The story of Italian Masters begins in the southern Italian town of Agrigento on the island of Sicily during the early 1900’s. It was here that a talented young artist with a keen eye for color and a strong desire to learn offered his services as an apprentice to master painters Giuseppe and Vincenzo Guadanga. Under the tutelage of these revered and talented artists, Archilao Gloria Chiarelli learned the secrets of the original Italian masters that had been faithfully passed down from generation to generation from the time of the Renaissance.

Nearly a decade later, having worked in the magnificent basilicas of southern Italy, Archilao emerged as an Italian master in his own right. Armed with precious old-world knowledge of little known mixtures and skilled techniques, a bag of instruments and his precisely formulated recipes, Archilao set off to create a new life in America, the land of freedom and opportunity. In 1957, he and his family arrived in New York City where his style of painting was soon to revolutionize the American decorative market.