Vicente Victoria (Vittoria in Italy), Spanish painter and printmaker. Born to a Spanish mother and an Italian father, he studied grammar, theology and philosophy in Valencia, and also learnt the rudiments of painting. After 1679 he went to Rome, where he was a pupil of Carlo Maratti and came to get some fame and prestige among painters and cultivated people.
He returned to Valencia in 1688, and took up a post as Cannon in the Church of San Felipe in Xativa and spent his time writing extensively on historical and theological topics, and painting frescos in the domeGLOSSARYin architecture, hemispherical structure evolved from the arch, usually forming a ceiling or roof. of a chapelGLOSSARYa small separate place for worship, either part of a large church or a separate building. in the CathedralGLOSSARYThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed. in Xativa and in other monasteries and churches in the region. Some of his important works are lost.
Victoria returned to Rome in 1698 and gained the title of court painter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III. He became an passionate collector of high quality Italian prints and drawings as well as tablets, medalsGLOSSARYThe medal came to artistic maturity within a remarkably short time of its introduction in 15th century Italy. This was partly because ancient Roman coins, which were beginning to be reverently collected, suggested (on a smaller scale) its form: profile portrait bust on the obverse, a different design on the reverse, an inscription running round the rim. Like the finest Imperial coins, the medal's purpose was commemorative. Without monetary value, and of non-precious metal (bronze or lead), it was a way of circulating a likeness to a chosen few; it anticipated the use of miniatures and was indeed frequently worn round the neck. And while the reverse could record a historical event or make a propaganda point related to its subject's career, more commonly it bore a design that purported to convey the 'essence', as it were, of the person portrayed on the other side. Given the admiration for the men and artefacts of ancient Rome, the stress on individual character, the desire for fame and the penchant for summing up temperament in symbols and images, it is easy to understand how quickly the fashion for commissioning medals spread. Its pioneer executant was Pisanello. The precedents before he began to cast medals in 1438-39 had been few and excessively coin-like. Within 10 years he had established the form the medal was to retain until the influence was registered of the reverseless, hollow-cast and wafer-thin medals of the 1560s and 70s made by Bombarda (Andrea Cambi). Pisanello's approach was first echoed by the Veronese Matteo de' Pasti (d. 1467-688). It was, perhaps oddly, not until the works from 1485 of Niccolò Fiorentino (Niccolò di Forzore Spinelli, 1430-1514) that Florence produced a medallist of the highest calibre. Other specialists in the medium included Sperandio (Sperandio Savelli, c. 1425-1504), L'Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, c. 1460-1528), Caradosso (Cristoforo Caradosso Foppa, 1452-1526/27). The work of these men, and of the many, often anonymous, who reflected them, is still coveted because it avoided the two medallistic errors: making a medal look like either an enlarged piece of money or a small sculptured plaque. and coins and was appointed antiquarian to the Pope.
In his later Roman years, he was part of the Academy of the Arcades, published scholar works. He also wrote an important work on the history of painting that remained unpublished.
