Tancredi Raffaello (1837–c. 1916), Sketch for a Medieval Episode Inspired by Dante

Tancredi Raffaello (1837–c. 1916), Sketch for a Medieval Episode Inspired by Dante

Oil on canvas, monogrammed R.T. lower left. Circa 1868.

A rare sketch by the Neapolitan painter Tancredi Raffaello, depicting an episode inspired by the Dantesque tradition. The central figure is Buoso da Duera, the Ghibelline military leader placed by Dante among the traitors in Canto XXXII of the Inferno. Rather than illustrating the act of betrayal itself, the artist depicts the moment when Buoso is recognised and publicly denounced by his fellow citizens, transforming a medieval historical episode into a powerful scene of civic judgment.

This painting is the preparatory sketch for a larger composition exhibited by Tancredi Raffaello in 1868 for a painting competition. The finished version is known today through a larger canvas that appeared on the art market at Vincent Casa d’Aste under the title Episode from the Florentine Chronicles of the Fifteenth Century. A comparison between the two works reveals an almost identical composition, arrangement of the principal figures and treatment of light, while this sketch retains the freshness, freedom and immediacy characteristic of the artist’s creative process.

Born in Resina, near Naples, Tancredi Raffaello trained at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples under Giuseppe Mancinelli. In 1864 he was awarded a government scholarship that enabled him to continue his studies in Florence. His Florentine years coincided with a defining moment in Italian history: only a few years after national unification, Florence became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (1865–1871), while Dante emerged as one of the principal symbols of the country’s cultural identity. History painting increasingly drew upon medieval chronicles and the Divine Comedy, a context in which this remarkable work should be understood.

Formerly in an old Tuscan aristocratic residence, the painting reappeared on the art market only recently through a charity sale organised by the FILE Foundation.