Giovanni Marghinotti

His father Vincenzo was a craftsman, originally from Trapani, who worked hard to provide his four sons with professional educations.

That same year, he received his first major commission: a huge allegorical canvas of King Charles Felix of Sardinia as a protector of the arts, for the Town Hall in Cagliari.

Over the next decade, he received numerous commissions from royal and ecclesiastical authorities, which included large canvases for the cathedral there, as well as ones in Ozieri, Sassari and Oristano.

Two years later, he was named a "Virtuoso of Merit" at the Accademia dei Virtuosi al Pantheon in Rome and, in 1845, became a court painter for King Charles Albert.

[1] Attempts to create Cagliari's first painting and drawing school were unsuccessful, but he became a popular portrait painter for the nobility.