Scipione Vannutelli

“Talking about Vannutelli in the inner circle of Roman art would be the same as talking about Meissonier in the Parisian world. As in Paris, the French artist, so between us Vannutelli is estimated and known for its exquisite squares; paintings in small size also contain great artistic value.

His subjects are found with grace and bell’invenzione, its small figures are painted boldly, though they are also finitissime in particular, his complexion is clear and attractive, and especially his painting has never stunted. “So reported the Prince Baldassarre Odescalchi about the art of Vannutelli, one of Rome’s most renowned and respected artists abroad. His studio in the Palazzo Pamphili in Piazza Navona received important customers from the aristocratic world and international business.

On the other hand, its formation took place already in the European context: the study of the purist Tommaso Minardi at the Viennese architect Carl Wurtzinger until you come to Paris, where he followed the fashionable painter Ferdinand Heilbuth. From here derived a production of genre set in the past history, easily usable, chromatically lively and vibrant and technically flawless.

The success smiled on him early in the Roman master, before binding to the Parisian dealer Goupil and then exhibiting his works in the most prestigious shows up to win the gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1864 with the painting The intrigue.

Work that was later purchased by Matilde Letizia Bonaparte for his residence in the Rue des Courcelles and was at the same time-reviewed enthusiastically by Téophile Gautier, a proponent de l’art pour l’art, an art that is enjoyable for its undisputed technical quality and not for what it represents.