Giacomo Campi Biography
Giacomo Campi (1846 - 1921) embarked on the path of painting, initially training in Turin under the guidance of Luigi Gandolfi, painter, miniaturist and lithographer. Subsequently, he moved with his parents to Crema, attended courses at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo under the guidance of Enrico Scuri, and then completed his studies in Rome at the Accademia di San Luca.
In Milan, his works were requested to embellish some homes of the aristocracy and upper entrepreneurial bourgeoisie of the city and Lombardy, such as the house of Alessandro Manzoni, the new or renovated palaces Bagatti Valsecchi, Melzi d'Eril, Castelbarco Albani, the castle Arnaboldi in Carimate and some rooms of the Villa Reale in Monza.
In parallel, he dedicated himself to oil easel painting and watercolor, dealing with genre and costume subjects, participating in the exhibitions of Brera, the Società per Artisti e Patriottica and the Famiglia Artistica. He also executed multiple portraits on commission, increasing the family collections of the Borromeo, the Barbiano di Belgiojoso, the Stanga, the Falcò, the Arnaboldi and also those belonging to the Ambrosian welfare institutions.
In his atelier he also produces drawings for illustrations, caricatures, scrolls and illuminated diplomas, family trees, screens, signs, painted ceramics and other artefacts of heterogeneous types and materials. Campi also invents "Chinese shadows", an illusionistic game of which he becomes a first-person interpreter and which he represents publicly in Italy and Europe through charity shows.
