Oil painting on canvas by Vincenzo Volpe (Grottaminarda 1855 - Naples 1929) depicting a glimpse of an alley with characters, second half of the 19th century (Verismo period). Measurements without frame: 40 x 27 cm. Born on 14 December 1855 in Grottaminarda, in the then province of Principato Ultra, in via Sant'Angelo; his father was a decorator and portraitist. Vincenzo Volpe moved to Naples with his family in 1863, where he attended elementary, gymnasium and high school, but he did not pass his high school diploma. From 1867 he had his older half-brother Angelo Volpe as his first master in drawing. On May 27 of the same year he enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts (Academy of Fine Arts of Naples), where in less than two years he completed the five classes of drawing, here he was a pupil of Domenico Morelli - one of the most important Neapolitan artists of the Nineteenth century. His vast production is divided into three important phases: from 1874 to 1890 he dedicated himself to genre painting and monacelle paintings, from 1891 to 1896 he painted sacred art, while the period from 1897 to 1929 is marked by new experiences in genre painting, sacred art and the long series of portraits. His painting became noticed in 1877 with portraits and landscapes, during the conflict between the new realist school (Palizzi and Morelli), to which Vincenzo Volpe joined, although expressing his inner world and academic conventionalism in his paintings. In 1880 some of his works were exhibited in Turin and in 1881 at the National Exhibition in Milan and received considerable acclaim. In 1888 with Edoardo Dalbono he was among the founders of the Neapolitan Society of Artists. Between 1891 and 1896, when he dedicated himself to sacred art, he expressed his maximum production in the frescoes of Montevergine, commissioned by Abbot Corvaia to restore the chapel of the thirteenth-century Byzantine Madonna and still preserved. For this work he initially worked together with his brother Angiolo and then, after the latter's death, he continued alone until 1896. With other painters he was invited to decorate the Gambrinus Brewery in Naples in 1890 with the painting The Seller of watermelons. In 1900 King Umberto I wanted him at the Royal Palace, where he gave him a studio. The monarch himself wanted to be portrayed by Volpe. He was a member of the Superior Council of Antiquities and Environmental Heritage and participated with his works in art events in Italy and abroad. In 1902 he won the competition for painting teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts, taking the place of his teacher Domenico Morelli who had died the previous year and who he held until a few days before his death. He was appointed president of the Institute of Fine Arts from 1918 to 1925, under his presidency the Gentile Reform was implemented, transforming the Institute into an Academy of Fine Arts. He had numerous students, including Roberto Carignani. He died in Naples on 9 February 1929. Grottaminarda, his hometown, remembers Vincenzo Volpe with a bronze bust, placed at the entrance to the town hall. The commercial technical institute and the street where he was born in his hometown are dedicated to him. as well as a street in the provincial capital Avellino. His son Gabriele, known as Geppino Volpe, was also a painter. In addition to Geppino, Volpe had four other children: Titina, Gioconda, Tommasino (journalist for Il Mattino) and Mario Volpe (actor, director and painter). He was certainly a painter who did not limit himself to the mere representation of what he painted but attempted to "narrate the moment", almost as if he wanted to reveal the action. In his artistic career, the painter born in Irpinia has alternated his teaching commitments with creative activity, creating mainly realistic works of a narrative and anecdotal genre. He was certainly a sensitive interpreter of the Neapolitan artistic environment of his time, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Vincenzo Volpe joined the so-called "New realist-naturalist school" of Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi, following quite faithfully the teachings of Domenico Morelli, of whom he was an exemplary pupil and successor at the Institute of Fine Arts, he remained essentially faithful to the master, although enriching his art with a personal imprint, which has distinguished him in his artistic production. He was primarily a painter of figures, landscapes and compositions of genre scenes, expressing a particular personal characteristic in his art. The merit of the painter from Irpinia was to have brought about a renewal in Neapolitan pictorial art, thanks to the frankness and simplicity of his artistic language, which was endowed with a characterizing communicative immediacy. He had a highly developed sense of observation, he was a calm and modest person who worked tirelessly with passion. From Domenico Morelli and Gioacchino Toma he understood his profound poetic feeling, and approached it spontaneously by partially taking up the chromaticisms and tonal relationships, thus creating a personal atmosphere in the composition. According to his pupil Carlo Siviero, the dominant quality of Volpe's painting was the fluid simplicity of the sketch in which the subtle touches of color diluted with white spirit were spread on the canvas with the subtle intelligence of true values. His work does not have at all the dramatic accent of Migliaro, it does not provoke like Esposito's painting, it does not reveal Caprile's analytical characteristics. Without ever forcing the hand of his native talent, Volpe's production, strengthened by certain masterful gray accords and thin layers of soft colours, is rich in the gift of sincerity and can all be traced back to a balanced, calm and vaguely melancholic painting.
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SILVER Seller in Firenze, Italy
