Trevor James Oil Painting Pulcinella Feeding Pasta After Michele Cammarano 36"

Description

Pulcinella Feeding or Distributing Pasta After an Original by Michele Cammarano. The original was painted in the 19th Century. This reproduction hand painted oil comes from the second part of the 20th century. The painting is signed lower right Trevor James. Framed in pine with an antique finish.

Michele Cammarano ( Naples , February 23, 1835 - Naples, September 21, 1920)

Italian painter. He came from a family of artists of Catalan origin and was taught by his grandfather Giuseppe (1766-1850) and his great-uncle Antonio before enrolling at the Naples Accademia di Belle Arti in 1853. He studied under Gabriele Smargiassi (1798-1882), an exponent of traditional, composed, Romantic landscape, but was soon impressed by the plein-air landscape painting of Giacinto Gigante and by the work of the landscape painters of the Scuola di Posilippo, Alessandro La Volpe (c. 1820-1887) and Vincenzo Franceschini (1812-1885).

Between 1854 and 1855 Cammarano entered the studio of Nicola Palizzi and devoted more time to studies from the live model and of landscape en plein air, with stays on Capri and at Cava Campobasso. This led to a break with Smargiassi, but Cammarano continued to attend evening life classes at the Accademia and to take part in competitions. Early works, such as Winter Landscape (1857; Academia di Belle Arti, Naples), are close in style to the work of Nicola Palizzi. Cammarano also studied figure painting with Giuseppe Mancinelli (1813-1875) and took a greater interest in history and literature, with the aim of finding subjects for compositions such as the Massacre of Altamura (sketch 1863; Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples). He also joined Filippo Palizzi's life drawing class and retained a close attachment to Palizzi for the rest of his life.

Cammarano realized, however, that he should not allow himself to be trapped into excessive analytic precision in his painting and that he should aim for a more concise and expressive effect. His Realism, above all manifest in studies of rocks, trees, water and dilapidated walls, was free from Palizzi's descriptive nuances and was based on a system of vigorous and constructive brushstrokes. In 1861 he took part in the artistic debate on the macchia technique, which linked the Tuscan Macchiaioli and the artists of the Scuola di Resina. The importance of subject-matter for Cammarano at this time, however, is evident in Earthquake at Torre del Greco (1862; Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples) and in Idleness and Work (1863; Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples), which marked the beginning of his concern with social problems.

He moved to Rome in 1865 and to Venice in 1867 where remained for three years and painted in the style of Courbet. In 1870 he went to Paris, where he met French artists, and was impressed by Theodore Rousseau and Delacroix.

In 1899 he became professor at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples.

Condition

Very Good; Gently Used

Dimensions

30" x 2" x 36"; canvas 24" x 30"