthusiasm.
His first master in art was that Baron Camuccini
just mentioned as heading the academic school,
but such teaching was not to the young man's
taste, and they soon parted company, Camuccini
offering his pupil this excellent advice: " Leave
masters, and begin to study from Nature for
yourself." Our painter was not slow to act on
this advice, and after a brief sojourn in the
studio of Podesti, another of the reputed artists
of the day, he bade good-bye for good to masters
and academical traditions.
But those were not days when a patriotic Italian
could devote himself exclusively to art, and the
heroisms of the Roman Republic of 1849 found
Costa both Republican and soldier. Already the
previous year he had joined the ranks of the
Roman Legion, under General Ferrari, and been
made sergeant at the siege of Vicenza, and in 1849
he was on Garibaldi's staff. He took part, under
Giacomo Medici, in the defence of the Vascello,
•apt
UNDER SORACHE" BY GIOVANNI COSTA
(In the possession of Douglas Fresh field, Esq.)
238