Positano Painting

"The beaches of Maiori and Minori are the most pleasant of the Gulf, from Salerno to Amalfi and Sorrento and I do not hesitate to affirm that they exceed in beauty the beach of Sorrento, even at the cost of being accused of heresy". In this way, Gregorovius, in his "Italian Walks", in 1861, described the towns of Maiori and Minori, protagonists, with their swirl of life, their picturesque and suggestive corners, scenes from daily life and the wonderful view, of numerous paintings belonging to local artists who, between the XIX and the XX century, gave birth to a new way of painting, midway between the en plein air technique of the Impressionists and the genre-painting. They were called "costaioli" (coastal painters) or "painters from Maiori" and brought to the International art scene a breath of colour, joy and intimacy at the same time, attracting the attention of foreign critics who often came on the Amalfi coast to meet them. In their works "the landscape becomes a space full of tension, unrest and passion, realized in the movements of colours and stains; this is what Stendhal calls "the despair of loneliness"" (prof. Massimo Bignardi). The main exponents of this school are: Gaetano e Luigi Capone, Angelo Della Mura, Manfredi Nicoletti, Raffaele D'Amato, Luigi Paolillo, Antonio Ferrigno, Luca Albino, Gaetano Cimini, Ulderico Forcellini, Pietro Scoppetta, Gaetano Conforti, Enrico ed Ignazio Lucibello, Antonio Rocco and Paolo Caruso. Although a large number of their works belong to private collections, some of them can be admired at the Province Palace in Salerno, the Town Hall of Minori and Ravello, Mezzacapo Palace in Maiori, the Church of Santa Maria a Mare in Maiori, the Convent of San Domenico in Maiori, the Church of Madonna delle Grazie in Maiori, the Church of Madonna del Principio in Maiori, the Abbey of the Holy Trinity in Cava de' Tirreni.