"Love or Duty" by Gabriele Castagnola, 1873.

Gabriele Castagnola (11/14/1828 Genoa - 8/30/1883 Florence) was an Italian artist who worked in oil painting and chromolithography in an Academic style in Florence, Italy. Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English Oil painting is the process of painting with Pigments that are bound with a medium of Drying oil — especially in early modern Europe Linseed oil Chromolithography is a method for making multi-color prints. This type of color printing stemmed from the process of Lithography, and it includes all types of lithography Academic art is a style of Painting and Sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany ^[1] This style of painting and sculpture derived from the Academies where most artists received their formal training, and is characterized by its high finish, use of mythological or historical subject matter, and moralistic tone. History painting, as formulated in 1667 by André Félibien, a historiographer architect and theoretician of French Classicism, was in the Hierarchy Castagnola's paintings are often somewhat sentimental and often focus on themes of love and romance. The romance of the Early Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi with the young novice Lucrezia Buti is a recurring theme in his pieces, as are nuns in general. Renaissance painting bridges the period of European art history between the art of the Middle Ages and Baroque art. Fra' Filippo Lippi (1406 &ndash October 8 1469 A Nun is a Woman who has taken special vows committing her to a religious life

His works include: Filippo Lippi e Lucrezia Buti (1863), Scena Romantica (1864), Ciociara, Jeune Fille au Balcon (1865), Faust and Marguerite (1870), Lippi Declaring his Love to the Nun/Lippi with the Nun (1870), Filippino Lippi and his Mistress (1871), Love or Duty (1871), A Nun Observing Two Butterflies (1872), Reading Together (1872), Rosen (1873), Scena Galante, Couple Romantique Assis Sur un Banc (1873), The Embrace of Fra Filippo Lippi and Lucrezia Buti (1874), The Meeting (1875), Nun Admiring Lovebirds (1875), La Monaca e il Pittore, Amor Cortese (1876), The Kind Gesture (1876), and The Seduction (1877).

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