Teofilo Patini, Man, 1800s, Charcoal Drawing

Important charcoal drawing on paper by the great 19th century Italian artist Teofilo Patini.
It represents a man with a thoughtful look taken in three-quarters of rare intensity and beauty.

Period Second half of the tenth-ninth century

Dimensions
Height 47 cm
Width 31 cm

Certificate of authenticity issued by Sabrina Egidi Expert of the Court and of the C.C.I.A.A. of Rome.
This item comes from a private collector and is therefore unreleased on the market



Teofilo Patini
A native of Castel di Sangro, in the province of L'Aquila, he initially studied philosophy at the University of Naples, before enrolling in the painting courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city in July 1856.

He had Giuseppe Mancinelli, Giovanni Salomone and Biagio Molinari as teachers and soon became linked to the group of painters headed by Filippo Palizzi, of whom he was a fervent pupil.

He made study trips to Florence (1868) and Rome (1870), before returning to Castel di Sangro in 1873.

He then moved to L'Aquila where in 1882 he founded the "School of Arts and Crafts", in which, among others, Domenico Cifani, Giovanni Feneziani and Tito Pellicciotti studied.

Patini lived in the Abruzzo capital and established his atelier in the monumental Ardinghelli palace, in the Santa Maria quarter, owned by the Cappelli family.

In 1898 he participated in the Italian General Exhibition in Turin.

In 1896 he was initiated into Freemasonry in the L'Aquila lodge, named after Fabio Cannella, and in the early twentieth century he was a member of the Cosmogenesi lodge in the same city.

One of his last works was the fresco in the great hall of the University of Naples.

He lived in L'Aquila for a long time before returning to his hometown shortly before his death.

In 1873 he had Giuseppina from Teresa Tamposchi.

He was buried in the monumental cemetery of Poggioreale in Naples, in the sector dedicated to artists.

As a profound and pure socialist that he was, he painted paintings portraying the peasant civilization of Abruzzo at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, highlighting the "poverty condition of the region" and the "capacity for resistance and sacrifice of the population"; as well as his profound passion, painting was the megaphone with which he shouted to the world the miserable conditions of his people, a megaphone which he would ideally deliver to Ignazio Silone, the writer from Fontamara.

In particular, three of his works had a strong political connotation and are therefore considered to be part of a "social trilogy": Spade and Milk, The Heir and Beasts of Burden. He also dedicated himself to representing sacred images, in paintings and frescoes.

Regarding the painting The Heir, this is what Giovanni Fattori wrote to Primo Levi in ​​February 1903: «I will weakly send my soldiers who fought for independence rewarded with the propatria known to you, moreover I have searched into the social wounds and I found a poor brewer whose old horse is dying - Poverty - realism has given him the heir - and tell me a little how to compare this piece of work of truth and feeling with the beautiful nude figures of Sartorio - larger than truly obscene without saying anything, and doing nothing - here we cry, there we yawn.

Inside Palazzo De Petra in Castel di Sangro there is the Patiniana art gallery, a permanent exhibition entirely dedicated to the works of Patini and his students.

Among the works of great historical-artistic importance, the majestic Beasts of Burden stands out, preserved until 2009 at the Government Palace in L'Aquila and moved there temporarily following the earthquake of 6 April of the same year.

In Naples, in the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, three works by Teofilo Patini are preserved: Edward III and the prisoners of Calais, 1868; Gypsy, 1870; The Heir, 1875.