Roberto Bompiani – artist

Prolific painter recreated scenes from ancient Rome

Roberto Bompiani: a self-portrait
painted in about 1896

Artist Roberto Bompiani, who became well known for his paintings depicting Rome in ancient times, was born on this day in 1821 in Rome.

He became a successful landscape and portrait painter and later in his career he also worked as a sculptor.

His portrait of Queen Margherita of Italy, which was painted in 1878, still hangs in the Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome.

From a wealthy family, Bompiani was able to dedicate himself entirely to the study of art and enrolled at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome when he was 15. He was awarded a share of a first prize in design along with a fellow student in 1836, not long after joining the Academy. Within three years he was regularly winning prizes for sculpture and painting.   

As a painter, Bompiani depicted historical, mythological, and religious subjects in an idealised style making his figures physically perfect and giving them noble, spiritual expressions. His paintings of scenes from ancient Rome earned him the nickname of ‘The Italian Bouguereau’, referring to a French painter who made modern interpretations of classical subjects and was working at the same time as Bompiani.

An art historian wrote that despite Bompiani’s conservative approach, he showed himself to be open to new ideas and emancipated himself in his best work almost entirely from what was narrow and conventional in the style that had been imposed upon him by his early training.

Bompiani's Two Pompeian Ladies, an example
of his work depicting scenes from ancient Rome

Bompiani earned the attention of the wealthy Borghese family in Rome and painted two canvases recording the visit of Pope Pius IX to the family’s properties in 1854.

In later years, Bompiani painted landscape watercolours and in the 1870s he also began painting portraits. In addition to his painting of the Queen of Italy, he painted a portrait of his own wife and portraits of various members of the Borghese family.

He also painted frescoes for churches and a cemetery in Rome and paintings for a theatre and a church in Santiago in Chile.

Some of his classical works were on display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 and he won an award for his 1872 portrait of his fellow painter Giovanni Battista Canevari, when it was exhibited in Vienna. The painting now hangs in the Academy of San Luca. One of his sculptural works from the 1860s, Sappho, is in the Palazzo Castellani in Rome.

Bompiani served as a professor and ultimately as the president of the Roman Academy of San Luca. He died in Rome in 1908.

One of his sons, Augusto Bompiani, and one of his daughters, Clelia Bompiani, who were both his pupils and both studied at the Academy of San Luca, went on to become professional painters.

The Accademia di San Luca is located
 a few steps from the Trevi Fountain

Travel tip:

The Accademia di San Luca, where Roberto Bompiani and his children studied art, was founded in the 16th century and named after St Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of painters. It is now located at Piazza Accademia di San Luca close to the Trevi Fountain but was based near the Forum in Rome after it was founded in 1577. The Academy’s original building no longer exists, but the Academy Church of Santi Luca and Martina, which was designed by Pietro da Cortona, still stands overlooking the Forum.

Rome hotels by Booking.com

The Camera dei Deputati has been the permanent
seat of the Chamber of Deputies since 1918

Travel tip:

The Camera dei Deputati - the Chamber of Deputies - one of Italy’s houses of parliament,  meets at Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome. The palace was originally designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and completed by Carlo Fontana in 1697 and stands to the north of the Pantheon. The building was originally intended for the nephew of Pope Gregory XV. It was chosen as the seat of the Chamber of Deputies in 1871 but the building proved inadequate for their needs and extensive renovations were required before it became the chamber's permanent home, in 1918.

More reading

Gian Lorenzo Bernini - Italy's last universal genius

Pius IX - the longest papal reign in history

Giovanni Boldini - painter who captured elegance of Belle Époque

Also on this day:

1482: The death of sculptor Luca della Robbia

1791: The birth of painter Francesco Hayez

1918: The death of Nobel Prize-winning pacifist Ernesto Teodoro Moneta

1944: The birth of author and politician Raffaele Lauro

1953: The founding of Italian energy giant ENI

1966: The birth of footballer Andrea Silenzi

(Picture credits: Bompiani portrait uploaded by Spino; Accademia San Luca by Warburg; Palazzo Montecitorio by Manfred Heyde; via Wikimedia Commons)

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Francesco Bianchini - jockey

19th century rider who contested Palio di Siena 55 times

The Palio di Siena has been taking place in the Tuscan
city of Siena since the early part of the 17th century

The jockey Francesco Bianchini, who holds the record for the most consecutive participations in the historic Palio di Siena horse race, was born on this day in 1808 in Siena.

Bianchini, who raced under the name of Campanino, rode in 44 editions of the famous event, in which horses and riders represent 10 of the city of Siena’s 17 contrade or districts, without missing one between his debut in 1827 and the second running of the twice-yearly race in 1847.

He rode in 55 editions in total before he retired for good in 1860, at the age of 51, chalking up a total of nine wins. In his career, he rode for all bar two of the 17 contrade.

Held in July and again in August every summer in the Mediaeval square at the centre of Siena, the Piazza del Campo, with occasionally an extra race to commemorate a special event or anniversary, the Palio can be a brutal affair.

The colours of the contrade, the 17 districts who
contest the Palio, are displayed around the square

The 10 participants in the bareback contest race each other on a temporary dirt track around the perimeter of the shell-shaped piazza. The race consists of three laps, which the horses cover at such a furious pace that the whole thing is over in about 90 seconds.

It is not uncommon for jockeys to fall off their mounts and for horses to cross the finishing line riderless. In fact, a riderless horse can still be declared the winner so long as the colours of their contrada are still attached to their bridle.

Bianchini, whose nickname Campanino came from the tiny golden bell he wore as an earring, won the Palio for the first time at the age of 19 in 1828 at his fourth attempt, riding for the contrada known as Leocorno (Unicorn).

He won both editions in 1830, first for the Civetta (Little Owl) contrada and then for Istrice (Crested Porcupine). He had more success in 1835 for Pantera (Panther) and in 1837 for Aquila (Eagle).

At his peak, he won the Palio three times in a row, in August 1840 for Civetta, July 1841 for Oca (Goose) and August 1841 for Lupa (She-Wolf).

Huge crowds pack into the Piazza del Campo to
witness the race and the pageant that precedes it

His final success came in 1843 for the Tartuca (Tortoise) contrada.

Away from the race, Bianchini was a volatile individual with a violent streak who was often in trouble. At the age of 11, he was put on trial for the murder of another boy but was acquitted, despite several witnesses testifying against him.

Throughout his time as a Palio rider, his rivalry with another fantino - jockey - Francesco Santini, known as gobbo saragiolo - the Saragiolo hunchback, after his home village - was not confined to the race.

After taking part in a race at the nearby town of Castelnuovo Berardenga, Bianchini started a brawl with a groomsman which resulted in the groomsman, who worked for the contrada represented by Santini, suffering fatal injuries after Bianchini threw him into a ditch and repeatedly kicked and punched him.

The court ruled that the groomsman’s death was caused by the injuries he suffered falling into the ditch rather than by any blows inflicted by Bianchini, who remarkably was sentenced to only three months in jail.

Although he had to pay a large sum in compensation to the family of the deceased, plus court costs, the incident did not interrupt his participation in the Palio.

The horses have to make gravity-defying
turns to negotiate the corners of the piazza

Bianchini and Santini notably clashed again in 1853. Representing Oca, Bianchini remounted after an early fall, took the lead and remained there until the third lap, only for Santini, who had made a bad start riding for Torre (Tower) but recovered, to pip Bianchini’s horse and win, openly mocking his rival after they crossed the line for having denied him the opportunity for a 10th victory.

Santini himself still holds the record, jointly with the 18th century rider Matteo Mancini, for most Palio wins, at 15.

Bianchini married into a Palio family when Faustina Brandini became his second wife in 1836 following the death of his first wife, Assunta Angiolini di Fogliano. His father-in-law, Luigi Brandini, was the rider Cicciolesso, while his cousins, Giovanni and Agostino rode under the names Pipistrello and Brandino Minore respectively. 

He and Faustina had a son, Leopoldo, who grew up to race as Piccolo Campanino.

Nowadays, the two runnings of the Palio attract huge crowds of locals and visitors alike to Siena and have become a major part of the city's tourist trade. The races, which take place in the early evening, are preceded by a spectacular pageant. Such seats that are available for spectators are sold well in advance; most watch from the centre of the square, which fills to a capacity of around 50,000 before access is closed by the police.

Piazza del Campo is dominated by the red bricks
of the Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Mangia

Travel tip:

Siena is one of Italy’s most beautiful cities. The Piazza del Campo is at its heart, built between 1287 and 1355 and consisting of nine sections of fan-like brick pavement said to symbolise the Madonna's cloak said to protect the city in dark times.  The Campo is dominated by the red Palazzo Pubblico and its tower, Torre del Mangia. The Palazzo Pubblico contains a museum housing some of the greatest of Sienese paintings, including Simone Martini's huge Maestà and Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegories of Good and Bad Government, once regarded as the most important cycle of secular paintings of the Middle Ages. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Siena was one of the major cities of Europe, almost as large as Paris.  Siena is said to have taken its name from Senius, having been founded by Senius and his brother Aschius, the sons of Remus and nephews of Romulus, the legendary founders of Rome. Thus Siena's emblem is the she-wolf who suckled Remus and Romulus.

Siena's magnificent Cattedrale di Santa
Maria Assunta with its marble exterior

Travel tip:

Siena’s duomo is the Cattedrale Metropolitana di Santa Maria Assunta. The cathedral was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a dome and a bell tower. The dome was completed in 1264. The lantern at the top of the dome was added by the great Renaissance sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.  The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with the addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white have become the symbolic colours of Siena, after the black and white horses of Senius and Aschius.

Also on this day:

1858: The birth of the actress Eleonora Duse

1938: The birth of boxing champion Alessandro Mazzinghi

1941: The birth of bass-baritone singer Ruggero Raimondi

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