Vincenzo Camuccini

The canvas has an old relining, which has resulted in a flattened surface. The paint surface has thinned but is secure and the colours remain sharp. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals an uneven varnish and scattered retouching throughout, with larger areas running across the top of the tomb and in the bodies of the two kneeling figures. The work is offered in a parcel gilt frame painted with grotesque decorations, in good condition.
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Vincenzo Camuccini was a painter of significant stature and influence in early nineteenth-century Rome, sought after for his academic history paintings.¹ He and his brother Pietro were also eminent art dealers, whose outstanding collection was purchased in 1856 by the 4th Duke of Northumberland for his seat at Alnwick in what was one of the last great acquisitions made by an Englishman travelling to Rome. The present work belongs to a cycle of six paintings that once decorated the walls of a room in one of the residences of the Grazioli family, perhaps either the Palazzo Grazioli in Rome or the Villa Montalto at Frascati. A second work from this scheme, Hector setting fire to the ships of the Greeks, was exhibited at the Heim Gallery, London, in 1981.

^1. For a fuller discussion of Camuccini, see U. Hiesinger, 'The Paintings of Vincenzo Camuccini, 1771-1844' in The Art Bulletin, vol. LX, no. 2, June 1978, pp. 297-320.