The realization, or the elaboration still in the project phase, of important urban and monumental enterprises marks the opening of the century: the arrangement of G. Valadier in Piazza del Popolo in Rome, the projects of the Bonaparte forum by GA Antolini and of L. Canonica, the one for the Piazza del Duomo by G. Pistocchi, the propylaea of ​​Porta Ticinese and the Arco della Pace by L. Cagnola in Milan, the interventions in Genoa by C. Barabino, in Turin by F. Bonsignore, the works by A. Niccolini and P. Bianchi in Naples, by P. Poccianti in Tuscany, by G. Jappelli in Padua and, finally, the emblematic temple of Canova in Possagno. In painting, if A. Appiani, V. Camuccini, G. Bossi, G. Landi, P. Benvenuti, L. Sabatelli fall within the sphere of neoclassical taste, the more complex are G. Giani and T. Minardi, promoter of purism.

According to ALLCOUNTRYLIST.COM, the romantic movement in Italy also took on a particular meaning, innovating the subjects (historical and patriotic) and the means of expression. Milan was the main center of Italian Romanticism, initiated by F. Hayez, which achieved its most significant results in the second half of the century. In architecture, the romantic revaluation of the Middle Ages and, in the technical context, the restoration of the ancient cathedrals (in Rome S. Paolo fuori le mura; in Bologna, by A. Rubbiani, S. Francesco) led to the taste for the imitation of Romanesque and Gothic, but in Italy the preference for Renaissance forms was clear. In reality, individual detailed interventions corresponded to the vast tasks imposed by the urban development, such as the viale dei Colli in Florence, the arrangement of the Po in Turin and Corso Vittorio in Rome. Among the most original personalities emerge in Piedmont A. Antonelli; in Milan G. Mengoni; in Rome G. Koch.

In sculpture, after the middle of the century the dominant academicism is surpassed by the realism of V. Vela. Realism was flanked by ideological aspirations of a social nature, to which G. Grandi reacted, close to the Milanese scapigliati, C. Marocchetti and D. Calandra in Turin. Impressionism was taken to the extreme by M. Rosso. Verista was the Ligurian G. Monteverdi; the realist A. d’Orsi adhered to humanitarian ideologies in Naples; participant in various tendencies, with sensitive technique, was V. Gemito.

In the pictorial field, the innovative premises of the beginning of the century were implemented with G. Carnevali known as Piccio, F. Faruffini, T. Cremona, D. Ranzoni and the others of the Lombard scapigliatura. Genre painting was represented in Milan by D. and G. Induno, in Venice by G. Favretto. V. Grubicy imported the theories underlying Divisionism from France; authoritative exponent was G. Previati; followers were A. Morbelli and G. Pelizza da Volpedo. G. Segantini, one of the major Italian landscape painters, also joined. At the end of the pointillist episode, Lombard painting went back to the inheritance of the romantic taste with E. Gola and C. Tallone.

In Tuscany, following the example of France, the Macchiaioli movement emerged with an immediate, open-air painting made of light and color, an experience rich in consequences: the theorists T. Signorini and A. Cecioni were the theorists; among the artists, S. de Tivoli, C. Banti, V. d’Ancona, O. Borrani, R. Sernesi, G. Abbati, V. Cabianca, and above all G. Fattori; S. Lega became an eminent figure. G. Boldini, who moved to Paris, developed the premises with whimsical genius. In Piedmont the landscape was established above all with A. Fontanesi, then with V. Avondo and L. Delleani. In Naples, landscape painting refers to local experiences (S. Rosa, D. Gargiulo) and the Dutch A. Pitloo; the school of Posillipo was in Italy the first to tackle painting en plein air, with G. Gigante and the Palizzi. The Resina school (founded by A. Cecioni) had interference with the Macchiaioli, from which G. De Nittis came out and was later affected by his stay in Paris and London. The leader of historical romantic painting in Naples was D. Morelli, through, with S. Altamura, French experiences. The painting by G. Toma was subtly melancholic. FP Michetti from Abruzzo passed from a realist need to literary inspirations.