Odoardo Borrani

1833 – 1905

Italian painter. He had his artistic training in Florence in the workshop of Gaetano Bianchi, specialized in the restoration of works of art, where he participated in the restoration of the Green Cloister of Santa Maria Novella. In 1853 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts where he was a pupil of Enrico Pollastrini. Here, he was oriented towards a painting of history with strong references to the Florentine Quattrocento. He also made drawings from life in the countryside around Florence with Telemaco Signorini and Vincenzo Cabianca. In 1859 he participated in the second war of independence with other Tuscan volunteers in Calcinato and Modena. In 1861 he painted with Raffaello Sernesi Raphael in San Marcello Pistoiese, where he made a series of studies of landscape. From 1862 he regularly exhibited in Turin and Genoa. In around 1865 he moved to Piagentina where he created some of his masterpiece such as Lost Hopes (1865). He became a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. His activities included the restoration of the frescoes by Giotto and Ghirlandaio. In his late years he worked in a more traditional style.

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