Vincenzo Volpe Biography
Vincenzo Volpe (Grottaminarda, 14 December 1855 – Naples, 9 February 1929) was an Italian painter and teacher. Born in 1855 in Grottaminarda, in the province of Avellino, Vincenzo Volpe moved to Naples with his family in 1863. In 1871 he enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts (Academy of Fine Arts of Naples), where in less than two years he covered the five classes of drawing. His vast production is divided into three important phases. From 1874 to 1890 he dedicated himself to genre painting and monacelle paintings; from 1891 to 1896 he painted sacred art while the period from 1897 to 1929 is marked by new experiences in genre painting, sacred art and the long series of portraits. In 1873 he won the Academy's annual prize. His painting became noticed in 1876 with portraits and landscapes, during the conflict between the new Verista school (Palizzi and Morelli), to which Vincenzo Volpe joined, although expressing his inner world and academic conventionalism in his paintings. In 1880 some of his works were exhibited in Turin and in 1881 at the National Exhibition in Milan and received considerable acclaim. He was a pupil of Domenico Morelli - one of the most important Neapolitan artists of the 19th century at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. In 1902 he took his teaching position, which he held until a few days before his death. He had various students, including Roberto Carignani. Between 1891 and 1896, when he dedicated himself to sacred art, he expressed his greatest production in the frescoes of Montevergine, commissioned by Abbot Corvaia to restore the chapel of the thirteenth-century Byzantine Madonna and which are still preserved today. For this work he initially worked together with his brother Angiolo and then, after the latter's death, he continued alone until 1896. In 1900 King Umberto I wanted him at the Royal Palace, where he gave him a studio. The monarch himself wanted to be portrayed by Volpe. President of the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, from 1915 to 1925, member of the Superior Council of Antiquities and Environmental Heritage, he participated with his works in art events in Italy and abroad.