The Sicilian Vespers is the title of three works by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez, all showing the outbreak of the Sicilian Vespers.[1]
Measuring 150 × 200 cm, the first version was commissioned by the Marchioness Visconti d'Aragona. Hayez produced it in the Brera studio in Milan in 1822.[1] The second version measures 91 × 114 cm and was commissioned in 1826–1827 by Count Arese, recently released from prison.[1] Both versions are now in private collections, while the third version (225 × 300 cm), produced in 1846, is now in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome. That version was produced for Vincenzo Ruffo, Prince of Sant'Antimo, Hayez's main patron.[2] This painting and a portrait of Ruffo's wife Sarah Louise Strachan Ruffo were two of several paintings produced for Ruffo while Hayez was staying in the Ruffo family home in Naples.[3]