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Lot Essay
Antonio Mancini, recognised by art historians as a pivotal figure in Italian art of the late 19th Century, continues to captivate modern day audiences even to this day. Born outside Rome in 1852, Mancini received his earliest artistic training at the local Art Academy in Naples under Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi. For this reason, Mancini is often associated with the Neapolitan School of Verismo, yet a further examination of his oeuvre over the course of his career reveals that Mancini resisted association to any one particular movement of painting but rather chose to pioneer an independent and totally unique style.
Having lived much of his young life in Naples, Mancini could readily identify with the Scungizzo or poor Neapolitan street boys, and it is not surprising that they became frequent subjects of his paintings. His affectionate and sensitive portrayals of these boys stood as the embodiment and very soul of the 'vita dei popolani' or life of the common people. In fact, his first recorded work was a Scugnizzo painted in 1868 when he was only sixteen years old. This rare oil sketch dates from Mancini's early Neopolitan period probably executed in the late 1870s or early 1880s. Mancini's standing Scugnizzo emerges from a sketchy chiaroscuro background. What is most striking about the work is that it is a pure and spontaneous depiction, based on the artist's own encounters with and observations of these street rascals.
Having lived much of his young life in Naples, Mancini could readily identify with the Scungizzo or poor Neapolitan street boys, and it is not surprising that they became frequent subjects of his paintings. His affectionate and sensitive portrayals of these boys stood as the embodiment and very soul of the 'vita dei popolani' or life of the common people. In fact, his first recorded work was a Scugnizzo painted in 1868 when he was only sixteen years old. This rare oil sketch dates from Mancini's early Neopolitan period probably executed in the late 1870s or early 1880s. Mancini's standing Scugnizzo emerges from a sketchy chiaroscuro background. What is most striking about the work is that it is a pure and spontaneous depiction, based on the artist's own encounters with and observations of these street rascals.