Antonio Mancini (14 November 1852 – 28 December 1930) was an Italian painter.

Biography

John Singer Sargent - Portrait of Antonio Mancini

Mancini was born in Rome,

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

, and showed precocious ability as an artist. At the age of twelve, he was admitted to the

Institute of Fine Arts An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, where he studied under

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an Italians, Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Ac ...

(1823–1901), a painter of historical scenes who favored dramatic

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

and vigorous brushwork, and Filippo Palizzi. Mancini developed quickly under their guidance, and in 1872, he exhibited two paintings at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

. Mancini worked at the forefront of the ''Verismo'' movement, an indigenous Italian response to 19th-century Realist aesthetics. His usual subjects included children of the poor, juvenile circus performers, and musicians he observed in the streets of Naples. His portrait of a young acrobat in ''Il Saltimbanco'' (1877–78) captures the fragility of the boy whose impoverished childhood is spent entertaining pedestrian crowds. In 1871 two of his works, exhibited at the Neapolitan salon, were purchased by two foreign clients, both painters: ''Per un fiore (For a Flower)'' by the Canadian-born American painter François B. De Blois and ''L'ultima medicina (The Last Medicine!)'' by the French Felix de Lapommeraye. When in Paris in 1877-78, Mancini met the

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painters

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...

and

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

. He became friends with

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

, who famously pronounced him to be the greatest living painter. His mature works show a brightened palette with a striking

impasto Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides tex ...

technique on canvas and a bold command of

pastels A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

on paper. In 1881, Mancini suffered a disabling mental illness. He settled in Rome in 1883 for twenty years, then moved to

Frascati Frascati () is a city and in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with science, ...

where he lived until 1918. During this period of Mancini's life, he was often destitute and relied on the help of friends and art buyers to survive. After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, his living situation stabilized and he achieved a new level of serenity in his work. Mancini died in Rome in 1930 and was buried in the Basilica Santi Bonifacio e Alessio on the

Aventine Hill The Aventine Hill (; ; ) is one of the Seven Hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the modern twelfth ''rione'', or ward, of Rome. Location and boundaries The Aventine Hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills. I ...

. His painting ''The Poor Schoolboy'', exhibited in the Salon of 1876, is in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

of Paris. Its realist subject matter and dark palette are typical of his early work. Paintings by Mancini also may be seen in Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the Museo Civico-Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Turin and De Mesdag Collectie in The Hague. In 1903 he painted the portrait of the American ambassador in Italy George Von Lengerke Meyer: believed to be lost, the painting was discovered in 2023 by Italian art historian Manuel Carrera, who found it in the Navy Art Collections, Washington. The first exhibition in the U.S. devoted exclusively to Mancini's work was at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, October 20, 2007 – January 20, 2008, a museum which owns fifteen oil paintings and three pastels by Mancini that were a gift of New York City art dealer Vance N. Jordan.

Gallery

File:Antonio Mancini - Lo Scugnizzo.jpg, ''Lo scungizzo''
(The Clever Urchin) File:Antonio Mancini - Il Malatino.jpg, ''Il Malatino''
(The Weakling),
ca. 1878 File:Antonio Mancini - Standard Bearer of the Harvest Festival.jpg, ''Standard Bearer of the Harvest Festival'',
c. 1884 File:The Little Seminary.jpg, ''Prevetariello in Preghiera''
(The Little Seminarian), 1872 File:Antonio Mancini - Portrait of John Lowell Gardner.jpg, ''Portrait of John Lowell Gardner II'', 1895 File:Antonio Mancini - Canción alegre.jpg, ''Allegra canzone''
(Happy Song) File:Antonio Mancini - Il Saltimbanco (1879).jpg, ''Il Saltimbanco''
(the Acrobat), 1879 File:Resting - Antonio Mancini.jpg, ''Resting'', c. 1887 File:Portrait of the american sculptor John Severinus Conway.jpg, Portrait of the american sculptor John Severinus Conway

References

Sources

*Ulrich W. Hiesinger (2007). "Antonio Mancini: Nineteenth-Century Italian Master" (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Yale University Press. * Broude, Norma (1987). ''The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. * *Carrera, Manuel; Mazzocca, Fernando; Sisi, Carlo; Valente, Isabella (2023). ''Antonio Mancini e Vincenzo Gemito''. Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale. *Cinzia Virno, (2019) ''Antonio Mancini Catalogo Ragionato dell'opera. La pittura a olio - Repertori''. Roma, De Luca editori d'arte. *Cinzia Virno, (2001) ''La collezione Mancini della Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma: qualche riflessione sulla tarda attività dell’artista,'' in ''Bollettino dei Musei Comunali di Roma'', XV, 2001, pp. 155–162.

External links

Biography: ''Portrait of a young girl''Selected works in Academic ClassicismShort biography
* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/arts/design/04manc.html ''Tumultuous Mind, Spread Across Canvas'' by Roberta Smith, The New York Times, Art Review, 4 Jan 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancini, Antonio 1852 births 1930 deaths 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters Members of the Royal Academy of Italy Painters from Naples Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli alumni 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists