Mario de Maria

[1] He was born in Bologna into a family with an artistic pedigree: his great-grandfather had been the orchestra director at St Petersburg, while his paternal grandfather, Giacomo de Maria, had been a Neoclassical sculptor, a pupil of Canova, and instructor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna.

[2] He was also friends and contemporary with contemporary Bolognese painters Raffaele Faccioli and Luigi Busi, and from painters outside Bologna, including Vincenzo Cabianca, Nino Costa, Vittore Grubicy, and Giulio Aristide Sartorio.

In 1912–1913, he designed the Casa dei Tre Oci, as his own residence located on the island of Giudecca in Venice.

In 1883, having moved to Rome, he displayed a Vedute of Piazza di San Trovaso at Moonlight.

Rollins Willard ends his description of the artist with:[4] Whatever opinion might be formed as to its absolute merits, it was certainly of interest from the point of view of the art historian as evidence of a nascent reaction against naturalism, and a return to the older principles of art which the naturalistic movement drove out of favor.