Gennaro Ruo (1812 - 1884)
The tenor Settimio Malvezzi and his wife, first half of the 19th century
oil paintings on canvas within frames contemporary coora in carved and gilded wood.
This splendid pair of paintings pendant, made by Gennaro Ruo at the end of the 1840s, is the happy outcome of a private commission that hides a fascinating story yet to be discovered. The portraits respectively depict the Roman tenor Septimius Malvezzi (Rome, 1817 - Florence , 1887) and his young wife.
The gestation and realization of these paintings, both signed and one of the two dated 1847 (?), is to be connected to that circuit of intellectuals, artists, poets and composers that from the mid-nineteenth century orbited around the figure of Giuseppe Verdi. Among these, alongside the more famous Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi, was the Neapolitan painter Gennaro Ruo. An exponent of the artistic and academic world, linked from the time of his education to the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, Ruo was the author of great paintings with a historical / mythological and religious subject, proving himself a skilled portraitist at the same time. His masterpieces include the splendid portrait of the composer Gaetano Donizetti and the portrait of the musician Raffaele Mirante, both preserved at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory Museum in Naples.
As is also known, Malvezzi was closely linked to the figure of Giuseppe Verdi. The famous composer had written for him the part of Rodolfo in the opera "Luisa Miller", making his world premiere at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1849.
Therefore,it is eloquent the fact that Settimio Malvezzi called for the realization of his family portraits, an academic painter like Gennaro Ruo, next to Verdi.
The painting returns with photographic accuracy effigy of the opera singer , represented in the maximum of its manly power at about thirty years of age. The firm and sure look, the refined clothing, with the white shirt embellished with a brooch, the blue silk tie and the red velvet gilet, are elements indicative of its economic-social status. The wife with her head shyly reclined to the right, in a docile and submissive attitude towards her husband, is also richly dressed, wrapped in a delicate pink stole. She shows off precious jewels, a ruby on the lobe, a brooch with precious stones on the chest and a gold bracelet with small pearls. In the left hand it bears the image of the beloved, a sign of her belonging to her husband.
State of conservation: good; small restorations and minor impact damage are reported.