\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \fi15 \f1 Italian painter.\par
\fi0 After serving an apprenticeship with a worker in alabaster, Bartolini attended the courses o
f the painter and engraver Giuseppe Piattoli at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. He was employed as an apprentice in the studios of various sculptors, including that of the Pisani, where he met Joham Insom who initiated him into the art of sculpt
ing. In 1795, at Volterra, the artist started to model in alabaster, going on to work as a draftsman and ornamentalist with a number of local sculptors. In 1799 he made a journey to Paris, in the retinue of a French general. Here, through the good office
s of NapoleonÆs sister Elisa Baciocchi, the young man gained access to DavidÆs studio, where he met the young painter, Ingres. Between 1805 and 1807, Bartolini achieved his first success with works like the bas-relief of the \i Battle of Austerlitz\i0 ,
\i \i0 which was carved for the column of the Grande ArmΘe and set up in the place Vend⌠me. Upon returning to Italy, he was appointed professor of sculpture at the Accademia di Carrara in 1807, again through the intercession of Elisa Baciocchi. But in 18
13, the change in BonaparteÆs political situation forced Bartolini to flee Carrara and take refuge in Florence, where he arrived in 1815. He executed the \i Wine Presser \i0 in Florence in 1819\i ,\i0 which marked a shift in his style, which had been hi
therto faithful to the neoclassical current, toward ôrealismö. From the twenties onward, the artist showed an inclination toward a delicate purism, that was inspired by the presence of Ingres in Florence; an example is the \i Charity as Educator\i0 of 1
824, in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. In 1830 Bartolini received the commission for the \i Monument to Nicholas Demidoff\i0 , which was not finished until forty years later by his pupil, Pasquale Romanelli. Between the late thirties and early forties, h
e produced some of his finest works such as the \i Trust in God \i0 for Countess Trivulzio Poldi in 1835 and the \i Sepulchral Monument to Countess Zamojska Czartoryski\i0 in the Florentine church of Santa Croce, in 1839. The following year, the artist
was appointed professor of sculpture at the Accademia in Florence, and he is still regarded as having been one of its most celebrated and effective teachers.
