Vincenzo Vela’s Il Venditore di Schiave
From Pietro Mazzola’s Collection in Breria Pinacoteca
abstract
A marble representing a Merchant of Female Slaves is a work of art of Vincenzo Vela, but only its plaster cast at the Vela Museum in Ligornetto (Switzerland) was known to the historiography of the artist. It was commissioned by the doctor Pietro Mazzola, nephew of the painter Giuseppe. A date at around 1844-1846 can be suggested on the basis of a comparison with the coeval production of the sculptor (Bishop Luvini, 1844, and The Morning Prayer, 1846) and with the works of Francesco Hayez: the Penitents Maria Magdalena, Melancholic Thoughts, the drawings and the paintings on Orientalist subjects like the harem and the odalisques.
permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2280-8841/540