ROME.- A gallery of perspectives and views of the village to which he was tied for his whole life, despite his numerous trips and transfers in Italy and Europe: the indissoluble bond with the small town of Piedmont that gave him birth is shown in these very rare four views of Chieri – offered by Ottocento Art Gallery - by the painter Alberto Maso Gilli.

The palette of the Piedmont painter dwells on some historical monuments placed in the village, known for its important tradition in the field of textile production: the collegiate church of Santa Maria della Scala, more commonly known as the Duomo, that just in the second half of nineteenth century, was object of neo-Gothic restorations; the church of St. George, built in the heart of the historical center, on the rock in the oldest part of the city; the San Bernardino church, the baroque building that dominates the current Piazza Cavour in Chieri; the no longer existing Vajro door or Turin door, the historical gate of access to the small village.

The four paintings, seen as a whole, represent an extraordinary bird’s eye view of Chieri in the second half of the nineteenth century: works that, in addition to registering a wise use of color choices and light, able to enhance the analytical performance of the architecture and the game of blue that make up the clear skies, are an important document to rebuild the urban structure of the Piedmontese town at that historic moment.

Trained attending Accademia Albertina in Turin, Alberto Maso Gilli dedicated himself to history painting, participating from 1860 to the Promoter Company of Fine Arts’s Exhibition. The greatest success, however, derives from the activity as engraver, in particular as an etcher: in this role, worked with "The Art in Italy" and "The Art", the newspaper of Paris, where he moved in 1873; here, in 1878, he won first prize in the engraving section in the International Exhibition.

In 1881 he returned to Turin, where he gets the drawing teaching at the Albertina Academy and, at the Federico Pastoris’ death, becomes Superintendent to drawing Schools of the Savoy capital.

In 1884, year of the general exhibition, places the realization of an important art, architecture and decoration project, designed for the city of Turin: the creation of the medieval village, a real open-air museum for which Gilli deals with the design of furniture and furnishings addressed to the Rocca. The following year the artist moved to Rome, appointed Director of Regia Calcografia, where he promotes the creation of an engraving school, favoring the printed reproduction of works of contemporary art.