Luigi Sacchi

Luigi Sacchi (August 4, 1805 – June 22, 1861) was an Italian painter and engraver, but is chiefly notable as an early photographer, active mostly around his native city of Milan.[1][2]

Piazza Duomo in Milan, photograph by Luigi Sacchi

He trained at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera and worked both as a painter and an engraver before taking up photography in 1845 along with his brother, specialising in architectural photography. In 1859 the Sacchi brothers began publishing an art and photography magazine titled L'Artista[1] from the studio of Pompeo Pozzi.[3]

Biography

Luigi Sacchi, who came into contact with the art world from an early age because of the professions of his father Giuseppe and cousin Defendente, enrolled at the Brera Academy in 1822. After an early career in painting, in which he was inspired by Francesco Hayez and Pelagio Palagi, going so far as to exhibit seven oil paintings at the annual Exhibitions of the Imperial Regia Accademia between 1827 and 1829, he shifted his artistic interest to woodcuts and lithography. Driven by a desire to document and popularize the artistic and cultural heritage of the Italian peninsula through these means, he assumed from 1835 the graphic direction of the magazine Cosmorama Pittorico whose general editorship was entrusted to his brother Giuseppe, his father's namesake, and his cousin Defendente. The magazine was a significant success, obtaining subscription requests from several parts of the peninsula in a still pre-unitary Italy.[4]

Notes and references
  1. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani vol. 89 (207): Luigi Scacchi, by Roberto Cassanelli
  2. Luigi Sacchi the photographer is not to be confused with a later painter of the same name who was born in Ticino in Switzerland, in 1851: see here and here
  3. Photography archive of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, website.
  4. Sacchi, Luigi (1996). Marina Miraglia (ed.). Alle origini della fotografia: Luigi Sacchi lucigrafo a Milano, 1805-1861. Milano: F. Motta. ISBN 88-7179-107-X. OCLC 36537295.

Further reading
  • Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera, Luigi Sacchi lucigrafo a Milano 1805-1861, ed. Marina Miraglia, Milano, Federico Motta, 1996, ISBN 887179107X
  • R. Cassanelli, "Luigi Sacchi e le origini della fotografia d'architettura in Italia", in La cultura architettonica nell'età della Restaurazione. Atti del Convegno... 2001, Milano 2002, pp. 385–394
  • E. Gorra, La moderna xilografia in Italia, [Annone Brianza] 2011, pp. 18–20, 26–28, 466-469


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