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The Art Review  Volume 1   Issue: 3  March 1890  Page: 76
 
 Francesco Vinea By J. Walter Savage Landor
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Vinea, Francesco [1845-1902. Italy. Painter]
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of another, produce cameo-like effects. You can gild, lacquer, or paint it to any degree; only, if you wish to do either of these latter, you must use more labour and less oil in your finishing coats.

I hope these remarks will in some measure satisfy my numerous inquirers, and act as an incentive to them and others to ‘try gesso’ and the only caution I have to offer them is not to be too ambitious at first, nor to attempt anything beyond mezzo relief. Indeed the lower your relief is, the better it is suited for this material; and the more you can develop the subtle flow and roundness of your brushwork, the truer is your use of gesso sottile. For designs where much relief is needed stucco-duro is a more available process, and on this I hope to write some other day. In concluding this note I have to gratefully thank Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Hey wood Sumner, Mr. Osmund Weeks, and Mr. Win Palmer for the very great courtesy they have shown in enabling me to correct my own experience by placing their greater ones so freely at my, and your, service.

Geo. T. Robinson


FRANCESCO VINEA

THIS eminent Italian artist was born in August 1845 at Forli (Romagna). His parents were very poor, though his family is an old cascita della fiera e nobile Romagna, as his native region is called in Italy. He went to Florence, and began his studies at the Accademia delle Belle Arti, with Professore Enrico Pollastrini, who not long afterwards asked Vinea to take up his abode at his studio, and there complete his training. Knowing the slenderness of his pupil's financial resources, Signor Pollastrini helped him most generously, and, as Vinea says, ‘was at once master and father’ to him. His studies completed, Vinea had a struggle for life: he wanted to have a studio of his own, to paint, to be useful to his people; but the struggle was a hard one, and years elapsed before his dream could be realised. For some time he made a living by drawing for illustrated books and newspapers, and with this work succeeded even in saving a few hundred francs; and by means of this small capital he was at last enabled to mount the first step into the world of art.

‘I have worked very hard’ he wrote to me not long ago, ‘and have suffered much in silence’ ‘Now I am happy; my studio is my life. There I spend all my days amongst my tapestries, my old ware, my ancient and modem statues that I have picked up in my sixteen years of artistic career’.

And his studio is indeed beautiful: — the most precious things are collected in it from almost every corner of the earth. It is a museum, with this difference, that everything in it is most artistically arranged. Fourteen or. fifteen years ago he had to content himself with very different surroundings, for he had to sell his pictures for next to nothing. Now his name is known, and his pictures fetch high prices.

Amongst his early works is one dated 1877, which he painted for Prince Paul Demidoff. This picture is now at Pratolino, near Florence — the late Prince's residence in Italy. It is called ‘II Rapimento’ (The Abduction). (Illustrated on page 78.) Two coaches meet on the high-road, and soon a quarrel arises as to the right of precedence. Gentlemen challenge each other, and, whilst the servants of the first carriage watch over their lady, they are assaulted by the bravos of the other party, who succeed in carrying off the lady to the coach of their master. The double duel has had a victim. One has died in defending the lady, presumably his wife, and the other two combatants still fight on. The scene is powerful in its simplicity; the colouring and the general treatment are excellent. The reproduction cannot give an exact idea of the painting, as its background is formed by the sky, which is too subtle for reproduction. In the original it is an important element in the general effect.

From war to peace! ‘Una Visita alia Nonna' (A Visit to Grandmother), is a fine painting, highly praised by art critics. The third example is characteristic of Vinea's peculiar style. (Illustrated on page 77.) It is a scene in a cellar, with costumes of the seventeenth century. There is an indescribable life, expression, and movement in the figures, and so perfectly true is the light and everything else in them, that they seem real scenes of life rather than pictures. There is in it such a wonderful contrast in the figures, and such a perfect harmony of colours and light, the details are so accurately rendered, that it is a ‘poem’ of a life lost for ever to us machines of the nineteenth century.

Do you not hear the sweet words that are whispered in the ear of the girl? . . . Is he not naughty! He made her blush, but she smiles; and, with a graceful movement, her head bent on her chest, the girl hides her face. On the right, the drummer thinks he will have another glass of wine; he holds the tumbler with his right hand, and his eyes stare at the jug, so afraid he is the ‘Vinaio’. will not give him the right measure.

The cat on the top of the cask, indolent and lazy, washes her face, whilst the dog, made stupid by the unusual noise, listens, half asleep, to the speech of the dark ‘Cavaliere' to the queen of the festa.

Signor Vinea has been the first to paint subjects in cellars, with new effects of light and half-light. He has been very successful, and it is now imitated by many clever artists. He is proud of having done things that nobody tried before, and speaks with pleasure of his new genre.

‘Plauderei' (Chattering) is one of his latest paint
The Art Review  Volume 1   Issue: 3  March 1890  Page: 77
 
 Francesco Vinea By J. Walter Savage Landor
Profiles: click on name to see profile
 
Vinea, Francesco [1845-1902. Italy. Painter]
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The Art Review  Volume 1   Issue: 3  March 1890  Page: 78
 
 Francesco Vinea By J. Walter Savage Landor
Profiles: click on name to see profile
 
Vinea, Francesco [1845-1902. Italy. Painter]
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The Art Review  Volume 1   Issue: 3  March 1890  Page: 79
 
 Francesco Vinea By J. Walter Savage Landor
Profiles: click on name to see profile
 
Vinea, Francesco [1845-1902. Italy. Painter]
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paintings. It is at Munich, where also may be seen other of his works. Signor Vinea is as clever in portrait-painting as he is in genre. Amongst many may be mentioned Prince Demidoff's, a life-size figure painted for Princess Elena Demidoff. He is not ‘exclusivist’ (I translate his word); art for him has no boundaries. From the richly furnished drawing-room to the cellar, from the garden to the wild, desolate landscape, from the plush to the poorest cotton fabric, from man to animal, he has studied them all.

Vinea has been working especially for Germany and Austria; but some of his pictures are in England also, and many have found their way to America. Signor Vinea now occupies the place of his former master at the Florence School of Art.

As to his character, a few words are enough to describe it: modesty, unselfishness, kindness — three virtues that, together with genius, talent, and his other qualities, make him a good son, an excellent man, and a great artist.
J. Walter Savage Landor