Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor associated with the School of Paris. Painter of figures, nudes, portraits, sculptor, draftsman. Initially known as a figurative painter, he became famous for his modern paintings and sculptures where faces resemble masks and forms are elongated. In 1902, he enrolled in the free school of nude, the Scuola Libera di Nudo of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, directed by Professor Giovanni Fattori, the leading painter of the Macchiaioli, in Florence, and the following year at the Institute of Arts in Venice where he frequented the slums. First influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, he was inspired by Paul Cézanne, Cubism and Picasso's Blue Period. He was noted for his speed of execution. He never retouched his paintings, but those who posed for him said it was like having their soul laid bare. Known as "Modì" by his friends, Amedeo was magnetic to women. Throughout his life, Amedeo Modigliani painted nudes; they represent, after portraits, the most important group of his works.