Portrait of Ferdinando Ranci Ortigosa 1873

This is Francesco Hayez's portrait of Ferdinando Ranci Ortigosa, an oil painting on canvas. The painting surface itself is relatively smooth, which is characteristic of the fine-grained canvas and meticulous layering of oil paint used in academic portraiture. Hayez was interested in Realism, and the subject is treated plainly, with no symbolic or allegorical elements included. The artist was working within a well-established tradition, and although Hayez was committed to representing the likeness of his sitter, the reality is filtered through a host of social conventions. Consider the labor involved in the production of this artwork, not only the artist's skilled labor and the preparation of materials, but also the sitter's money. It’s important to consider how this kind of portraiture served the interests of an emerging bourgeois class in Italy. The careful attention to detail and the realism of the portrait reflects a desire to capture and preserve the sitter's likeness, but also to broadcast his social status.