MIA N. WEINER

black chalk on light blue paper. 73/8 x 95/8" 188 x 245 mm. monogrammed l/l: G.G. watermarked: R.

Giacinto, like his brothers, Achille and Ercole, all of whom became landscape artists, was first introduced to painting by his father, Gaetano, a decorator and landscape painter. Giacinto also learned the style of Jacob Philippe Hackert and was influenced by the practice of technical drawing employed by the Neapolitan Reale Ufficio Topografico where he worked in 1820. During that same year he came to know the German landscape painter, Jakob Wilhelm Huber who along with numerous foreign painters in Italy, worked in the classical and picturesque landscape tradition. This style was dependent upon formal perspective. From Huber, Gigante learned the technique of watercolor for which he was to become renowned, and how to use the camera lucida. That device may well have been employed in the present work, given the linear perspective and the use of a tonal paper.

In 1821, at Huber's studio, Gigante met Anton Sminck Pitloo who became his teacher and had him paint directly from nature. Later in the '20's, Giacinto enrolled at the Reale Istituto de Belle Art, although that didn't suit him and he soon left. However, years later he was nominated as honorary professor there and much later, he taught at the Royal Court.

Today, though the church depicted here still stands, the picturesque small harbor is gone; the land has been augmented and the "port" is for the departure and arrival of ferries toting people and goods from the islands.....Ischcia, Capri, Procida.