Vito D'Ancona (August 12, 1825January 9, 1884) was an Italian painter of the Macchiaioli group. He was born in

Pesaro Pesaro (; ) is a (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the ...

to a wealthy Jewish family. He began his artistic training in Florence, and in 1844 was admitted to the Accademia di Belle Arti, where he studied under Giuseppe Bezzuoli. He became friends with Serafino De Tivoli, and joined him in painting landscapes ''

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...

''. In 1848 he fought as a Tuscan volunteer for Garibaldi in the Risorgimento. During the 1850s he became acquainted with the artists who frequented the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence, who would soon be known as the Macchiaioli. D'Ancona achieved success as a

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

painter, and few of his landscape paintings can be traced today.Steingräber, E., & Matteucci, G. 1984, p. 69. His ''Woman at the Races'' (ca. 1873) reveals the influence of Japonisme he had absorbed while living in Paris between 1867 and 1874. Suffering from the effects of

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

,Mann et al. 1989, p. 143.
/ref> D'Ancona's health disintegrated in the mid-1870s, and he ceased painting in 1878. He died in Florence on January 9, 1884. Collections holding works by Vito D'Ancona include the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

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References

* Broude, Norma (1987). ''The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. *Mann, Vivian B., Mazal Holocaust Collection., & Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.). (1989). ''Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy''. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Steingräber, E., & Matteucci, G. (1984). ''The Macchiaioli: Tuscan Painters of the Sunlight : March 14-April 20, 1984''. New York: Stair Sainty Matthiesen in association with Matthiesen, London.

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