PALIZZI, Filippo - b. 1818 Vasto, d. 1899 Napoli

Italian painter, considered one of the most representative artists of the realist school of Naples. He embarked on legal studies but left these to attend the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti in Naples from 1836 as an external student of landscape painting under Anton Sminck Pitloo (1791-1837). After Pitloo’s death, he studied under Gabriele Smargiassi (1798-1882), whose academic and dogmatic approach he adopted in his own work, along with the fundamentally Romantic spirit informing it. Early works include the Evening Angelus (1838; Vasto, Pinacoteca Civica) and the paintings exhibited in several of the Bourbon Esposizioni Biennali in Naples. Their melancholic mood was a common element in Italian historical landscape painting from the mid-1820s onwards, and it had been inspired by the landscapes of Massimo Tapparelli d’Azeglio. Palizzi was among the first to introduce it to Naples. In 1841 Palizzi exhibited several historical landscapes at the Reale Museo Borbonico.

Palizzi’s interest was particularly focused on the study of real life, and his preferences were for modest subjects such as small landscapes and animals. The execution of his subjects is extremely accurate and was often combined with the experimentation with new materials and techniques.

He was chairman of the Accademia in Naples. Palizzi’s works are accessible to the public at the Modern Art Gallery in Rome and at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.