He studied at the Brera Academy under Luigi Sabatelli and Giuseppe Bisi, and in 1845 was awarded the "Gran premio di pittura dell'Accademia di Brera" on the strength of a picture of the meeting between "Dante and Fra Ilario". He also painted the "Triumphal entry of the allied sovereigns into Milan after the Battle of Magenta" (after 1859). He also painted frescoes on a vaulted room of the residence of the Puricelli Guerra, representing the great men of the Middle Ages, backgrounded against perspectives of Gothic architecture. He painted a "Torquato Tasso introduced to Emmanuel Philibert"; "Death of St Joseph" (commissioned by a parish in Palermo; an "Assumption of the Virgin" for a church in Valmarana in Altavilla Vicentina; an altarpiece of "Vision of St Francis of Assisi" for the church of San Babila, Milan; paintings for the palazzo of Count Ernesto Turati in Milan; and frescoes for the house of Cavalier Andrea Ponti in Varese representing "Guido d'Arezzo teaching singing to a children's choir", as well as scenes from the life of Volta, Galileo, and Columbus. Among his masterworks is the fresco decoration of the Greek-Orthodox church of Trieste. He painted the "sipario" in collaboration with Raffaele Casnedi for the theater of La Scala in 1862.