Vincenzo Camuccini Biography
Vincenzo Camuccini was born in Rome in 1771 into a lower middle class family. He attended the school of Domenico Corvi, but, contrary to the interest in classicism that reigns there, he became passionate about the study of sixteenth-century models: in particular, he copied Raphael, Michelangelo and Poussin. In 1802 he became an Academician of San Luca, and in 1803 he was appointed Prince, a position he held until 1810. He was interested in the theories of Anton Raphael Mengs and Johan Joachim Winckelmann. He became friends with the archaeologist Ennio Quirino Visconti, who commissioned him to help him with the illustrations of the Borghese Monuments. At the beginning of the nineteenth century he came into personal contact with Jeaques Louis David, frequenting his studio. Camuccini operates a sort of union between Roman academicism and David's neoclassicism, so his success is sanctioned by the painting for Lord Bristol, "Death of Caesar" of 1793. Many of the commissions of these years are paintings with historical themes and studded of classic exempla virtutis, precisely responding to the demands of the moment. At the same time, Camuccini also knew how to deal with medieval themes that would characterize the nearby Romantic age. From 1814 to 1824 he held the position of Inspector of public paintings in Rome. In 1829, Pius VIII made him a baron and charged him with reorganizing the Vatican Art Gallery. From the 1930s, his success gradually diminished.
Paralysis struck him in 1842 and he died after two years in Rome.
