Bernardo Celentano
1835–1863 · Italian Realist painter of the 19th century
Bernardo Celentano (Naples, 1835 – Rome, 1863) was a 19th-century Italian painter associated with Realism, devoted mainly to historical subjects. His career was brief but intense, and his early death at 28 caused deep distress among fellow artists.
Celentano trained first in his native Naples with Luigi Stabile and then at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, where he was taught by Giuseppe Mancinelli. Around 1860 he moved to Rome, where the most intense part of his career unfolded.
Among his two major paintings are Tasso, Starting to Show Madness at Bisaccia and The Council of Ten. He shared the Realist concerns of Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi, with whom he is grouped within that movement.
His friend Guglielmo de Sanctis published an essay on the last days of the painter, recording that Cesare Fracassini, Paolo Mei and De Sanctis himself were at his bedside when he died. Celentano died in Rome and was buried in the church of Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo. A conference held in 1893 recalled his life, his work and his posthumous influence.