Editing Amedeo Modigliani (section)

==Family and early life==
[[File:Modigliani Birthplace Livorno.jpg|thumb|upright|Modigliani's birthplace in [[Livorno]]]]

Modigliani was born into a [[Sephardic Jewish]] family in [[Livorno]], Italy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bh.org.il/blog-items/modiglianis-sephardic-jewish-background-didnt-know/|title=Heroes – Trailblazers of the Jewish People|website=Beit Hatfutsot|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830003243/https://www.bh.org.il/blog-items/modiglianis-sephardic-jewish-background-didnt-know/|archive-date=30 August 2019}}</ref> A port city, Livorno had long served as a refuge for those persecuted for their religion, and was home to a large [[History of the Jews in Livorno|Jewish community]]. His maternal great-great-grandfather, Solomon Garsin, had immigrated to Livorno in the 18th century as a refugee.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1967 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson. | page = 13| isbn = 0-8109-0323-7}}</ref>

Modigliani's mother, Eugénie Garsin, born and raised in [[Marseille]], was descended from an intellectual, scholarly family of Sephardic ancestry that for generations had lived along the Mediterranean coastline. Fluent in many languages, her ancestors were authorities on sacred Jewish texts and had founded a school of [[Talmud]]ic studies. Family legend traced the family lineage to the 17th-century Dutch philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza]]. The family business was [[Loans and interest in Judaism|money lending]], with branches in Livorno, Marseille, Tunis, and London, though their fortunes ebbed and flowed.<ref>Secrest, ''Modigilani,'' Alfred Knopf, 2011, pp. 16–18</ref><ref name="Beyond the Myth">{{Cite web |url=http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=030010264X |title=Klein, Mason, et al., ''Modigliani: Beyond the Myth'', page 197. The Jewish Museum and Yale University Press, 2004 |access-date=14 September 2014 |archive-date=22 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022184133/http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=030010264X |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Modigliani's father, Flaminio, was a member of an Italian Jewish family of successful businessmen and entrepreneurs. While not as culturally sophisticated as the Garsins, they knew how to invest in and develop thriving business endeavors. When the Garsin and Modigliani families announced the engagement of their children, Flaminio was a wealthy young mining [[engineer]]. He managed the mine in Sardinia and also managed the almost {{convert|30000|acres|0|abbr=on}} of timberland the family owned.<ref>Secrest (2011), ''Modigilani,''pp. 24–25</ref>

A reversal in fortune occurred to this prosperous family in 1883. An economic downturn in the price of metal plunged the Modiglianis into bankruptcy. Ever resourceful, Modigliani's mother used her social contacts to establish a school and, along with her two sisters, made the school into a successful enterprise.<ref>Secrest (2011), ''Modigilani,'' pp. 34–35</ref>

Amedeo Modigliani was the fourth child, whose birth coincided with the disastrous financial collapse of his father's business interests. Amedeo's birth saved the family from ruin; according to an ancient law, creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. The bailiffs entered the family's home just as Eugénie went into labour; the family protected their most valuable assets by piling them on top of her.

Modigliani had a close relationship with his mother, who taught him at home until he was 10. Beset with health problems after an attack of [[pleurisy]] when he was about 11, a few years later he developed a case of [[typhoid fever]]. When he was 16 he was taken ill again and contracted the [[tuberculosis]] which would later claim his life. After Modigliani recovered from the second bout of pleurisy, his mother took him on a tour of southern Italy: [[Naples]], [[Capri]], [[Rome]] and [[Amalfi]], then north to [[Florence]] and [[Venice]].<ref>{{Cite book| last = Fifield | first = William | date = 19 June 1978 | title = Modigliani: A Biography | publisher = W.H. Allen | page = 316| isbn = 0-491-02164-X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Diehl | first = Gaston | date = Jul 1989 | edition = Reissue | title = Modigliani | publisher = Crown Pub | page = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780517507988/page/96 96] | isbn = 0-517-50798-6 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780517507988/page/96 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| last = Soby | first = James Thrall | date = Sep 1977 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = New York | publisher = Arno P | page = 55}}</ref>

His mother was, in many ways, instrumental in his ability to pursue art as a vocation. When he was 11 years of age, she had noted in her diary: "The child's character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?"<ref>{{Cite book| last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1967 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson | page = 14| isbn = 0-8109-0323-7}}</ref>