Giuseppe Renda

Giuseppe Renda, called "l'Aroddu" (born in Alcamo on 13 June 1772 and died in Palermo, on 20 October 1805), was an Italian painter.

Born into a family of farmers and third son of Antonio di Vito (called "Arollo") and Francesca Lo Serro di Giuseppe, he was baptized with the name Giuseppe Antonino.

The family lived in via Commendatore Leonardo Navarra, called "strada di li putieddi" (the street with small shops) because of the stands which were erected in this street during the free fair of the Company of Saint James. When he was young he worked for the cathedral.

He started painting during his adolescence when one day, on a whim, he sketched the portrait of a chaplain on a wall with a charcoal. After he had seen it, the archpriest Don Benedetto Mangione, sent him to the town authorities. He he was taken under the patronage of the nobleman Pietro Lombardo and this patronage allowed him to study art with the master Giuseppe Velazquez in Palermo. Some people assert that he was the artist Giuseppe Patania.

When his studies ended he went back to Alcamo, where he produced many paintings with religious backgrounds, beginning in 1790. His mother died in 1789 and his father married again, to Vincenza Pirrello (1790).

In 1796, after his father’s death, Giuseppe Renda moved to the house in via Rossotti where his sister Antonina lived.

In 1805 he died of tuberculosis in Palermo when he was only 33, and was buried in the crypt of the convent of the Capuchins.

Giuseppe Renda’s paintings, above all, deal with religious subjects. The female characters, the Madonnas above all, have a unique beauty and humanity; just look at their faces' expression or the light around them. There are five certain works made by him (three of them provide the date and the author’s name) and 38 are assigned to him. 14 of his paintings have got lost.

Among his works currently hosted in Alcamo, there are:

Renda’s works kept in Palermo are:

In Trapani you can see the Ritratto del Generale Giovan Battista Fardella (Portrait of the general G.B. Fardella) kept at Museo Regionale Pepoli.

At Erice, in the museum of the Church, there is an oil painting on a wooden panel assigned to him, representing Saint Isidore Agricola.

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Wikipedia