Born in Pesaro on 12 August 1825 and died in Florence on 9 January 1884. He studied with the engraver Samuele Jesi and since 1855 he attended the Academy of Florence, where he was a pupil of Giuseppe Bezzuoli. In 1848 he volunteered in the first war of independence. Since 1851 he has participated in the exhibitions of the Florentine Promoter with the Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini (unknown location; in 1857 he exhibited the popular The Return from the Ball, unknown location). The painting Savonarola refuses to acquit Lorenzo de 'Medici, purchased by Carlo Alberto at the Turin Promoter in 1853 and reproduced in the printed catalog (Turin, Royal Palace), is still linked to historical romanticism. From 1850 he joined the group of Macchiaioli painters who met at the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence, introducing Telemaco Signorini, who he portrays in an oil (location unknown). With the latter, in 1856 he made a study trip to Bologna, Mantua and Venice: here he copies the works of Palma il Vecchio in Santa Maria Formosa and makes friends with Odoardo Borrani, on whom he seems to exert a certain influence. Among the most important works of the Florentine period - mainly landscapes, historical subjects, interior figures, nudes and portraits - the praised The first meeting of Dante and Beatrice, executed in 1859 and exhibited and awarded at the Florentine Promoter of 1861 ( unknown location), the Portico of the same year (Florence, Gallery of Modern Art), of a genuine Macchiaioli origin, and the large canvas with the fastest and most loose painting of The Exile by Giano Della Bella (1864, private collection). The Portico can be combined with some small landscapes painted from life, also painted with a few essential brushstrokes, such as Cipressaia (Florence, Gallery of Modern Art), Country Study, Via del Maglio in Florence, White Wall, Florentine Hills, Hills on the lake and Strada al sole, all in private collections. The desire to simplify the form, to the point of reducing it to an essential volume with a well-defined chiaroscuro, is evident above all in the figure works of the sixties and seventies, such as in the Head of a Woman and In the Painter's Studio (Florence, Galleria d’Arte Moderna ), in the Lady with an umbrella (Rome, National Gallery of Modern Art), in the Self-portrait (Jerusalem, The Israel Museum), in the Portrait of the mother (Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore), in the Lady in the garden, in the Lady in conversation and At the piano, works from 1876 now in private collections, in the Portrait of Elvira Bistondi Mariani with a parrot (Livorno, Bottega d'Arte) and in Le belle e la monkey (private collection). In 1867 he moved to Paris, where his brother Giacomo, Rossini's doctor and friend already lived. here he frequents Giovanni Boldini, Giuseppe De Nittis and Serafino De Tivoli and is inserted in the best artistic and literary circles. Except for occasional trips to London, and a short stay in Boulogne-sur-Mer (1870), at the time of the Franco-Prussian war, he stayed in Paris until 1874, updating himself on contemporary French research, especially on Courbet, and on those of Italian emigrants, such as De Nittis. The Portrait of Pauline Oulmann, the Sicilian Costumes, exhibited in the Salon of 1870, some family paintings, such as Children playing cards (1870) and Pomaio (1873), some of the most beautiful nudes, such as Nude ( 1873, Milan, Galleria d’Arte Moderna) and Nude on a red background (1873), and some small life scenes, including Cartomante (1872), Al Pianoforte (1873) and In the painter's studio, in two versions (1874 ). He returns to Florence in 1874 and, although ill, continues to work. From the extreme phase of his production are some portraits, such as those of Cesare D’Ancona and his wife, Giulietta Gallico, of his daughter Giulietta, a posthumous portrait of Gioacchino Rossini (1874, Florence, Galleria d’Arte Moderna), The expected letter in two versions (1875), the Woman who smokes (1878) and the Ciociara (1879), and some small studies on horse racing in the Cascine. In 1877 he participated in the National Exhibition of Naples, where the painting A closed doors: figure of a naked woman was awarded the gold medal. In 1878, due to the deteriorating health conditions, the pictorial activity definitively ceased.