Irreversible Consequences: Mancini and Manet

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons). At first glance, Antonio Mancini’s Dopo il duello (1872) and Édouard Manet’s Dead Toreador (c. 1864; exhibited independently as L’Homme mort in 1867) appear to belong to quite different pictorial worlds. Mancini’s painting centres on the frightened reaction of a child confronted with the aftermath of a duel, while Manet’s image presentsContinue reading “Irreversible Consequences: Mancini and Manet”

Francesco Lojacono and the Changing Vision of Sicily

Francesco Lojacono (1838–1915), Palermo e il Monte Pellegrino da un terrazzo, 1874, oil on canvas, Novosibirsk State Fine Arts Museum. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons). Francesco Lojacono (Palermo, 1838–1915) occupies a central place in the history of nineteenth-century Italian landscape painting. Working for more than half a century, he transformed the representation of the Sicilian countryside fromContinue reading “Francesco Lojacono and the Changing Vision of Sicily”

Giacinto Gigante (1806 to 1876): landscape regenerated from within.

Portrait of Giacinto Gigante, Domenico Morelli (1826–1901), oil on canvas, Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples. Born in Naples in July 1806 to Gaetano Gigante and Anna Maria Fatati, Giacinto Gigante grew up in an artistic household. Around 1801, his parents had married and had eight children, four of whom died young. The surviving childrenContinue reading “Giacinto Gigante (1806 to 1876): landscape regenerated from within.”

Giuseppe De Nittis: Light, Air and Modern Life.

Léontine in canotto/ Léontine in a rowing boat (1874), oil on panel, 24×54 cm, Private collection. Self-Portrait (ca.1883) Pastel on canvas, 114×88 cm, Palazzo della Marra, Barletta. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons). Giuseppe De Nittis: “A happy man who would have wished everyone around him to be equally happy.” Jeanne Mairet, Souvenirs, 1907. De Nittis was aContinue reading “Giuseppe De Nittis: Light, Air and Modern Life.”