The second of the five brothers, Angiolo Tommasi was born in Livorno. There he attended the local School of Drawing, after which he frequented Angiolo Lemmi's and Natale Betti's studios. When his mother died in the 1870's, his father remarried Mrs. Adele Bertolini who owned a home in Bellariva - not far from Florence - called "la Casaccia".

To nurture the artistic proclivities of both Angiolo and his brother Ludovico, the family moved to Bellariva so that the sons might attend the Academy of Fine Arts and the classes offered by Giuseppe Ciaranfi. La Casaccia soon became the place where artists and scholars such as Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini and Silvestro Lega would meet weekly. Lega...