Vincenzo Camuccini

Born Rome, 22 Feb 1771; died Rome, 2 Sept 1844.

Brother of Pietro Camuccini. From an early age he was assisted and encouraged by Pietro, who had given up his place in the studio of Domenico Corvi to Vincenzo. The younger brother’s earliest known painting, the Sacrifice of Noah (1785; Cantalupo in Sabina, Pal. Camuccini), is a competent work demonstrating his use of Corvi’s technique of chiaroscuro. Between 1787 and 1789, on the advice of Pietro, Vincenzo undertook an intensive study of Michelangelo’s and Raphael’s frescoes at the Vatican. He also studied archaeology with Ennio Quirino Visconti, who introduced him to leading ecclesiastics within the papal court of Pope Pius VI. It was probably through his brother that Vincenzo met Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry (later 4th Earl of Bristol), who commissioned from him a copy (1789) of Raphael’s Entombment (both Rome, Gal. Borghese). His familiarity with the art of the High Renaissance and with 17th-century Roman art is eloquently displayed in his drawings from c. 1787. In Joseph Interpreting the Dreams (c. 1795; Florence, Uffizi), for example, he is clearly influenced by the monumental quality of Michelangelo’s figures. He produced drawings of antique sculpture after plaster casts and such originals as Trajan’s Column, the heroic reliefs of which helped shape his interpretation of Roman history. His many drawings reveal a fluid technique and lively artistic imagination.

The Classical tradition in Rome was sustained in the 17th century, particularly through the work of Poussin, and was reinforced in the early 18th century by archaeological excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. For Camuccini’s circle, Winckelmann’s writings on the Antique were an important source of inspiration, as were Neo-classical works by such foreign artists resident in Rome as Anton Raphael Mengs (e.g. Parnassus with Apollo and the Muses, 1760–61; Rome, Villa Torlonia) and Gavin Hamilton (e.g. Helen and Paris, 1782–4; ex-Gal. Borghese, Rome; Rome, Pal. Braschi). Indeed, Camuccini’s Finding of Paris (c. 1796; Rome, Gal. Borghese) is close to Hamilton’s style. Artists who painted in a similar style, for example Pietro Benvenuti, Giuseppe Bossi and Luigi Sabatelli, had all worked in Rome and had known Camuccini well but had moved to either Milan or Florence in the early years of the 19th century, leaving him as the pre-eminent painter in Rome. The profound influence of Jacques-Louis David on Neo-classical artists in Rome cannot be underestimated, particularly after the Oath of the Horatii (1784; Paris, Louvre) was exhibited there in 1785. This painting marks a final break with the rhythmic fluency of earlier paintings with strong classicizing tendencies, and its subject-matter—the superseding of personal loyalty by civic duty—also set a new standard. Although Camuccini aspired to paint such themes, those paintings of his most like David’s (e.g. Pompey Urged to Defend the State, c. 1810; Rome, Pal. Taverna Monte Giordano) were not painted until over 20 years later during the French occupation of Rome (1809–14).

In 1793 Camuccini was commissioned by Hervey to do a large painting of the Death of Caesar (Naples, Capodimonte). The cartoon was completed and exhibited in 1796 and achieved immediate fame. He then began work on the painting, completing it in 1799. When exhibited, it was criticized as having ‘no depth’ and being ‘dull and dark’ in colour (Falconieri, p. 46). He destroyed it and by 1818 had produced a new version, now in Naples. The subject was highly topical, giving full expression to Republican ideals. He was exact in his interpretation of the source (Plutarch’s writings) and, assisted by Visconti, endeavoured to depict the setting and costumes as accurately as possible; for example, the statue of Pompey on the left side of the painting was modelled on the statue of the same subject in the Galleria Spada in Rome. He chose the moment before Julius Caesar was stabbed to death, using as his source the scene described in Vittorio Alfieri’s play Brutus II (1789). The painting’s companion piece, the Death of Virginia (Naples, Capodimonte), was commissioned in 1800 and finally completed in 1804. In this case, the subject was taken from Livy’s History of Rome and from Charles Rollin’s Histoire romaine (1738–48). Camuccini depicted the moment when Virginia’s father curses the tyrant Appius, who has attempted to enslave his daughter and who is prevented from doing so by the father, who kills his daughter with his sword. The theme of the painting is again a noble one: the shedding of innocent blood to preserve virtue and freedom. The success of these works established Camuccini’s reputation in Rome and abroad.

In 1802 Camuccini became a member of the Accademia di S Luca, his presentation piece being a bozzetto of the Death of Virginia (Rome, Gal. Accad. N. S Luca). He taught at the Accademia and was its Principal from 1806 to 1810. A contemporary source recording his election as Principal commented on his youth and said that, more than any other painter, he had ‘studied Raphael in great depth’ (Missirini, p. 345). In 1803 Pope Pius VII nominated him Director of the mosaic workshop at St Peter’s, and he executed for the church a mosaic of the Incredulity of Thomas (1806–22). The Pope appreciated his abilities and in 1814 made him Superintendent of the Apostolic Palaces. In his religious paintings (c. 1800–10) he still used chiaroscuro in the manner of his early teacher, Corvi (e.g. Presentation of the Virgin, 1806; Piacenza, S Giovanni in Canale). In addition to the large number of commissions for biblical or historical scenes, he executed several portraits, somewhat reluctantly as he considered this to be an inferior genre. Among the most striking are those of family or friends (e.g. Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1808; Rome, Gal. Accad. N. S Luca). In more formal commissions he combined acute observation with an awareness of regal dignity (e.g. Maria Luisa Bourbon, Duquesa di Lucca, c. 1811; Florence, Pitti). In the most sensitive of his official portraits—Pius VII (1815; Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.)—the pose is taken from Raphael’s portrait of Julius II (Florence, Uffizi). The portrait of the King of Naples, Ferdinand I (1819–20; Naples, Pal. Reale), was painted in the grandiose manner of Pompeo Batoni. He also painted a later, unfinished Self-portrait (c. 1830; Cantalupo in Sabina, Pal. Camuccini).

In 1810 Camuccini visited Paris and Munich and was received with suitable honours. In Paris he was presented to Napoleon and was invited to dine with David. It was probably on this visit that Vincenzo bought the most outstanding acquisition in the brothers’ collection, the Madonna dei Garofani by Raphael (London, N.G., on loan). However, the painting, which was from a French collection, was not in Rome until the late 1820s. In Munich he made a study (Cantalupo in Sabina, Pal. Camuccini) after Poussin’s Lamentation (Munich, Alte Pin.), paying particular attention to the painter’s subtle gradations of light and dark to enhance compositional structure. He returned to Rome in 1811 and was chosen, along with such artists as Gaspare Landi and Felice Giani, to assist in the redecoration of the Palazzo del Quirinale for the proposed arrival of Napoleon. Camuccini was allowed to select for the central salon two subjects based on the theme of the illustrious patronage of arts and letters. Using Raphael’s Stanze in the Vatican as his inspiration, he painted Charlemagne Summoning Italian and German Scholars to Found a University of Paris and Ptolemy III among Scholars Brought to the Library of Alexandria (both 1811–13; ex-Pal. Quirinale, Rome; Rome, Pal. Montecitorio).

After the French occupation of Rome, he remained pre-eminent in the art life of the city. In 1826 Ferdinand I put him in charge of the reorganization of the royal picture collection at Naples, and in 1830 Pius VIII made him a baron and entrusted him with the reorganization of the art collection at the Vatican museums. In 1833, when Raphael’s body was exhumed from the Pantheon, he was asked by the Accademia dei Virtuosi to provide the official drawing of his remains. In the 1830s and 1840s he employed several studio assistants, including Francesco Podesti and Natale Carta (1790–1884), to help him with his numerous commissions. From this time his subjects were derived almost entirely from Roman sources. Virgil Reading the Aeneid to the Family of Augustus (c. 1819; Cantalupo in Sabina, Pal. Camuccini) was published in an edition by Annibale Caro of Virgil’s Aeneid (Rome, 1819), and the Continence of Scipio (c. 1833) was composed in the manner of a Roman frieze. His last Roman subject—Camillus Liberating the Capitol from the Gauls (1840; Genoa, Pal. Reale)—was commissioned by Charles-Albert, King of Sardinia, and fulfils all the formal and aesthetic ideals of Neo-classicism that were beginning to be challenged by the Puristi (see Purismo) and by the emerging Romantic movement. The Nazarene painter Friedrich Overbeck openly expressed his criticism of Camuccini’s Deposition (c. 1836; Cantalupo in Sabina, Pal. Camuccini), and it remained unfinished for lack of payment (Falconieri, p. 266). The Puristi also criticized his use of references to the 17th century found in St Paul Raised to the Third Heaven (1840; Ostia, Basilica). Such references also appear in an earlier series of 84 scenes of the Life of Christ (Cantalupo in Sabina, Pal. Camuccini). These were published as lithographs (Rome, 1829) and formed a significant contribution to the religious art of the pontificate of Leo XII.

Camuccini suffered a stroke early in 1842; although he continued to paint, most of his late works remain unfinished. He was aware of the changes in artistic taste and the move away from academicism, and after his death the considerable reputation he had enjoyed was undermined by the disdain of the Puristi for moralizing history painting. Willard (p. 249) has attributed the decline of his reputation to the poor quality of engravings after his works. Another factor is that his portraits, which are among his best works, have been scattered in various collections, and there is scant knowledge of the approximately 300 drawings and oil sketches preserved by his heirs.

Lucinda Lubbock. "Camuccini." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T013553pg2 (accessed March 22, 2012).