Vito D'Anna (14 October 1718 – 13 October 1769) was an Italian painter, considered the most prominent painter of Palermitanrococo and one of the most important artists of Sicily.
Biography
He was the father of Alessandro D'Anna, the brother-in-law of Francesco Sozzi, and the son-in-law of Olivio Sozzi.
He studied in Acireale under Pietro Paolo Vasta from 1736 to 1744, when he returned to Palermo. In Acireale, he had painted Portrait of the Provost Gambino.[1] Returning to Palermo, Vito married the daughter of the Catanese painter Olivio Sozzi. Sozzi helped arrange D'Anna to work with the circle of an aged Corrado Giaquinto in Rome.
D'Anna frescoed a number of palaces, and the churches of San Sebastiano, San Matteo and del Salvatore in Palermo. Among his works were: his fresco of the Madonna dei Raccomandati in the church of the same name, his Nativity in the church della Grotta, Self-portrait in the Pinacoteca Zelantea.[2] His nephew, Giuseppe Patania, was also a painter.
Works
Apotheosis of St. Dominic or Gloria dei santi domenicani, 1751, frescos of the dome, church Santa Caterina, Palermo.
The Triumph of Minerva, 1751, fresco, Palazzo Benenati Ventimiglia, Palermo.
Allegory of Virtues, 1751, frescos, Palazzo Benenati Ventimiglia, Palermo.
Il Trionfo dei Re Magi, 1751–52, fresco, Chiasa dei Tre Re, Palermo.
Mariny Guttilla. Mirabile artificio. Pittura religiosa in Sicilia dal XV al XIX secolo. Palermo, Kalos, 2006. ISBN88-89224-27-4
Mariny Guttilla (editor). Cantieri decorativi a Palermo dal tardo barocco alle soglie del neoclassicismo, in Il Settecento e il suo doppio.[5] Palermo, Kalós, 2008, p. 177–206. ISBN978-88-89224-67-0