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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