Lot Essay
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.
A well known critic of the time described these boys as 'poor little children and most certainly harmless...They may have sinister eyes, but they are ready to carry your baggage for a little money (pochi lire)...shy, but often fearless, they risk their life dodging streetcars....they go fishing with ripped clothes but always smiling...if you find yourself face to face with one of them, with big bright eyes shining like the sea and you offer him a coin, you will see five or even ten of them suddenly appear!' (D. Riccardo, Artecatalogo dell'Ottocento 'Vesuvio..dei Pittori Napoletani,' Rome, 1973, p. 269).
A well known critic of the time described these boys as 'poor little children and most certainly harmless...They may have sinister eyes, but they are ready to carry your baggage for a little money (pochi lire)...shy, but often fearless, they risk their life dodging streetcars....they go fishing with ripped clothes but always smiling...if you find yourself face to face with one of them, with big bright eyes shining like the sea and you offer him a coin, you will see five or even ten of them suddenly appear!' (D. Riccardo, Artecatalogo dell'Ottocento 'Vesuvio..dei Pittori Napoletani,' Rome, 1973, p. 269).