Cecrope Barilli Biography
Cecrope Barilli was born in Parma in 1839.
In 1862, with the painting "Christ Converts the Publican Matthew" (National Gallery of Parma), he won the regional artistic pension, one of the few works of manner of his vast production.
Having moved to Florence, he studied Renaissance painting, in addition to his contemporaries, especially the Macchiaioli. During a three-year stay in Paris he became close to numerous artists, including Doré, and obtained numerous commissions, such as the decoration of some ceilings in Madame Klaus' palace. In Rome, his reputation as a fashionable and Parisian painter brought him a large clientele and official commissions.
In 1871, he participated in the Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts in Parma with “La giardiniera di Saracinesco” and “Una via di Marano” (now in the Parma Gallery); The following year he was named honorary academic of the Parma Academy, perhaps also due to the success achieved in Rome.
That Barilli's name was well known in Italy, also as a decorator, is demonstrated by the many commissions, such as the decoration of the vault of the ballroom of the De Larderel palace in Livorno.
In 1878, he was appointed acting professor of the Academy of Fine Arts. He continued to have numerous external contacts and, from 1889, he had official roles of all kinds, such as the direction of the Academy and the Art Gallery; in 1890, he was elected city councilor. In those years, he painted numerous portraits which confirm his streak of intense poetry from the early times, as well as rustic interiors, farmyards, animals, of which there are examples in numerous public and private collections in Rome, Parma, and also in other Italian cities. and foreign. He died on 23 June 1911 in Parma.
