By Kayla Alen
Italy has produced many, not only famous but also ridiculously talented painters some of which have become the fore fathers of this great medium. One of the major reasons people still flock to Italy today is to get a glimpse into its revolutionary artistic past and be in its presence, to stand in front of the masterpieces we send as postcards and have hanging in our homes as posters. So many iconic images from paintings are those of Italian artists.
In Italian history religion and art walk hand in hand. So many of Italy's artists used religious figures for their inspiration and subject matter which is not surprising considering many of the commissions came directly from the church itself.
Given this introduction it would follow that I'd want to highlight and discuss a Renaissance artist or at least an Italian artist known for their striking religious images. Not so, instead I will write about Modigliani or Modi for short, known as Dedo to his friends who couldn't be farther from the Renaissance.
Modigliani produced images that I find both haunting and calming. Images that feel realistic and also make you wonder at the depth and luster of his colors. Modi's life is almost equally as haunting. Years of tumultuous relationships, alcoholism and extreme drug use played their part in his work, who knows what kind of artist he would have been had he chosen to lead a different life.
Modigliani's life started out hard plagued by illness, got more difficult and ended the same way it began, in illness. Born into a very poor Jewish family in Tuscany Modi was said to have saved his family. At the time of his birth his family had recently lost it's money changing business and was in deep debt. Luckily, when the creditor's came a calling Modi's mother was in labor with him and by Italian law they were not allowed to take the bed of an expectant mother and this is exactly where the family hid their most prized and valuable possessions.
Modi was ill for much of his youth but even at a young age showed promise as a painter. As soon as he was able, he moved to Paris and started a not so successful art career but a very successful drug addiction and several very intense relationships with woman who would serve as both muse and mothers of his children.
As is the case with many now famous artists, Modi's fame did not come fast enough to save him and by the end of his life he was destitute and this time illness (tubercular meningitis) finally took him. He leaves behind a legacy of sadness and some very beautiful artwork.
For more information on Italian painters, check out this list of biggies:
Botticelli
Caravaggio
Leodardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Raphael
Tintoretto
Titian
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