This monumental battle painting depicts The Battle of Lissa. This battle took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the Dalmatian Island Vis (Italian: Lissa) during the Third Italian War of Independence and was a significant victory for an Austrian Empire  force over a numerically superior Italian force. It was the first major sea battle between ironclads and  one of the last to involve deliberate ramming. The Italian navy fired roughly 1450 shots during the engagement but failed to sink any Austrian ship and lost two ironclads.

This work was purchased in an Italian private estate and was executed by Italian painter Giovanni Serritelli (Naples 1818 – Naples 1891), who was  known for his landscapes,  representations of sailing ships and launches of large ships. Due to the subject, time of creation and aurhor's monogramm we came to conclusion , that our work is one of early author's versions of Serettelli's famous painting The Battle of Lissa, situated now in the Museo Civico ”G.Barone”, Palazzo Comunale, Baranello, Italy.

 From his father, director of the sailors' students, the school that trained and started a career in the Royal Navy of the Two Sicilies, he assimilated the passion for sailing ships and boats that became the privileged subjects of many of his marine paintings. From his maternal uncle, the painter Filippo Marsigli, appointed by royal decree in 1827 as honorary professor of historical painting and president of the Royal Bourbon Society from 1850, he received the introduction to his artistic training in the academic environment of the Institute of Fine Arts.

He made his debut in 1841 in the public exhibition of Fine Arts, immediately winning a first-class silver medal with the work View of a valley in Gragnano. Still as a student of the Institute, he exhibited again in 1843 Great landscape and animals, a genre work with figures and herds in the surroundings of Piedimonte. The painting, which was purchased by King Ferdinand II, earned him the small gold medal and the flattering judgment of the commission that extolled.

In 1847 with the painting The frigate Archimede in the port of Marseille, the launch of the first steam frigate of the Bourbon navy,the artist began to try his hand at works dedicated to the notable events of the kingdom which continued with Beginning of the works of the Careenage basin in 1850 and the subsequent version relating to the inauguration in 1852 entitled Docking station in the Royal Arsenal of Naples.

 He also contributed to the establishment of the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti of Naples, holding the position of secretary.[9] On the occasion of the Neapolitan Promotrice of 1862, he presented Porta Capuana in Naples, a large painting in which tricolour drapes and cockades abound. The patriotic and celebratory vein also includes The capture of Gaeta and The battle of Lissa.

Provenance: private estate in North Italy.

Literature:  Thieme/Becker, Comanducci V, 1974; Brewington, 1982, Wikipedia.

Inscription: signed with monogram GS on the mast fragment on the lower left part of the painting.

Technique: oil on canvas. Original period gold-plated frame.

Measurements: unframed w 45 7/8 " x h 30 7/8" (116,5 x 78,5 cm), framed w 52 " x h 37 1/3 " (132 x 95 cm).

Condition: in good condition, professionally restored and cleaned.