Cavour painted by Antonio Ciseri - 1861
Among the portraits of Count Cavour, the best known is the one painted by Hayez in 1864. But there is another, executed three years earlier by Ciseri, preserved in the collections of the Château de Thorens. Here, faithful to his style, Ciseri seems to have penetrated the soul of the statesman, thus bringing out from his brush a portrait revealing the entire psychology of Cavour.
This portrait of the statesman Camille de Cavour was long attributed to Francesco Hayez (1791-1882), who had already painted another famous portrait of Cavour (1864), now in the Brera Gallery in Milan. The one in the Thorens Castle was actually executed by Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891), an Italian painter of Ticino (Switzerland) origin. An inscription on the back of the canvas formally attributes this work to Ciseri: "Ant: Ciseri fece a Firenze da una fottografia sul cadere del 1861" (trans.: "Ant. [Antonio] Ciseri painted him in Florence from a photograph, towards the end of 1861").
However, for a long time, art historians were confused about this attribution because of the particular calligraphy of Ciseri's name on the back of the painting. Since it was written with a long "s", they believed that it depicted a person named "Ciferi". Moreover, they were also unable to read the abbreviation of the first name: "Ant:" for Antonio and not for "Anti", as was suggested. Some of them therefore searched in vain for a painter named "Anti Ciferi" who, of course, never existed.
Antonio Ciseri is particularly renowned for the Raphaelesque style of his religious paintings, but also for the almost photographic realism of these works. This latter characteristic is inherent in this portrait of Cavour about which Professor Guichonnet wrote: "On an easel, in a sculpted and gilded frame, one of the most beautiful - undoubtedly the most beautiful - of Cavour's portraits. This oil shows the statesman of his later years, with graying hair and beard, a amply modeled forehead, and a lively gaze behind his glasses. This thin, ironic mouth seems as if it is about to come to life and speak. "In this canvas, as Professor Guichonnet suggests, the painter focused on rendering reality and provoking the statesman's deep feelings. When Ciseri painted this portrait from a photograph, Cavour, founder of Italian Unity, had left this world on June 6, 1861.
Text: Jean-François de Roussy de Sales & Gilles Carrier-Dalbion. Reproduction of the text, even partial, is prohibited without permission.