Provenance
Collection Barone Vincenzo Camuccini, Palazzo Camuccini, Cantalupo in Sabina.
Exhibitions
Galleria Francesca Antonacci, Camuccini, Finelli, Bienaimé: protagonisti del Classicismo a Roma nell’Ottocento, 2003, Roma,; I Camuccini. Tra Neoclassicismo e sentimento romantico, curated by Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art and Maurizio Nobile Fine Art, Rome October 1-28 2021 at Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art, Paris November 5-11 at Galerie Eric Coatelem, Parigi November 16-December 3 2021 at Maurizio Nobile Fine Art
Literature
C. Falconieri, Vita di Vincenzo Camuccini e pochi studi sulla pittura contemporanea, Rome 1875; Vincenzo Camuccini (1771 – 1884). Bozzetti e disegni dallo studio dell’artista, exhibition catalogue curated by Gianna Piantoni De Angelis, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, October 27 – December 31 1978, Rome, De Luca, 1978; Camuccini, Finelli, Bienaimé: protagonisti del Classicismo a Roma nell’Ottocento, curated by F. Antonacci and G.C. de Feo, exhibition catalogue (Rome, Galleria Francesca Antonacci, May 15 – July 5 2003), Rome 2003, n. 29; I Camuccini. Tra Neoclassicismo e sentimento romantico, catalogue of the exhibition curated by Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art and Maurizio Nobile Fine Art, text by Stefano Bosi, Rome – Paris 2021, p.21, n.5
In 1787, Camuccini added to his anatomical studies from life others conducted on earlier works and the Italian masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Up to this point, the artist had limited himself to studying these testimonies in the isolation of his own home, copying them from the numerous illustrated catalogues and printed reproductions procured for him by his brother Pietro. Thus “to learn how to compose, he traced compositions by Raphael, Domenichino and Nicolò Possino [Nicholas Poussin, t/n] and others, not only from the large originals, but from as many good prints as came his way: […] And this exercise made it clear from which lines that admirable harmony came, obtained in the arrangement of the figures and in the way of grouping them, especially in the subjects from ancient history.”[1] However, the young Vincenzo soon ventured further to grasp the most innovative results present in the contemporary panorama of Roman Neoclassicism. It was above all the literary and sentimental interpretation proposed by the Scottish painter and archaeologist Gavin Hamilton which stimulated him. However, his brother Pietro remained decisive for his education given that, thanks to his antiquarian interests and his activities as a collector and art dealer, he was in contact with the varied cultural environment of the capital which, starting from 1781, gravitated around the atelier of the painter Angelika Kauffmann, whose salon was frequented by such artists and writers as Antonio Canova, Vincenzo Monti, and Goethe, as well as collectors like Thomas Jenkins and Lord Bristol. It was thanks to this circle of enthusiasts and art lovers that Vincenzo had dedicated himself in recent years to making pencil or oil copies of the old masters. At the same time, his friendship and collaboration with the archaeologist Ennio Quirino Visconti inspired him to deepen, with a historical-critical rigour derived from Winckelmann’s theories, his knowledge of classical statuary, of which he carried out studies from life from the examples kept at the Vatican and Capitoline Museums. This practice kept the artist busy for a long time and led him to study mainly the patterns of drapery and the plastic rendering of modelling, which he would draw on later in defining the ‘ancient’ character of the figures in his history paintings.
- Stefano Bosi
[1] C. Falconieri, Vita di Vincenzo Camuccini e pochi studi sulla pittura contemporanea, Rome 1875, p. 19. The same testimony is also present in P. E. Visconti, Notizie intorno la vita e le opere del barone Vincenzo Camuccini pittore, Rome 1845, p. 8.