The Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa

The Camposanto or Monumental Cemetery in Pisa is a historical edifice at the northern edge of the Cathedral Square in Pisa, Italy."Campo Santo" can be literally translated as "holy field", because it is said to have been built around a shipload of sacred soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Fourth Crusade by Ubaldo de' Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa in the 12th century. A legend claims that bodies buried in that ground will rot in just 24 hours. The burial ground lies over the ruins of the old baptistery of the church of Santa Reparata, the church that once stood where the cathedral now stands.
The term "monumental" serves to differentiate it from the later-established urban cemetery in Pisa.

Odilon Redon: "True art lies in a reality that is felt"

• "Black is the most essential of all colors. Above all, if I may say so, it draws its excitement and vitality from deep and secret sources of health... One must admire black. Nothing can debauch it".

• "True art lies in a reality that is felt".

• "The fundamental grey which differentiates the masters, expresses them and is the soul of all colour. My originality consists in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible".

Emma Ekwall [1838-1925]

Emma Ekwall-Scheutz was the first Swedish woman - painter, received the Royal Medal. She was born on January 18, 1838. After graduating from the Academy of Painting, where she studied from 1865-1870, lived for a time in Munich and Leipzig. She painted mostly portraits of their children, floral still lifes and genre scenes. She died in 1925 in Stockholm.

George Romney | Portrait painter

George Romney (1734-1802) was the most celebrated Portrait painters of his time, along with Reynolds and Gainsborough.

He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.

He was born in Dalton-in-Furness in 1734 and after learning his craft of cabinet-making there and in Lancaster, he was apprenticed to the portrait painter Christopher Steele in 1755.

In 1757 he broke his apprenticeship and set up on his own in a studio in Kendal.

Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898)

Ivan Ivanovič Šiškin è stato un pittore Russo associato al Movimento dei Peredvižniki - un gruppo di artisti realisti Russi che protestarono contro le restrizioni accademiche e che formarono una cooperativa che evolvette nella società per mostre itineranti nel 1870, chiamata anche "Compagnia delle esposizioni di arte itinerante".

Nato a Elabuga che all'epoca faceva parte del Gubernija di Vjatka (oggi repubblica di Tatarstan) si diplomò al liceo di Kazan; in seguito studiò alla Scuola di Mosca di pittura, scultura ed architettura per quattro anni e frequentò l'Accademia Imperiale d'Arte dal 1856-1860, laureandosi con le più alte onorificenze ed una medaglia d'oro.