The Sculptor Cincinnato Baruzzi (1796-1878)

Bryullov painted this portrait of the sculptor Cincinnato Baruzzi in Bologna in 1833, during his extended Italian sojourn. Baruzzi was a prominent Italian sculptor, a pupil of Antonio Canova and later professor at the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, and the portrait of one celebrated artist by another carries the quality of creative mutual recognition. Bryullov was at the height of his Italian fame in 1833: his 'Last Day of Pompeii' had been exhibited to enormous acclaim in Milan, Rome, and Paris the previous year, and his European reputation was at its peak. He had been living in Italy since 1822, funded by the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, and had become a celebrated figure in Italian intellectual and artistic circles in a way that few Russian painters had previously achieved. The portrait of Baruzzi, held in the Bologna City Art Collections, reflects the warm relationship between the celebrated Russian visitor and the Italian artistic community.

Bryullov brings his full technical mastery to this artist portrait, but the shared professional context — painter depicting sculptor — gives the work an unusual quality of peer observation. The handling of the face is particularly penetrating and direct.