Figure 1.--Here we Bianchi's painting of two altar boys retrning from a festival and confronting some beligerant geese. (Bianchi did several paintuings with geese. Apparently he fiund them interesting.) You can see more altar boys and the substantial church in the background. We thought that their liturgical garments were kept at the church. This suggests that they were kept at home.

Mosè Bianchi was an Italian painter and graphic artist. He was born in 1840 in Monza, near Milan, then in the Austrian Empire. His family apparently lived in Venice and moved to Milan. Mosé enrolled at the Brera Academy. Before he completed his studies, he joined the Italian forces to fight in the second war of independence. He returned to finish his training at the school of painting which was headed by Giuseppe Bertini. Shortly aftr finisgingb his studies, he was awarded a grant to visit Venice (1867) and then Paris (1869). He participated in the Brera exhibitions and the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. His early works were well received. He began to paint genre scenes for some reasons with 18th-century rather than modern settings. He also did portraits. He became one of Milan's most popular artists. His was a prolific artist working in mixed media and his output included portraits, landscapes, historical scenes and genre subjects, basically pieces that would sell well. He worked with bold colors created insughtful scenes. Milan was a growing industrial city and Bianchi was very suuccesful. He returned to Venice (1879) and began working in Chioggia. Both would play a major role in his work. His later works featured scenes from both places in series of both Venice city scenes and landscapes and genre scenes around Chioggia. One of his genre works, The Schoolmaster' was painted in Milan, it is undated. We also notice genre paintings of altarboys being confrinted by geese and another of children playing blindman's buff. The paintings would have been done some time between 1865 and 1895, The clothing in the schoolmscene suggests an 18th century schooln scene. The painting shows a teacher reprimanding a boy who has carelessly broken an object. The altarr boyspainting andthe children playingare abasically timeless. Bianchi was also noted for his print making. He served as a principal of the Accademia di Belle Arti Cignaroli in Verona.

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Created: 12:15 PM 3/28/2024
Last updated: 12:15 PM 3/28/2024