PALAGI, Pelagio - b. 1775 Bologna, d. 1860 Torino - WGA

PALAGI, Pelagio

(b. 1775 Bologna, d. 1860 Torino)

Italian painter, architect, designer and collector. At the age of 12 he began to frequent the house in Bologna of his patron Conte Carlo Filippo Aldrovandi Marescotti (1763-1823), whose collections and library provided his early artistic education and engendered his taste for collecting. From 1795 he worked on several decorative schemes with the theatre designer and decorator Antonio Basoli (1774-1848), and it was perhaps in theatre designs that Palagi was first exposed to an eclectic range of motifs from exotic cultures. He was influenced by the linear, mannered style of Felice Giani, with whom he frequented the important evening drawing sessions at the house of the engraver Francesco Rosaspina (1762-1841).

Beginning in 1802, he participated in the informal Accademia della Pace, Bologna, as well as studying at the Accademia Clementina, and was elected to the Accademia Nazionale di Belle Arti of Bologna in 1803. Soon his draughtsmanship took on a bizarre, brooding style akin to that of Piranesi and such early Romantics as Luigi Sabatelli and Henry Fuseli. During this period he began designing funerary monuments, a type of commission that he continued to receive throughout his life. In 1805 he worked with Giani on the decorations of the Palazzo Aldini, Bologna.

He had a self-described “mania for antique things” that affected all aspects of his life. His interest in archaeology began when he moved to Rome in 1806 and soon became a fundamental inspiration in his work. Palagi was interested in Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquity, whose motifs he inventively and eclectically combined in his furniture and ornament designs.

Palagi was called to Turin by King Carlo Alberto in 1832 to be architect, decorator, and inspector of art schools. He redesigned the Royal Palace in Turin beginning in 1832.

He was a passionate collector and amassed one of the richest archaeological collections of the 1800s. Palagi owned a considerable collection of bronzes, marble sculptures, Etruscan vases, and gold, silver, and glass objects acquired during his years living in Rome, Milan, and Turin.

Exterior view

Because of the emphasis on the classical tradition, medieval forms were far less readily adopted in the 19th century in Italy than in northern Europe. One of the most lavish representatives of the Gothic Revival in the realm of landscape gardening is the Margheria attached to the residence of the Prince of Carignano in Racconigi in Piedmont. The courtyard layout, erected between 1834-49 on the edge of an extensive English garden planned by Savoy court gardener Saverio Kurten, goes back to designs by architect and stage designer Pelagio Palagi. While the complex silhouette, with its corner towers, battlements and pinnacled pediments, is clearly inspired by English models, the ground plan with three wings round a court is unmistakably derived from baroque villas. The cortile, on the other hand, enclosed by pointed arches, is reminiscent of a cloister garth.

The photo shows the main fa�ade.

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Exterior view

The photo shows the court fa�ade.

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Exterior view

The Orangery was presumably erected by Palagi’s pupil Carlo Sada (1809-1873). The Gothic Revival building became famous in its day because of a novel heating system installed by the English engineer Taylor.

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Newton's Discovery of the Refraction of Light

After the earlier Neoclassicism this painting demonstrates a change in Palagi’s style. The painting reveals the emergence of a Romantic, narrative undertone. Newton’s discovery is presented like a scene in a play. The child’s soap bubbles stop the scientist in his tracks as he makes the spontaneous discovery. The picture can be seen as genre painting as well as history painting, and it also shows Palagi’s inclination to psychological interpretation, a preference that was shared by Italian painters generally in the next few years.

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Stool

The celebrated Bolognese ‘ornemaniste’ and furniture designer Pelagio Palagi was extensively patronised by King Carlo Alberto (1798-1849), both at the Palazzo Reale and the Castello di Racconigi, where he was given free reign for the entire decorative schemes.

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The Nuptials of Cupid and Psyche

This painting shows that painters in Italy at this period were well able to combine their dependence on France with their own studies of Antiquity and their encounter with Mengs. The painting would be inconceivable without the transmission of ideas from France. In his own days it was recognized that Palagi had adopted some elements from famous works of Antiquity - we can see that Jupiter Verospi in the Vatican served as model, Psyche is oriented to the Venus Victrix, and Cupid derives from Raphael.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes):

Francesco Gasparini: The Meddlesome Cupid, aria

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