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Ranzoni, Daniele
(b Intra, Varese, 3 Dec 1843; d Intra, 29 Oct 1889). Italian painter. The son of a shoemaker, Ranzoni began to study painting with Luigi Litta, a local artist. At the age of 13 he was sent to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan. In 1857 he received a scholarship to study at the Accademia Albertina, Turin, where he became familiar with the work of Antonio Fontanesi. Fontanesi’s rendering of light was of great importance to Ranzoni’s later works. In 1862 Ranzoni returned to Intra, due to ill-health, but the following year he again attended the Brera, where he was taught by Giuseppe Bertini. During this period he met Mosè Bianchi, Filippo Carcano, Pietro Bouvier (1839–1927), Tranquillo Cremona and Giuseppe Grandi, becoming particularly friendly with the last two. Few of Ranzoni’s works have been identified from this period, but his portrait of Agostino Rossi, called Tuffin (1862; Verbania-Pallanza, Mus. Paesaggio), already demonstrates his interest in colour and light and his independence from the academic environment. Between 1865 and 1868 Ranzoni remained mainly at Intra, where he and his cousin G. F. Petrioli, a fellow student at the Albertina, frescoed the chapel of St John in the church of S Vittore. Upon his return to Milan he re-established contacts with Cremona (whose studio he used) and Grandi; he frequented the circle of GLI SCAPIGLIATI, although he maintained a certain detachment from its activities and ideas. Through these contacts Ranzoni, like Cremona, received a number of portrait commissions from members of Milan’s new bourgeoisie: the portrait of Major Filippo Erba (?1873; Bergamo, estate of Arturo Tosi) is traditionally said to have been painted in Cremona’s studio.
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