Background
He was born in Bologna in 1819, where at the age of fourteen he became apprentice of the bolognese artist Giovanni Battista Frulli.
He was born in Bologna in 1819, where at the age of fourteen he became apprentice of the bolognese artist Giovanni Battista Frulli.
He then studied in Milan, Naples, and finally in Rome where he enrolled at the Accademia di San Luca and studied under Tommaso Minardi.
After his training at the academy, he was hired as artist in residence at the Vatican, where he was commissioned a portrait of Pope Pius IX. In 1874 he was invited by Review Edward Sorin, who was visiting the papal court, to be artist in residence at the University of Notre Dame, where he stayed for seventeen years. He died in Florence in 1896.