Giuseppe Cignaroli known as "Fra Felice"
(Verona 1726-1796)
Self-Portrait
Oil on canvas - cm 35.5x29.4. Original frame.
Inscriptions on the back: "Fra Felice Cignaroli […] of 1796 Original painted by himself"; inv. nos. 16, 32, 139.
Provenance: 1818-1898, Verona, Academy of Painting and Sculpture, then donated. 1995, London, antiquarian market.
The only known self-portrait of the artist Fra Felice Cignaroli. A painter who lived and worked mainly in his native city of Verona. The perfect state of preservation allows us to better appreciate what he was famous for: the soft and realistic light of the complexions of faces, so faithful as to make us perceive the intimate thought, the state of mind of the portrait. In the background, we note the artist's reconsideration in outlining the hair. A three-quarter self-portrait with a sharp and reflective gaze, a witness to a spirit of realistic instinctiveness and freedom, sometimes in contrast with classical canons. The only known portrait, as the one cited in Thieme Becker (Leipzig 1907-1950, IV, p.401) as kept in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona, was probably confused with the many portraits kept of the different branches of the family.
Bibliography
Luigi Federici, Historical Eulogies of the Most Illustrious Veronese Ecclesiastics, Verona, Tipografia Ramanzini, 1818-1819, III, 1819, p. 38;
Diego Zannandreis, The Lives of Veronese Painters, Sculptors and Architects, [ms. 1831-1834], Forni ed. 1891, pp. 436-437;
Cignaroli, Fra Felice 1912, p. 584.
Dirce Viana, Felice Cignaroli: 18th century Veronese painter, Verona, La Tipografica Veronese, 1934, p. 82.
Carlo Donzelli, The Venetian Painters of the Eighteenth Century, Sansoni ed., 1957, p. 68.
Maurizio Brenzoni, The Cult of San Zeno in the Veronese Area, Verona, Banca mutua popolare di Verona, 1972, p. 90;
Pesenti, 1981, p. 498;
Gian Paolo Marchini, «The Academy of Painting and Sculpture of Verona», in: Painting in Verona from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, edited by P. Brugnoli, 1986, pp. 538-539, 541, 543;
E. Rama, in Painting in Italy: the Eighteenth Century, Milan, 1990, p. 668;
Giovanna Baldissin Molli, Giambettino Cignaroli and Saverio from the Rosa: postils and unpublished notes, "Acts and memoirs of the Academy of Agriculture Sciences and Letters of Verona", CLXIX, 1992-1993, p. 422;
Matthias Kunze 1998, p. 199;
Grazia Callegari, in The Great Theater of the World, the Soul and Face of the Eighteenth Century, edited by Flavio Caroli, Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2003, pp. 282-283, n. I.103;
Martinelli 2011, p. 237;
Andrea Tomezzoli, in The Eighteenth Century in Verona: Tiepolo, Cignaroli, Rotari, the nobility of painting, 2011 Verona, Silvana Editoriale, p. 235;
Sara dell’Antonio, in The Eighteenth Century in Verona: Tiepolo, Cignaroli, Rotari, the nobility of painting, 2011 Verona, Silvana Editoriale, pag.190, n.58, fig. 58.
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