Francesco Vinea (

Forlì Forlì ( , ; rgn, Furlè ; la, Forum Livii) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. It is the central city of Romagna. The city is situated along the Via E ...

, August 10, 1845 - Florence, October 22, 1902) was an Italian painter, known for his period costume

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

subjects. 300px He studied first at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, but had to discontinue his studies due to his poverty, and spent some time traveling without home. He worked for a photographer, also as a designer of illustrated magazines, but returned to Florence and studied under professor

Enrico Pollastrini Enrico Pollastrini (15 June 1817, Livorno – 19 January 1876, Florence) was an Italian history painter and art school director. Life and work He began his training as an assistant in the workshop of a local artist named Vincenzo De Bonis. In 1 ...

, but only for a year. He was not inclined to the erudite historical or literary paintings, or earnest depictions of natural scenes, favored by some academic contemporaries. He meddled in an imaginative, often raffish or coquettish, and always elegant depictions of dramas in elegant period costume occurring in equally ornamented interiors. The paintings proved popular in England and France, and Vinea gained a comfortable living. His studio on boulevard Prince Eugene in Florence is depicted as hoard of exotic items, and eclectic furniture and decorative items: a collection easily finding his way as ornaments of his paintings. Gubernatis describes his studio as his best work of art. The ceiling painted in tempera with Olympic gods, in allegory to the fine arts, and his collected items haphazardly stored. Gubernatis describes his subject matter as:

Nothing serious, nothing solid, no classical concepts, not robust, no lofty ideas, no deep thoughts. His canvases, like the genre paintings of
Meissonier Meissonier or Meissonnier is the name of several people: * Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891), French classicist painter and sculptor famous for his depictions of Napoleon, his armies and military themes * Jean-Antoine Meissonnier (1783– ...
, are well-designed witticisms, smiling color, interiors full of life and of panache, costume scenes preening with grace and trivial levity: everything exudes the fashion of the past salons. Once you have accepted the genre, Vinea is no doubt that the few who treat it with fertility of imagination, careful study of detail and splendor of the palette. The subjects of his canvases fade from memory like iridescent soap bubbles flit from our vision.

Among his works ''Baccanale di soldati'' and a woman in a canteen titled ''Alla più bella''; ''La visita alla nonna''; ''Un rapimento''; ''Una bagnante''; ''Il Vescovo''; and ''Un appuntamento''. With regards to Vinea, who he grouped in thematic to

Tito Conti Tito Conti (1842–1924) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre costume or historical subjects. Biography He was born and lived in Florence, where he studied at the Institute of Fine Arts. He was resident professor at the Academic College of ...

and

Edoardo Gelli Eduardo Gelli (1853 in Savona – 1933) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre costume portraits. Biography He trained in Florence under Antonio Ciseri. The contemporary American art collector James Jackson Jarves grouped him in with Frances ...

, the contemporary American art collector

James Jackson Jarves James Jackson Jarves (1818–1888) was an American newspaper editor, and art critic who is remembered above all as the first American art collector to buy Italian primitives and Old Masters. Life and career Jarves was the editor of an early we ...

said :The New School of Italian Painting and Sculpture. Harper's Monthly, Volume 60, Number 358; March 1880, page 486.

His sentiment is unrefined and extremely realistic, going, like his strokes of brush, without equivocations or apologetic disguises, directly to his point. In composition his range is limited and studio-nurtured —mainly free and jovial topics that delight in glancing bits of contrasting color and action, and bric-a-brac displays.

References

Gallery

Die Gartenlaube (1887) b 449.jpg Die Gartenlaube (1891) b 888.jpg Die Gartenlaube (1897) 585.jpg Francesco Vinea Mädchen mit Katze und Vogelkäfig.jpg Glaspalast München 1889 110.jpg Glaspalast München 1890 084.jpg Francesco Vinea, Bishop.jpg Allan Piu bella painting by Francesco Vinea.jpg * Also se
UK museum works of Vinea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinea, Francesco 1845 births 1902 deaths 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian male artists Italian genre painters Italian costume genre painters Painters from Florence People from Forlì Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze alumni 19th-century Italian male artists