Mancini, Antonio (b Albano Laziale, 14 Nov 1852; d Rome, 28 Dec 1930)

Italian painter. He entered the Istituto di Belle Arti, Naples, at the age of 12; while still an adolescent he produced accomplished works such as Head of a Young Girl (1867; Naples, Capodimonte). On his graduation in 1873, Mancini, together with Francesco Paolo Michetti and Vincenzo Gemito, was at the forefront of VERISMO in Neapolitan art. Sharing a studio with Gemito, he painted the street boys, musicians and dancers of Naples, creating an anti-academic, popular art. His patron, Albert, Count Cahen of Antwerp (1846–1903), encouraged him to visit Paris in 1875, where he met Manet and Degas. After a second visit in 1877, he lightened his previously sombre palette and his style moved away from sensual modelling to become more decorative