Neologisms such as Cremoniani or Cremonisti, meaning «Cremonians», appear as early as 1876 in the art press to define artists that emulate the unblended strokes and the deft brushwork of Tranquillo Cremona.
After his death (June10 1878), the epithet is often used in a disparaging way by the conservative critics who were unable to distinguish nuances, for instance they include Ranzoni among these followers, an oversight which has generated an hard to debunk misconception according to which Ranzoni would have been only an epigone.
Angelo Achini (1850) and Luigi Conconi (1852) who was to continue a bohemian style of life for over two decades were the youngest of the group and belonged to a second generation.
Francesco Didioni (1839), pupil of Hayez, was only two years older than Giusepppe Barbaglia and Vespasiano Biganmi (1841): Virgilio Ripari was born in 1843 like Ranzoni and Roberto Fontana in 1844.
From 1862, Roberto Fontana shared an atelier with Mose’Bianchi and occasionally worked with Ranzoni.
Though also prevalently a portrait painter, he was more interested in rendering the relationship between figure and background than the psyche of his sitters.
Eleuterio Pagano and Pio Sanquirico by their life and artistic choices have entertained only marginal contact with Scapigliatura but they have been included in the exhibition to show how extensive the influences of the Scapigliati’s unblended stroke ,known as ‘”macchia” or spot, as been.

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