Anatolio Scifoni
Anatolio Scifoni was an Italian painter of mainly genre paintings.
Biography
He was the son of the painter I. Botti and the poet Luigi Scifoni. He studied painting first in the Albertina Academy in Turin, then in Paris, and then moved to Rome, where he became a friend and follower of Lorenzo Delleani. In 1860, at Turin, he exhibited his first painting: La spigolatrice di Sapri. By 1865, at Milan, he exhibited the small genre canvas Convalescenza e sanità.Once he moved to Rome, he focused on Neo-Pompeian themes from ancient Greece and Rome. He called his works archaeological paintings. He painted baths, gardens, triclinia, and ginecei in Rome, in Monaco, in Philadelphia, in Vienna, in the Salon of Paris, and in the Royal Academy at London. Among his many canvases are: Le bolle di sapone, bought by Mattia Montecchi ; Il recinto dei paroni sacri a Giunone, acquired by baron Koller of Baden; Una offerta ai Dei Lari, awarded a medal at Philadelphia and acquired by James Abbott; Cleopatra consults a Seer ; A Dance Lesson in Pompei, acquired by Mr Fipping of Sevenoaks, England; La missione della Croce, awarded at the Expositions of Vienna, acquired by baroness Schickler ; La vigilia del matrimonio a Pompei, acquired by Mr. How ; The Fountain of Mercury in Pompei acquired by Mrs Scudder of Sacramento, California, Il giorno natalizio del padre a Pompei, acquired by Mr Head of San Francisco, California; Tepidarium delle Terme di Pompei, acquired by Goupil Gallery of Paris; La Vestale, acquired by Mr Phillips Phoenix; An offer to Diana of Ephesus, acquired by Mrs M. Graw of Ithaca, New York; Il Cottabo, acquired by Mr Schilizzi of Naples; I Saltimbanchi di Pompei Paresia e Ghieria; Le teresiane a Roma ; and Frigidarium. His paintings won first-class medals at Vienna and Philadelphia.
Scifoni's work found patrons among the royal family. He was knighted into the Order of the Crown of Italy. His large canvas of Vittorio Emanuele II in Campidoglio was commissioned by the artist of the prefect of the Royal House, Prince Doria Pamphili, to commemorate the enthronement of the King in Campidoglio, in January 1870.