Marino Tartaglia was born 3 August 1894 in Zagreb. He completed elementary school and the Royal High School in Split. In 1907 he encountered Emanuel Vidović, and became interested in painting.[2] He studied drawing with Virgil Meneghello Dinčić. He enrolled in the Architectural School ( Građevna stručna škola) in Zagreb (1908–1912) where among his teachers were well-known painters: Oton Iveković, Ivan Tišov, Robert Frangeš Mihanović and Bela Čikoš Sesija. In the turbulent times before the First World War, fearing political persecution, he left for Italy,[2] first to Florence, then to Rome, where in 1913 he enrolled in the Instituto Superiore di Belle Arti.
Following the war, he spent time in Split (1918–1921), then travelled to Vienna, Belgrade, and Paris. Returning to Zagreb in 1931, at the request of Vladimir Becić,[3] Tartaglia started work as a trainee teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts, becoming a lecturer in 1940, associate professor in 1944, and full professor in 1947.[2] He trained several generations of Croatian painters.
In his early works, Tartaglia showed the influence of Cézanne and the post-Impressionists, while later works the flat colourful masses become almost completely abstract – verging on figurative. Tartaglia was especially impressive in his series of self-portraits which showed signs of expressionism from 1917, and were completely abstract by the 1960s. His work was spontaneous, with a connection to primitive art, such as that of ancient cave paintings.[4]
Throughout his sixty-year artistic career, Tartaglia held 30 solo exhibitions and over 270 group exhibitions at home and abroad. He participated in the Venice Biennale of 1940.[7]
^"Collection". Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. Retrieved 23 March 2011. artworks... which are important for an understanding of the 20th-century history of painting in Croatia... the most significant paintings from the pre-war period are certainly Pafama by Josip Seissel and Self-Portrait by Marino Tartaglia.
