Cesare Mariani

Cesare Mariani (January 13, 1826, Rome – February 21, 1901) was an Italian painter and architect of the late-19th century, active in Rome and Ascoli Piceno.

Born to Pietro and Maria Agnelletti; his father worked for the Giustiniani family. This helped him access in 1837 to studies at the Accademia San Luca of Rome. His first masters were a painter by the name of Delicati and G. Silvagni, who taught design at the academy. He entered the studio of Tommaso Minardi from 1842 to 1850. There he worked alongside Guglielmo De Sanctis, Cesare Fracassini, Nicola Consoni, and Cesare Marianecci. One of his works were displayed at the Universal Exposition in London of 1851. His work was influenced by works of the Ingres and the Nazarene movement, but also by Francesco Hayez's interest in genre depiction, and which differed from the more academic style of Vincenzo Cammuccini. Mariani painted a portrait for the Monument to Cardinal R. Fornari (1855, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome).

His easel paintings gave him a good degree of success. He moved into a room in the Palazzo Dovizielli on Via Margutta. Sharing the flat were painter Bernardo Celentano and Fracassini. Here he painted Sappho (1858), followed by The Diviner, Astrologer in the act of Divination, and a Music lesson exhibited in the 1861 Universal Exhibition in Florence. Mainardi gained commissions in frescoes for many churches and palaces in Rome, Lazio, Umbria and finally in the Marche and Abruzzo. For example, he helped complete the decoration (1857-1860) for the rebuilt basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, working on are Paul laying on of hands on Barnabas in Antioch and The Magician Elymas in Pafo del Sud.

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