Carlo Maria Mariani

Carlo Maria Mariani is an Italian painter. His paintings are rooted both in neoclassicist theory and modernism. In the 1970s he defended his choice of medium from attacks by art critics by making parallels between the melancholy for the past of neoclassicism and the then trendy conceptual art. He received international attention in the 1980s with what was called pittura colta and la Nuova Maniera in Italy, in which he employed old subjects and styles. Among other things he depicted Andy Warhol as Napoleon and made "improved" and "corrected" versions of works by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.