Giacomo Di Chirico

Giacomo Di Chirico (born in Venosa, Basilicata, 27 January 1844 - died in Naples, 1883) was an Italian painter and one of the most prominent artists of the 19th-century Neapolitan school, alongside Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi. His work centred on the life and costume of his native region, and it shows how genre painting could record the customs of a particular place.

He came from a family of carpenters and was left in poverty after his father died when he was very young. While working in a barbershop to support his family, he learned basic painting techniques from his elder brother Nicola, a sculptor, and began to paint portraits of his customers. The demand for these portraits encouraged him to become a professional painter. The municipality of Venosa granted him a pension to study at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, where he trained in painting under Tommaso de Vivo and studied literature under Francesco De Sanctis. There he turned towards history painting.

He lived in Rome between 1868 and 1871, which allowed him to refine his technique. Back in Naples he opened a studio and strengthened his friendship with Morelli and Palizzi. He then shifted towards genre painting, depicting the landscape and rural dress of Basilicata. Works such as Quinto Orazio Flacco, Corteggiamento and Donna lucana brought him recognition, and Sposalizio in Basilicata, his best-known painting, was shown in Paris in 1877, Vienna in 1879 and Munich in 1882. He relied on the French dealer Adolphe Goupil to sell his canvases. In 1880 he received a commission from Amadeo I of Spain. He was made an honorary professor at the Academy of Art in Naples between 1877 and 1878.

From 1882 his health declined, with symptoms affecting his mind and later his body. He died in 1883, aged 39, in a psychiatric institution in Naples. His legacy is mainly associated with Neapolitan genre painting and with the image of Basilicata in the nineteenth century.