ANTONIO MANCINI (1852–1930)
Provenance
Andrea De Angelis, Naples, Italy (by 1911);
Augusto Lurati, Milan, Italy;
Galleria Borgonuovo, Milan, Raccolta Lurati, 1929 (consigned by the above);
Sotheby’s, Monaco, Tableaux Italiens du XIXe Siecle, 21 April 1990, lot 66;
where acquired by a private collection, USA.
Exhibitions
Florence, Società delle Belle Arti - Esposizione Retrospettiva, Italiana E Regionale Toscana, 1911, Sala 10, no. 542 (as Capriccio di modella)
Milan, Galleria Borgonuovo, La raccolta Augusto Lurati, 1929, no. 170 (as La modella)
Naples, Florida, The Gilgore Collection, A Chisel and a Brush. Vincenzo Gemito: 1852-1929, Antonio Mancini 1852-1930. From the Gilgore Collection Italian Art 1850- 1925, 2000, no. 26
Palm Beach, American International Fine Art & Antique Fair, 2008, no. 23
Dating from around 1884, the painting belongs to the period immediately following Mancini’s move to Rome. By then, his formative experience in Paris and the more troubled years following his return to Naples were behind him. That period had been marked by a severe nervous breakdown that led to his admission to the provincial asylum between 1881 and 1882. Rome marked the beginning of a new phase in his work, and it was in this context that he conceived this striking invention: a young woman in gypsy costume seems quite literally to break through the picture plane.
While rooted in the tradition of trompe-l’œil, the painting goes beyond mere virtuosity. The figure crosses the boundary of the picture within the picture, bringing the painted space into direct relation with the viewer’s own. This tension between image and reality becomes the true subject of the work and would recur elsewhere in Mancini’s art, from La Verità to the later Self-Portrait on a Mirror.