Stefano Ussi was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter who studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze

Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze

The Accademia di Belle Arti is an art academy in Florence, Italy and it is now the operative branch of the still existing Accademia delle Arti del Disegno that was the first academy of drawing in Europe.-History:The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno The Accademia di Belle Arti ("Academy of Fine...

 with Pietro Benvenuti

Pietro Benvenuti

Pietro Benvenuti was an Italian neoclassical painter.Born in Arezzo, he was influenced by the style of Jacques-Louis David. He was a student of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, then studied in Rome, 1792-1803, where he formed an informal academy with his friend of long standing, Vincenzo...

 and Giuseppe Bezzuoli

Giuseppe Bezzuoli

Giuseppe Bezzuoli was an Italian painter of the Neoclassic period, active in Milan, Rome, and his native city of Florence....

. For much of his career he specialized in history painting

History painting

History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait...

.

Biography

Ussi studied at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and then served as a volunteer in the first war of independence, during which he was taken prisoner by the Austrian troops. Having returned to Florence, he won the Triennale prize for painting in 1849 and presented works on historical and literary subjects at the exhibitions of the Florentine Società Promotrice di Belle Arti in the following years. Associated with the Macchiaioli group of painters gravitating around the Caffè Michelangelo, he achieved great success with The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens (Florence, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo Pitti), exhibited in Florence at the city’s first Esposizione Nazionale in 1861 and was awarded a prize in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1867. Having visited Egypt two years later on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

and returned there in 1872 by invitation of the Khedive, he accompanied an Italian diplomatic delegation to Morocco in 1875. The numerous drawings made during these travels provided material also in later years for a very successful series of paintings on Eastern subjects.

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