Double Portrait Of Francesco Vinea Historicist Oil On Canvas

Francesco Vinea (Forlì, 1845 – Florence, 1902)
Double Portrait with Greyhound and Mandolin
Oil on canvas, 240 x 198 cm
Signed lower left: F. Vinea

This monumental composition represents an elegant double portrait set in an ideal Renaissance context, dominated by a couple in period clothing and accompanied by a greyhound and emblematic objects of courtly culture: a mandolin, a plumed hat and some roses. The monumentality of the column, the large drapery and the backdrop with a sunset sky recall a theatrical and sophisticated taste, typical of the mature production of Francesco Vinea (1845-1902).
The painting is an example of his ability to combine a refined rendering of materials – from velvets to chiseled metals – with a lively psychological characterization. The brilliant narrative style and balanced composition reveal the hand of an artist who was able to establish himself among the protagonists of the late nineteenth-century international taste.
Francesco Vinea is one of the leading figures of the so-called “salon taste” of the late nineteenth century, characterized by historicist, elegant and decorative painting, intended for an international bourgeois and aristocratic public. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, his painting was influenced both by academic classicism and by the suggestions of French anecdotal painting.
The work is part of the genre scenes set in past eras – often the seventeenth century or the Renaissance – which Vinea treated with great scenographic mastery. For comparison, we can cite the “Gallant Scene” from the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, where a similar attention to decorative details and the theatricality of the poses can be found.