Giovanni Carnovali
Legendary Artist
The painter Giovanni Carnovali, who was nicknamed “Il Piccio,” was an artist of the nineteenth century and belonged to the Lombard Romantic art period. He was born in Montegrino Valtravaglia in the year 1804. He displayed his artistic skills from an early age and was admitted at the young age of eleven to the Accademia Carrara of Bergamo. Here, he got himself trained by a painter called Giuseppe Diotti. Carnovali’s style of painting is different from other artists’ styles, since it does not adhere to academicism. The paintings by Carnovali are known for their soft colouring, gentle lighting, free use of brushes and vague outlining. He had travelled extensively and gone to places like Rome and Parma to study the works of master painters before him, including Raphael, Correggio, and Parmigianino. Carnovali mostly painted portraits, religious topics, landscapes, and mythologies. Though Carnovali’s unorthodox style could not get full appreciation among his contemporaries, he later made significant contributions to the formation of the Scapigliatura movement.