FORTUNINO MATANIABorn in Naples, the son of artist Eduoardo Matania, Fortunino Matania was an art prodigy. He studied in his fathers studio, where he designed a soap advertisement at the age of 9. He exhibited his first work at Naples Academy at age 11. By the age of 14 he was helping his father produce illustrations for books and magazines. His talent was recognized by the editor of the Italian periodical L'Illustrazione Italiania and Matania produced weekly illustrations for the magazine between 1895 (when he was 14) and 1902. At the age of 20, Matania began working in Paris for Illustration Francaise. In 1902, he was invited to London to cover the colonation of King Edwars VII for The Graphic magazine. He would subsequently cover every major event – marriage, christening, funeral and Coronation – of British royalty up to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953. In 1904, Matania joined the staff of The Sphere, producing some of his ost famous work, including illustrations of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. From the outbreak of World War I, Matania worked as a war artist and was acclaimed for his graphic and realistic images of war in the trenches. But it was after the war, when he switched to scenes of ancient high life for the British woman's magazine Britannia and Eve that Matania found his real career. He filled his London studio with reproductions of Roman furniture, pored over history books for suitably lively subjects. Then, with the help of models and statues, he began to paint such subjects as Samson & Delilah, the bacchanalian roisters of ancient Rome, and even early American Indian maidens—all with the same careful respect for accuracy and detail he had used in his news assignments. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and Royal Institute from 1908, and his work appeared in most of the principal magazines in Britain and America, Illustrated London News, London Magazine, Nash's, Printer's Pie, and others. When Britannia and Eve launched in 1929, Matania was one of its first contributers. For two decades, he wrote and illustrated historical stories for the magazine. His talents made him a popular illustrator for advertising, posters and catalogues, working for Ovaltine, Burberry's (the sporting outfitters) and many others. Matania was also recommended to Hollywood director Cecil B. De Mille and produced a number of paintings of Rome and Egypt from which authentic designs could be made for the movie The Ten Commandments. Generally, Matania managed to include one or two voluptuous nudes in each of his pictures. "The public demanded it," said Matania."If there was no nude, then the editor or I would get a shower of letters from readers asking politely why not?" Towards the end of his life, Matania illustrated features for the educational weekly Look and Learn, and he was working on a series, "A Pageant of Kings" at the time of his death in 1963.