Portrait Of Young Man With Red Scarf

Antonio Vallone (active in Naples in the 20th century)

Portrait of young man with red scarf

Oil on canvas, cm 40,5 x 30,3

With frame, cm 52 x 42

Signed in the lower left: A. Vallone

The cultural environment of Naples at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth is particularly sparkling: internationally renowned artists such as Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi - known for portraits, works of religious subject and genre scenes from the romantic vein - they are opposed to the young members of the School of Resin, which also include the famous Cecioni, De Gregorio and De Nittis, who aim to avoid the dictates of academicism, perceived as obsolete, to approach the scabro realism and the undefined and evanescent brushstroke of macchiaioli. 

It is in this interesting socio-cultural context that the pictorial training of Antonio Vallone takes place: the artist, who took his first steps within the school of Morelli, specialized in genre portraits, especially of smiling young people and girls, scugnizzi or peasant women of their home country. The representative methods of the elected subjects are generally academic; the choice to privilege characters of humble social background could instead refer to the solutions adopted by the members of the school of Resin, who set themselves the goal of giving life to an art usable by the masses and not only dedicated to the wealthiest fringes of society. 

The young women of the people were a recurring subject in terms of Neapolitan painting of the early twentieth century. Besides the works of Vallone, this iconographic theme is treated in the paintings of the Neapolitan Vincenzo Caprile (Naples, 1856-1936) and Attilio Toro (Naples, 1892 - Portici 1982). The vivacity of the colors and the shine are typical of the Neapolitan school of origin.