Giacomo Balla was born in Turin, Italy in 1871, the son of a photographer. He began working as a lithographer, but moved to Rome in 1893 where he made his living as an artist. He gained some reputation at the beginning of the 20th century as a painter of the Divisionist style. In 1910, at considerable personal sacrifice, Balla associated himself with the Futurist movement. His painting "Lampe Electrique" was inspired by the first electric lighting in the streets of Rome, where the glare of the lights is represented by a spreading arrangement of sharply defined arrowheads of brilliance against the surrounding gloom. In 1912 a painting called "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash" conveys the impression of motion going p...