GIOVANNI COSTA 



Leighton once wrote, " something even nobler than 

 Costa's art, and that is his life." Few of those who 

 admire the delicate finish of his paintings would ever 

 have dreamt that this master whose work breathes an 

 atmosphere so calm and serene has often braved 

 prison and death, and risked all for his country's sake. 

 When his pictures were exhibited in Bond Street, a 

 well-known critic wrote that it was easy to see 

 these paintings were the work of an exceptionally 

 fortunate man who had led a prosperous and sheltered 

 life, and knew nothing of the hard struggle for ex- 

 istence which is commonly the artist's lot. He was 

 amazed to hear that Costa had fought on many a 

 fiercely contested battlefield and had entered Rome 

 in the van of the victorious army which stormed the 

 bastions of Porta Pia in the war of 1870. The story 

 of those heroic days deserves to be remembered. 



Giovanni Costa was born in Rome on October 15, 

 1826. His father, Gioacchino Costa, owned a large 

 woollen factory in Trastevere, and lived there with 

 his family of sixteen children, in the days when the 

 Borgo still retained its old gardens and mediaeval 

 towers. Giovanni, or Nino as his Roman friends 

 affectionately called him, the fourteenth in the family, 

 was intended for the law, but before he reached the 

 age of fifteen his artistic leanings could no longer be 



restrained, and his parents reluctantly consented to 



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