Antonio Mancini

As is well known the reputation of predestined if the built himself , still a teenager , wandering tirelessly for the churches of Naples. Here you could learn experience “technical” really wide and singular taking notes from the extraordinary legacy of seventeenth-century painting at his disposal : from Caravaggio to Batts , from Ribera to Stanzione and Cavallino , until Luca Giordano and Mattia Preti.

At this initial training , of which evidence really significant are the head of a child in 1867 (Naples , Academy of Fine Arts ) and The Scugnizzo the following year ( private collection) , accompanied Mancini soon attending the studio of Stanislaus list , where received along with fellow Vincenzo Gemito address a realist , and the Institute of Fine Arts, where he admired Domenico Morelli.

The Prevetariello ( Naples, Museo Nazionale di San Martino) , school essay of 1870 , continues in a masterly manner the personal gallery of ” street urchins ” but reveals at the same time agility of the stroke liquid and vibrating all the refinements morelliane .

In the same years the young painter , accompanied by Francesco Paolo Michetti , went by Filippo Palizzi to learn a strict naturalism. We went from Vasto to show some painting for advice and I just beginner, much better Michetti in his sketches so vigorous palette Abruzzo almost palizziani and Fortuny and Morelli ‘s talent Michetti was singular and vivo1 Del shy and modest of ‘ artist already mentioned , the most interesting lay eyes on the painting pink bodice (Coll. private ), where the careful study of the reflections of light on the figure , recreated by a pasty material and a dense brush , betrays poignantly in the brand palizziana of his early days .

These formative experiences was added in ’72 the fundamental trip to Venice , at the invitation of his patron Albert Cahen , and then in Milan. Here Mancini was able to expand its artistic culture on the great Venetian tradition , which of course proved entusiasta2 . Among Bodice rose and After the duel (Turin , Galleria d’Arte Moderna ) , both paintings dated to 1872 , the distance is truly remarkable. When setting more complex , in the wider color gamut and refined until wiser use of the brush and casual.

Inevitable to assume his stay in Venice as an effective watershed . This first phase of the manciniano is also characterized dall’affannoso attempt – ” I do not know how to get hold of a merchant ” will write down later – to implement a promotion of his work . In 1870 entrusted the usual channels debuting at the Promoter Naples.

In 1872, trying somehow to follow in the footsteps of fellow Michetti , came forward with the merchant Reutlinger , apparently without major consequences . In the same year the Count Albert Cahen tried to impose it on the Paris market making exhibit at the Salon . But on this occasion , where the French critics did not fail to appreciate the little-known De Nittis and Michetti , its Dernier sommeil and allant Enfant à l’ école go unnoticed .

Therefore the talent of the young Neapolitan struggled to impose themselves. Paintings too ” bigi and pavonazzi ” he wrote in ’71 Cahen – riferendogli also the advice of ” a distinguished French painter ” – ” painting dirty ” and a certain monotony topic pinned in his commentary on Net Promoter Neapolitan of ’75 , despite having a eye too careful not to recognize in the artist a “strong performer ” .

Evidently the magisterium of the seventeenth-century painting – the “width ” and the ” ancient simplicity ” you mentioned Netti – had certainly contributed to the exceptional artistic maturation of Mancini, but at the same time favoring the preference for a dark-toned palette , element decidedly ” out fashion ” in a Paris now updated on the clarity of the color japonism .

A possible opportunity to escape from the difficult economic situation , and at the same time to update his technique came from the friendship that proved the internationally renowned painter Mariano Fortuny in 1874 on vacation in the near Portici . Hence the trip to Paris and the attempt to establish the link between the Maison Goupil .