Federico Zandomeneghi

As a young man, he preferred painting to sculpture, enrolling in 1856 first in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, and then in the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan.

This made it uncomfortable for him to reside in Venice, leading to a brief incarceration, and in 1862, he moved to Florence for 5 years where he frequented the Caffè Michelangiolo.

There he met a number of the artists known as the Macchiaioli, including Signorini, Martorelli, Giovanni Fattori and Giuseppe Abbati, and he joined them in painting landscapes outdoors.

Painting outside of the studio, "en plein air", was at that time an innovative approach, allowing for a new vividness and spontaneity in the rendering of light.

[2] In 1871 Pompeo Molmenti wrote glowing assessments of three young Venetian painters: Guglielmo Ciardi, Alessandro Zezzos, and Zandomeneghi.