Adeodato Malatesta (Modena 1806 – 1891), Portrait of Giuseppe Martinengo (1828)
Oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm, signed and dated lower left, Adeodato Malatesta painted in Florence in 1828. The back of the stretcher bears the inscription “Diodato Malatesta Firenze 1828.”
In 1828, Malatesta submitted his painting Portrait of Giuseppe Martinengo “by Nightlight” to the Triennial Competition of the Academy of Florence. The painting was described as “illusorily approaching the truth.” The artist drew on his studies of Caravaggio and Flemish painters at the Royal Gallery, where he frequently visited during his years at the Academy. Giuseppe Camillo Martinengo (1804 – 1869), a fellow student and the model for our painting, was a Brescian painter from the ancient and noble Martinengo Cesaresco family. He trained in Venice and then moved to Florence and Rome.
Provenance: Private collection.
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