He was born in Rome on 10 November 1833[1], the third of seven children, into a wealthy and cultured family. His father, Giuseppe, a nobleman originally from Genazzano, was a man of great erudition, a professor of law and a lawyer at the Sacred Rota; his mother, Clara Girometti, a woman of many talents, was a musician and a gem-engraver. For a time, the family resided in Rome at the Palazzo dei Principi Colonna in Santi Apostoli, whilst Giuseppe served as administrator for the Roman nobility. Scipione nevertheless maintained a deep connection with Genazzano. He spent much of his childhood there and continued to return regularly for the rest of his life.

During his lifetime, he was recognised as one of the greatest artists of his era and enjoyed great success even outside Italy, particularly in France and the United States. This fame led to a widespread dissemination of his work, much of which is now difficult to trace.

He began studying the classics but soon abandoned them. He then enrolled at the Academy of San Luca, where he attended drawing classes taught by Tommaso Minardi. He later became a pupil of the Austrian painter Carl Wurzinger, who lived in Rome between 1847 and 1856. From a young age, he undertook numerous trips abroad, often staying in Paris where he studied with the German-born Frenchman Ferdinand Heilbuth, whilst also showing a keen interest in the work of Ernest Meissonier. In the French capital, he met Mariano Fortuny and his wife Cecilia de Madrazo, with whom he visited Madrid in 1866. His friendship with Fortuny proved decisive: thanks to his influence, Vannutelli enriched his colour palette and began to create elaborate sets. He spent every summer in Venice, a place he loved dearly. Views of the city became one of his most frequent subjects.

Among his first major works are domestic scenes such as Devotion and The Embroiderer, from 1855. However, his breakthrough came in 1861 with a historical painting: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, on her way to the scaffold. The work, presented at the Florence Exhibition, was a great success and was awarded a prize and purchased by King Victor Emmanuel II for the Palazzo Pitti collection.

The following year, he exhibited Margaret of Valois, at Brera, which was purchased by the Academy of Fine Arts and is now in the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan. In the 1860s, he devoted himself to various subjects, including portraits of his brothers-in-law: the sculptor Vincenzo Luccardi (Carolina’s husband), painted in 1862 (Civic Museums of Udine), and General Hermann Kanzler (Laura’s husband), portrayed in 1867 with the Battle of Mentana in the background (Palazzo Braschi – Museum of Rome). To these are added landscapes and various genre scenes such as Outdoor Dance from 1866 (formerly in the Nanni collection).

In Paris, she exhibited at the Salons several times between 1861 and 1879. She then came into contact with the art dealer Goupil, who appreciated her art but did not sign an exclusive contract with her. Her main success at the Salons was An Intrigue under the Portico of the Doge’s Palace in Venice, exhibited in 1864 by its then owner, Princess Matilde Bonaparte. In the same year, he took part in the Antwerp Exhibition with Conversation in the Garden.

Between 1864 and early 1866, he lived in London. He then returned to Paris where, in the same year, he presented The Bride of the Song of Songs (or The Canticle) at the Salon, a work with clear Pre-Raphaelite influences, of which he later produced a second version. In 1868, again at the Salon, he exhibited The Nuns in Rome. In the same edition, Alessandro Trotti Bentivoglio presented a View of Sant’Onofrio in Rome, for which his friend Vannutelli had painted the figures. The same area surrounding the church of Sant’Onofrio al Gianicolo inspired Scipione to paint On the Lawn (Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome).

He took part in the 1869 Brussels Exhibition with the work Insinuation, at the time owned by the Marquis d’Arconati Visconti. In 1870, he was appointed a member of the Accademia di San Luca. From the following year, he was a member of the International Art Circle – of which he would later become president[2]– and took part in the first exhibition organised by the group at the Casina del Pincio in Villa Borghese with: Spring and Rural Idyll, of which he produced a replica in 1872 (Dallas, Richard Bass Collection, Dallas)[3]. Also in 1871, he exhibited the painting Sull’erba in Milan.

From the 1870s onwards, Vannutelli’s international fame grew, attracting prestigious collectors: the American bankers the Morgans purchased several of his works, including The Cardinal’s Feast (or Frà’ Girolamo Savonarola) and Interior of San Fermo Maggiore[4]. His buyers also included the French art dealer Georges Petit, the Russian collector Michail P. Botkin, the German financiers Oppenheim and the American painter George Healy [5]

In 1872, he married Maria Elisa Carolina Piroli. The following year, their daughter Giorgia was born, of whom he would paint two portraits: one as a child and the other as an adult, standing life-size.

At the 1877 Paris Salon, he presented the painting A Procession in Venice (or The Feast of the Redeemer). The following year, again in the French capital, he took part in the 1878 Universal Exhibition with two works: La monferina, depicting a traditional Italian dance, and The Night. He became a highly regarded portraitist to the royal family. In 1878, the year of the death of Vittorio Emanuele II, he painted the portrait of the sovereign on his deathbed. In 1890, he painted Umberto I with the insignia of the Garter (Brescia, private collection). He took part several times in exhibitions in Milan – where in 1881 he exhibited: Armed Youth, Sleep and The Cloaked Women[6]. A subject particularly dear to him, of which he produced several versions, and which may be identified here with the one also present the following year at Brera. He exhibited in Turin, Bologna and Rome, where he was a regular participant in the exhibitions of the ‘Amatori e Cultori’.

Between 1881 and 1882, he took part in the interior decoration of the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Buonconsiglio in Genazzano, creating a fresco in the lunette depicting The Dormition of Saint Joseph. At the 1883 International Exhibition in Rome, he exhibited: Procession in Venice, Roxane at her Bath, The Cloaked Women and the portraits of Mrs M.V. and the young G.V. In the same year, he presented The Novices in Rome at the Munich Exhibition.

Between the 1880s and 1890s, he continued his work in Brussels where, in 1884, he presented Rome Countryside and a portrait of his wife, Portrait de Mme S. V. In 1887, he made his studio in Palazzo Pamphili, in Piazza Navona, available to host the second exhibition of the artistic group ‘In arte Libertas’ and, although he was not a member of the association, he took part with eleven works.

In 1888, he took part in the National Exhibition in Bologna with A Procession in Venice – The Feast of the Redeemer[7] and Juliet Capulet. Another work on the same theme: The Funeral of Juliet, was exhibited in 1890 in Rome with the “Amatori e Cultori” and purchased two years later by the National Gallery of Modern Art. On the same theme, a Study for the painting of Juliet was shown at the Promotrice in Naples in 1892[8].

From 1890 to 1893, he exhibited with the ‘Amatori e Cultori’. During the same period, the international market confirmed his success: in 1890, in Paris, the Maison Heilbuth gallery sold his painting Les Communiantes for the substantial sum of 1,020 francs[9].

1893 marked his final participation in the Venice Biennale, with: Study of a Village, In Venice, Adelina and The Octave of Corpus Christi. His exhibition career came to a definitive end in Brussels in 1894, where he re-presented one of his most famous subjects: Le ammantate.

He died suddenly on 19 May of that year at his home on Passeggiata di Ripetta, shortly after being appointed president of the Regia Calcografia in Rome.

[1] Long believed – even in contemporary records – to have been born in Genazzano on 10 November 1834, the artist was in fact born in Rome on the same day the previous year and was baptised three days later, as Anna Lisa Genovese has demonstrated by tracing his baptismal certificate in the Vicariate’s registers. See A. L. Genovese 2020, p. 281

[2] From 1874 to 1878, succeeding Prince Baldassarre Odescalchi.

[3] See A.L. Genovese, op. cit., p. 282.

[4] Porro & C. auction, Milan, 14 March 2019, lot no. 157

[5] A. Panajia, L. Winsemann, Falghera 2019, p. 145.

[6] The work was chosen for the cover of the magazine “L’illustrazione italiana” (year VIII, no. 43, October 1881)

[7] Probably the same painting previously exhibited in Rome in 1883

[8] Perhaps the same work presented in Bologna

[9] Doctor H. Mireur, 2001, vol. VII, p. 286

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Exposition Nationale. Catalogue des Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et dessin exécutés par des Artistes vivants, et exposés au Salon d’Anvers, opened by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, 7 August 1864, Antwerp 1864

T. Gautier, Chronicle of the Salon of 1864, in “Gazette de Beaux-Arts”, Vol. III, 1864, p. 232.

B. Odescalchi, Lo studio di Scipione Vannutelli, in Gli Studi di Roma. Ricordi artistici di Baldassarre Odescalchi, second series, Rome, Francesco Capaccini Editore, 1876 (pp. 60–69)

Giacomini & Capobianchi, Appartamento e studio Vannutelli / Catalogo degli oggetti d’arte e curiosità … che guarniscono l’appartamento e studio del pittore Scipione Vannutelli, Rome, Tip. A Befani 1887

W. Roberts, Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, at Prince’s Gate & Dover House London, London, Privately Printed 1907, s.n.p. (7 pp.)

U. Ojetti, La pittura italiana dell’Ottocento, Bestetti e Tumminelli Publishers, Milan – Rome 1929.

Vannutelli Scipione, in Thieme Becker, Allgemeine Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, E.A. Seeman Verlag, Leipzig, 1939, vols. 33–34, p. 101

V. Martinelli, Paesisti romani dell’Ottocento, Fratelli Palombi Editori, Rome 1963,

V. Martinelli, Scipione Vannutelli, Testimonianze. Collana d’arte antica, Rome, European Community of Art and Culture, 1970

Scipione Vannutelli (1834–1894) / Impressioni dal vero, Galleria Carlo Virgilio, Rome, 7 May–10 June 1986, exhibition catalogue edited by F. Cataldi Villari, Rome, 1986

A. V. Jervis, Vannutelli Scipione, in La pittura in Italia, L’Ottocento, edited by E. Castelnuovo, Electa, Milan 1991, Volume Two, p. 1055

Dr H. Mireur, Dictionnaire des Ventes d’Art faites en France et à l’Etranger pendant les XVIII° & XIX Siècle….., Reprinted by Artprice.com 1911–2001, ed. 2001, vol. VII, p. 286 (Vanutelli known as Le Chevalier S.)

C. Virno (ed.) Scipione Vannutelli (1834–1894) / Il fondo di opere della Villa Clementi a Cave, Exhibition catalogue at the galleries: F. Russo, Sestieri Antichità, Studio S. Arte contemporanea, Antichità Brando, Angelo di Castro Antichità, Lydia Palumbo Scalzi, Rome – Latina, May – July 2004, De Luca Editori d’Arte, Rome 2004

C. Virno (ed.) gcamc / Rome – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Catalogo generale delle collezioni / Autori dell’Ottocento, Rome, Palombi 2004, vol. II, pp. 490, 597 – 598

C. Virno (ed.) Artisti dell’Ottocento – temi e riscoperte, exhibition catalogue for the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma Capitale, 7 November 2014 – 15 June 2015, Rome, De Luca 2015.

A. Russo, I pittori italiani in Belgio (1851–1912), Salons, Incontri e pagine d’arte, 28th cycle of the PhD programme in Humanities, specialising in History and Art History, University of Trieste, academic year 2014–2015 (https://www.academia.edu/85902492/I_pittori_italiani_e_il_Belgio_1851_1912_Salons_incontri_e_pagine_darte).

Asta Porro & C, Arredi, dipinti antichi, dipinti del XIX secolo, Milan, 14 March 2019.

A. Panajia, L. Winsemann Falghera, Carissimo Don Alessandro. Lettere di Scipione Vannutelli e Laura von Kanzler ad Alessandro Trotti Bentivoglio Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2019

A. L. Genovese, Vannutelli, Scipione, in Dizionario Biografico degli italiani – Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana… 2020, vol. 98, pp. 281–284

Cinzia Virno