Among the portraits of the Count of Cavour, the best known is the one painted by Hayez in 1864. But there is another one, executed three years earlier by Ciseri, kept in the collections of the castle of Thorens. Here, true to his style, Ciseri seems to have penetrated the soul of the statesman, thus bringing out from his brush a portrait revealing all of Cavour's psychology.
This portrait of the statesman Camille de Cavour was long attributed to Francesco Hayez (1791-1882), who was already the author of another famous portrait of Cavour (1864), which is kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, while the portrait of Thorens Castle was actually painted 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" (translation: "Ant. [Antonio] Ciseri painted it in Florence from a photograph, towards the end of 1861").
However, art historians have long been confused about this attribution because of the particular caligraphy of the name Ciseri on the back of the painting. Since the painting is caligraphed with a long "s", they believed that it was a character named "Ciferi". Moreover, they also did not know how to read the abbreviation of the first name: "Ant:" for Antonio and not for "Anti", as was proposed. So some of them searched in vain for a painter named "Anti Ciferi" who, of course, never existed.
Antonio Ciseri is known for the Raphaelesque style of his religious paintings, but also for the almost photographic realism of his works. The latter characteristic is inherent in this portrait of Cavour about which Prof. Guichonnet wrote: "On an easel, in a sculpted and gilded frame, one of the most beautiful - the most beautiful without doubt - of Cavour's portraits. This oil shows the statesman of the last few years, with grey hair and beard necklace, a broadly modelled forehead, and a lively look behind the glasses. This thin, ironic mouth looks like it is going to come alive and talk. "On this canvas, as Prof. Guichonnet suggests, the painter has focused on rendering reality and provoking the deep feelings of the statesman. When Ciseri painted this portrait from a photograph, Cavour, founder of the Italian Unity, had left this world since June 6, 1861.
Text: Gilles Carrier-Dalbion, Guide du Patrimoine des Pays de Savoie. Reproduction of the text, even partial, is forbidden without permission
