Editing Gustave Moreau (section)

===Italy (1857–1859)===
[[File:Gustave Moreau - Portrait de Degas 1.jpg|thumb|left|120px|''Degas at the [[Uffizi]]'' (1859), pencil, 15.3 x 9.4 cm., Musée Moreau]]

The death of Chasseriau in 1856 caused Moreau in his grief to withdraw from public life. Concerned about his condition, Moreau's parents suggested he travel to Italy again. Living in Italy, he found a renewed love for art.<ref name="Gustave Moreau: His Life and Work"/> He gained inspiration from the artists of the Italian Renaissance, such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Michelangelo]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Les Peintres celebres|last=Valentin|first=Robert Francois|publisher=Tours|year=1841|pages=50}}</ref>

Moreau left Paris in October 1857 with his friend, artist Frédéric Charlot de Courcy, sailing from [[Marseille]] to [[Civitavecchia]] and on to Rome. He approached his time in Italy as a period of extended study, a compensation for his premature withdraw from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris of sorts. After a few days of getting oriented and taking in the sights he began studying and copying art in the city in earnest. He spent the better part of two months in the [[Sistine Chapel]] copying figures from the ceiling seven or eight hours a day. He copied the work of relatively obscure and unknown artists as often as the established masters. He was particularly interested in examining complex grouping of multiple figures and compositional color schemes. He frequented the [[Villa Medici]], where he could work from live models, and there he established friendships with other Parisians studying in Italy, including [[Elie Delaunay]], [[Henri Chapu]], [[Émile Lévy]], and [[Georges Bizet]]. He met a young [[Edgar Degas]], for whom Moreau was to become something of a mentor while in Italy. In August 1858 he was joined by his parents. His father, having recently retired, was particularly interested in the architecture. In Venice he developed a fascination with [[Vittore Carpaccio]], a little known artist at that time, and copied several of his works. Visits were made to [[Florence]], [[Milan]], [[Pisa]], and [[Siena]].

[[File:Moreau - Saint Georges terrassant le dragon, d'après Carpaccio, Cat. 195.jpg|thumb|350px|''[[St. George and the Dragon]]'', after [[Vittore Carpaccio|Carpaccio]] (1858), 140 x 358 cm., [[Musée Gustave Moreau]]]]

The [[Second Italian War of Independence]] broke out in the spring of 1859, making the summer in [[Naples]] and [[Pompeii]] a tense period. Moreau largely copied the work of others in Italy, and produced only a few original works there. Examples include some large drawings on the theme of ''Hesiod and the Muse'' and a number of fine landscapes in watercolors, painted [[en plein air]]. In September 1859 Moreau and his parents returned to Paris with several hundred drawings and paintings. Back in Paris, Degas painted a small portrait of Moreau in 1860, that hung in Moreau's studio for the rest of his life. However, their relationship began to drift as Degas soon fell under the influence of [[Édouard Manet]] and impressionism, while Moreau stayed focused on [[history painting]]. Moreau once remarked to Degas "You pretend to be able to renew art through ballet?" to which Degas replied "And you think you will be able to do it by jewelry?"<ref name="Mathieu (1994)" />{{rp|67 p.}}<ref name="Selz (1979)" />{{rp|27, 34 p.}}<ref name="Mathieu (1994)" />{{rp|53–71 p.}}