Lot N. 289
Ippolito Caffi
Belluno 1809 - Lissa 1866
Dimensions:
29x43 cm."La notte del 10 febbraio 1848", oil on cardboard on canvas, signed lower right, within frame Provenance: private collection Rome
Other:
Ippolito Caffi was an Italian painter.
Born to Giacomo and Maria Castellani, he studied in Belluno, then in Padua with his painter cousin Pietro Paoletti, who worked together with another Belluno painter of neoclassical taste, Giovanni De Min; finally at the Academy of Venice, where he was able to meet the Venetian landscape artists of the eighteenth century. An example of this period is his The Rialto Bridge, in Ca' Pesaro.
In that environment of serious application, but little breathing space, Caffi began to feel a sense of unease: so, in January 1832, he moved to Rome together with his cousin Paoletti. By frequenting his workshop, Caffi improved his technique, delving into the genre of the view. At the beginning of 1833 Caffi opened his own studio, dedicating himself to life painting and drawing.
Domiciled in Rome, he often moved to other cities to exhibit his works. In Rome he also took a trip in a hot air balloon, which impressed him so much that it pushed him to paint two almost romantic paintings.
In 1841 he decorated the Roman room of the Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua. In 1843 he left for Naples and, from there, for the East, visiting Athens, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt; he returned to Italy in 1844, loaded with sketches and works.
In 1848 he left Rome, leaving for Friuli, where he enlisted in the war against Austria; taken prisoner, he escaped, stopping in Venice for a year. In 1849 he settled in Genoa, Switzerland and in 1850 in Turin.
After a series of trips to London, where he exhibited at the Universal Exhibition, to Paris and Spain, in 1855 he returned to Rome and from 1858 again to Venice, where he was put on trial for a "crime of public violence".
In 1860 he was a political prisoner in the prisons of San Severo for three months, due to his frequent visits to Turin and Milan, which aroused the suspicions of the Austrian authorities. From there he returned to Milan, then went to Naples, joining Garibaldi's army. After 1860, with the unification of Italy, Caffi returned to Venice, resuming painting.
He died at the age of 57, in the sinking of the ship Re d'Italia during the battle of Lissa in 1866, in the midst of the Third War of Italian Independence, after leaving Venice in the direction of Florence and, from there, Taranto; his end was immortalized in verses by his friend the poet Sebastiano Barozzi, in the XXXVIII chapter of his powerful poem Cronaca del Popolo during the redemption of Italy: «Bad-damaged ships in that part, and in this one / which one sinks, which one prey is of ardor. / And Caffi in the midst of the waves panting, heartbroken / who disappears, and returns to such and such. // And weeping: - Oh beloved Ippolito / ah in what way do you fulfill your promise!... / The intense love of art, the great affection / of your country led you to death for it».
Throughout his life he managed to maintain a fairly high standard of living, selling his paintings, some replicated many times, to European nobles, including the Prince of Austria himself.
Caffi's work, although inspired by eighteenth-century Venetian models, managed to modernize the pictorial vocabulary of the views, both by exploring new points of view, as in the nocturnal scenes, and with unusual themes, such as the flight of a hot air balloon.
Although he was highly appreciated during his lifetime, Caffi had to wait until the mid-1960s to be seriously considered by art historians. With the great exhibition held in Venice on the occasion of the centenary of his death, the revaluation of his painting took place. His pictorial production was very numerous and part of it was lost.
Only a few works are preserved in the Belluno Civic Museum:
Other canvases are part of private collections and numerous other works are preserved in museums, villas and palaces in many Italian and European cities, including Vatican City, Copenhagen, Rome, Turin, Treviso, Trieste, Venice.
€ 30.000 / 40.000
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