Francesco Manno (Palermo, 1752 Rome, 1831), last quarter of the 18th century

Francesco Manno (Palermo, 1752 Rome, 1831), last quarter of the XVIII century

The meeting of Christ and Veronica

Oil on canvas, cm 60 x 33

With frame, cm 75 x 48

Son of Girolamo and Petronilla Salsella, Francesco Manno first dedicated himself to the goldsmith’s shop, then to painting, following the example of the brothers Vincenzo and Antonio, both academics of San Luca. The debut works of Francesco Manno are a portrait of Ferdinand di Borbone - whose location is currently unknown but which until 1934 was kept in the National Gallery of Palermo - and a sketch of the triumph of San Giuseppe, The Regional Gallery of Sicily, at Palazzo Abatellis. Around 1786, Manno arrived in Rome and worked first with Pompeo Batoni, whose fascination and influence he felt, especially in the field of his youth; then, in 1787, he moved to the studio of the Spanish painter Francisco Preciado de la Vega, who was a pupil of Sebastiano Conca. Manno was immediately known as a prolific, precise and careful artist and he did not lack honors and commissions. He was a favorite artist for canonization ceremonies and also worked for Roman Orthodox churches. He never forgot his homeland of origin and many churches and museums in Sicily today possess his works. In Rome, Manno had the opportunity to directly compare himself with the works of Carlo Maratta, a painter of Ancona origins who was mainly active in Rome between the second half of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th. Maratta is considered one of the most important figures in the pictorial panorama of seventeenth-century Italy: in a period marked by the contrast between classicism and baroque, he was able to combine the two trends, Raffaello’s classicism and welcoming a baroque without rhetorical excesses (P. Zampetti, Pittura nelle Marche, 1991) The painting of Maratti was celebrated by Giovan Pietro Bellori who praised his grace and purity of composition, considering him the only living artist worthy to appear in his Vite de' pittori, scultori e architetti moderni, of 1672 (A. Agresti, Carlo Maratta. Heritages and evolutions of the Roman Classicism, 2022). The Mengs said of him: «he supported painting in Rome that did not precipitate as elsewhere». Later, in the neoclassical period there were severe judgments and praise, but on the whole his art was very criticized: the same fate befell also to the vast array of his students who, although responsible for works of level, They did not easily meet the approval of nineteenth and twentieth century critics (S. Roettgen, Allievi, seguaci, imitatori e avversari: l'impronta marattesca nella pittura del Settecento, 2016). The pictorial production of Maratta was for the artist from Palermo a great source of inspiration: this is clearly visible in a work like this Meeting of Christ with Veronica, in which the intense and vibrant colors are taken up as well as the brushstroke of the mature works of the painter from the Marche region: the bright colors of Manno’s painting recall the tones of The Virgin appears in San Filippo Neri of Palazzo Pitti or of the Visitation at the tomb of the Virgin with the three Marie of the Mainetti collection in Rome. The iconography of the Meeting of Christ and Veronica is also taken from the works of Maratta; this theme had been investigated by the famous exponent of the Roman seventeenth century on several occasions: We can think of the painting currently in the Museum of Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia or that of the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio in Piansano, near Viterbo. 

The object is in good condition

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