Luigi Mussini

Luigi Mussini (19 December 1813 – 18 June 1888) was an Italian painter, linked especially to the Purismo movement and to the Nazarenes.

He studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence under Pietro Benvenuti and Giuseppe Bezzuoli.

He was inspired by the masters of the Quattrocento and in 1844 he opened a school in Florence, where among his students were Silvestro Lega and Michele Gordigiani.

Disillusioned by the unhappy outcome, he withdrew to Paris, where he frequented the studios of Ingres, Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, William Haussoullier and other artists.

In 1852 he move to Siena to teach at that city's Academy of Fine Arts, where his pupils included Angelo Visconti, Amos Cassioli, Cesare Maccari, Pietro Aldi, Alessandro Franchi and Ricciardo Meacci.

Self-portrait (c.1850)
Game of Chess between Ruy Lopez and Leonardo da Cutro at the Spanish Court