Noon 1887

Vincenzo Irolli painted this oil on canvas titled "Noon," though we don’t know the year it was made. It depicts a tender yet haunting scene of two figures asleep: a young boy curled up next to a woman who is clutching a skull. Irolli was active in Naples during a period of profound social change. Italy, after centuries as a collection of small states, had only recently unified, and Naples was a city struggling with poverty and disease, themes which often appeared in Irolli’s paintings. This picture may evoke religious and mythological themes. Are these Adam and Eve after the fall? Is the skull a vanitas symbol, reminding us of the transience of life? To understand Irolli's work more fully, we might look at the history of Neapolitan art academies, the social conditions of the poor in southern Italy, and the symbolic use of the skull in art history. This will enable us to interpret how this painting might reflect or critique the social realities of its time.