(b Rome, 8 March 1829; d Rome, 6 March 1911). Italian painter, writer and teacher. He was one of the youngest pupils of Tommaso Minardi and was one of his most devoted, learning from him the principles of PURISMO. He began his career as a painter of religious subjects, executing such frescoes as St Paul Preaching in Damascus and the Flight of St Paul (both c. 1855; Rome, S Paolo fuori le Muri) and various altarpieces, including St Vincent de Paul (c. 1860; Rome, Apostolico Collegio Leoniano, Cappella della Regina Apostolorum) and St Severus Preaching (c. 1860; Porto Maurizio church). After the 1860s he began to paint historical scenes that appealed to the general taste for romanticized portrayals of Italy’s past (e.g. Michelangelo and Ferrucio; Turin, Gal. Civ. A. Mod.). However, the only works that distinguish him from the most minor of his contemporaries are his portraits of royalty and society, including those of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita (both Rome, Pal. Senato) and of Adele Castellani (1891; Rome, G.N.A. Mod.). He achieved considerable recognition in his day, was President of the Società Amatori e Cultori delle Belle Arti and was responsible for organizing the Italian section of the Exposition Universelle in Antwerp in 1885. In 1900 he published Tommaso Minardi e il suo tempo, a biography of his teacher; he also wrote short biographies of such contemporaries as the composer Giaocchino Rossini and the novelist Alessandro Manzoni that appeared in Memorie studi dal vero (1901). These writings are evidence of De Sanctis’s wide acquaintanceship with and role—albeit peripheral—in the culture of the Risorgimento. He had several pupils, including Onorato Carlandi (1848–1939) and Pietro Gabrini (1856–1926).