About the two paintings on which an opinion is requested, View of Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome and Marina di Torre Annunziata, which, despite the disparity of the themes, are in pairs from the beginning and have the same size, there is no doubt about the autography of the Veronese painter Ercole Calvi (1824-1900) as the autograph signature appears and also on the on the back there are printed but ancient writings, perhaps contemporary with the drafting of the painting, which still refer to the painter, after he had been nominated as a knight, therefore in the mature years of his life. But above all the stylistic and psychological characteristics of the painting correspond to those of Calvi, at the highest level of his artistic quality.

The writings read: N.544. Painting by Cav. Ercole Calvi of Verona (printed). Torre Annunziata Riviera di Napoli - Price Lire 500/500 . 545. Painting by Cav. Ercole Calvi of Verona (printed) - Bridge and Castel Santangelo in Rome Price Lire 19th century / 800 . The different evaluation of the commitment and the price of the two canvases is interesting.

The state of conservation of the paintings seems to be good and any reason for falsification is unthinkable. The painter had extraordinary commercial and critical fortune, almost until the end of his life. After that it was only rediscovered in the late 1970s. After an unclear start in the local Verona area, he trained in Milan at the Brera Academy (1844-1847) and therefore probably alternated his residence between Verona and Milan, even if in 1851 he officially asked for expatriation for the Lombard city. In his life he always held positions at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Verona Society of Fine Arts. He was one of the founders of the latter in 1856.

A beautiful photographic portrait of the artist remains in a carte de visite by Moritz Lotze (before 1868). He then received flattering reviews of his exhibitions from his son, photographer and journalist, Richard Lotze.

Specialist almost exclusively in landscapes, which is unusual for an academic painter of that date, he had an extraordinary exhibition success, so much so that he boasted of selling his works immediately at each exhibition, as seems to be proven by all the reviewers. However, its exhibition venues were more frequently in Lombardy and Veneto, where Calvi had the most passionate admirers, especially in Brianza and western Lombardy. He dealt, although perhaps less frequently, with Venice and Chioggia and of course also Verona. In some catalogs Calvi is defined as a pupil of Giuseppe Canella.

Around the sixties he also paints some paintings with militias in displacement, which are among the most beautiful and epic , even if still little known, figurative pages of the Risorgimento. One of these is perhaps among the first to document the presence of the Red Shirts in the Second Italian War of Independence. Even the showy Italian flag hoisted on Castel Sant'Angelo transforms the view into a picture of explicit Risorgimento meaning and indicates that we are after the "capture" of 1870. St. Peter, symbol of papal power, remains relegated to the background.

The fortune of sales unfortunately immediately disappeared the works of a bourgeoisie in the private collections that was then establishing itself but was still unknown to history. His painting really stands out in the bourgeois social dimension, even as an "easel painting", among new collectors.

The two views of Rome and Torre Annunziata they are exceptional also because it was not known that Calvi, with his images, had arrived there. The canvases have all the freshness of "live shooting" and do not derive from prints. Not even from photographs, given their intense and immediate pictorialism. Calvi exhibited in Rome in 1888 and 1894 (also in Palermo in 1891). A tag with a number on the back should logically refer to an exhibition catalog. However, the painter had also exhibited in Naples from 1875 to 1880. It can be believed that he painted the images preparing one of those exhibitions.

Already in the middle of the century Northern painters traveled to the exotic destinations of Southern Italy. Giuseppe Catterinetti Franco also moved from Verona in 1836 and Giuseppe Canella in 1838. As after Guglielmo Ciardi from Treviso. Already in 1881 another Veronese, Vittorio Avanzi, a friend of Calvi, painted a Marina di Torre del Greco. Here, however, Calvi goes beyond his elegant way of composing romantic, immersing himself more deeply in the naturalism that went prevailing towards the end of the century. Even the unusual pairing of the two themes depicted shows the ease of the artist, now completely freed from the tradition and symmetries of the academy. It was not to be motivated by anything other than the succession of stages of a journey. Castel Sant’Angelo is seen from a strictly angular angle, original and unusual, in an atmosphere of popular motifs. The Neapolitan beach lingers, rather than on the color of the medieval architecture of the background, on that of the children playing in the sand. The couple also had to demonstrate, probably, to potential buyers, the thematic versatility and availability of the author.

Essential bibliography

S. Marinelli, La pittura italiana a Verona (1797-1945) , in La pittura a Verona dal primo Ottocento a  metà Novecento, edited by PP. Brugnoli, Verona 1986, pp 1-98;

B. Meneghello, Annali Società Belle Arti di Verona 1858-1921, Verona 1986;

G. Marini, Calvi, Ercole, in La pittura in Italia, l’Ottocento, edited by E. Castelnuovo, Milan 1990, II, p 726;

L. Ievolella, Calvi, Ercole, in La pittura nel veneto, l’Ottocento, edited by G. Pavanello, Milan 2002, pp 672-673;

Prof. Sergio Marinelli