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Home , Ancient art, Antonio Canova, Pompeo Batoni

CLASSIC BEAUTIES Artists, and the Esthetic Ideals of the 18th century

Background to the exhibition

Love of classical antiquity In the mid-eighteenth century there was huge interest all over Europe in the excavations being carried out at , and Tivoli. People were stupefied by the beauty of the treasures that were discovered. They inspired artists and sparked a craze for collecting among the elite. The upper classes were also prompted to commission more new works from contemporary artists, creating a turning point in . Their commissions were less strictly defined, allowing artists greater freedom. The human body was both idolized and vastly idealized. It was a quest for a superhuman beauty that surpassed even ancient Greco- in its refinement. There was much nudity, albeit still with a hint of prudishness. was born.

Antonio Canova, The Three Graces, 1812 © Aurelio Amendola / State , St Petersburg

Neoclassicism: a breath of fresh air Around the middle of the eighteenth century, the opulence and passion of art was declining and artistic inspiration seemed to be drying up. A new impetus was needed. The art treasures of classical antiquity, with their easily appreciated beauty, provided it. As artists started to refer back to them, Neoclassicism was born. Italy – and in particular – became the centre of the new artistic movement. The changes were expressed most obviously in architecture, but also filtered through into painting and, more especially, . From all over Europe, artists flocked to the Eternal City to seek inspiration, study the art of classical antiquity and hone their skills. Neoclassicism did not remain the preserve of Italian artists; indeed, the movement became strongly international. All over Europe, churches and administrative buildings were erected in the same austerely Neoclassical style.

Another far-reaching change had to do with artistic patronage. Whereas previously commissions had come from the Church, royalty and the very richest members of society, now the lower ranks of the aristocracy and affluent middle-class citizens also emerged as clients. For their commissions, they drew eagerly on the classics, suddenly extending the range of possible subjects beyond the political and religious. Neoclassicism often chooses the representation of the human body and goes very far in this respect, striving to achieve a pure, idealized beauty transcending reality. The movement was almost utopian. The emphasis was placed on specific parts of the body, with not all details receiving the same amount of attention. The depictions were not so much of living people, although they did seem to possess a human individuality. In the eighteenth century, it was not customary to work from nude models and to do so was often seen as immoral. By using nudes from classical antiquity as their models, artists could perfect the representation of the human body without incurring such objections.

Archaeological excavations were not a new phenomenon. Classical Greco- had been at the heart of many collections in Italy from as far back as the late fifteenth century. The majority of objects excavated in and around Rome ended up in the private collections of prominent families or in the first public museums, on the and in the Vatican. As the wealth of many local families declined in the early eighteenth century, their collections found their way onto the market. Foreign royalty and aristocrats took advantage of the easy supply to begin their own collections. In the mid-eighteenth century, excavations began to be properly documented and, most importantly, reported in print. Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s etchings of detailed views of Rome circulated in large numbers both in Italy and throughout Europe. Artists and wealthy young people – including women – began to travel southwards to see for themselves the wonderful artworks that were being excavated.

Giovanni Paolo Panini, Sybil speaking amidst Roman Ruins, with the Belvedere, 1740–50 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Grand Tour It was at that moment that the interest in classical antiquity became a craze. Affluent families sent their youngsters on a voyage of cultural discovery: the . The journey was far from just a holiday; it was seen as a preparation for social leadership and could last for up to two years. On their way to Rome, the Tourists visited other major historic towns and cities. The exact itinerary was often linked to the time of year. Easter was best celebrated in Rome, while was a good place to enjoy carnival. Often travellers also visited , and many went to Naples, as it was so close to Pompeii and Herculaneum. The young travellers gained experience that would serve them well in later life. They not only had the opportunity to see art with their own eyes, but got to know distant family members and fellow travellers who might become useful trading and social connections in the future. And, of course, keen to have samples of ‘the antique’ to take home with them, they made extensive purchases of classical and Neoclassical art to adorn their families’ country houses.

Rome also exerted a huge pull on contemporary artists. The demand for copies of classical statuary was so great that many sculptors produced almost nothing else. Painters could exploit the distinct genre of Grand Tourist portraiture that emerged, as travellers commissioned their favourite artists to them in informal settings with backgrounds inspired by classical antiquity. Some artists were so popular that there were waiting lists for their services. Tourists were sketched on the spot and the painting was produced and dispatched to them later.

In addition to statues of mythological figures, collectors looked for portraits of Roman emperors with which to furnish entire galleries of them back home. Reliefs from Roman funerary urns and sarcophagi were also popular, because of their figurative decoration and narrative scenes. Since purchasers preferred intact examples, dealers had damaged pieces heavily restored and missing sections skilfully replaced by contemporary sculptors. One popular buy was the complete series of ‘Twelve Caesars’: Julius Caesar and the first eleven emperors who succeeded him (famous from Suetonius’ series of biographies The Lives of the Twelve Caesars). If a head happened to be missing, you simply ordered a replacement based on a surviving one in Rome. Sculptors made a living by supplying what the market demanded. Impressive collections were amassed in this way, particularly by English noblemen and German princes – both incredibly wealthy at this period – and later by the Russian aristocracy. Examples include those at Castle Howard in (England), the Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel (Germany) and the Hermitage in St Petersburg (Russia).

Souvenirs of the Grand Tour: prints by Giovanni Battista Piranesi Originally an architect, Piranesi became renowned chiefly for his prints showing views of Rome’s archaeological ruins. His etchings sold well throughout Europe and unleashed a veritable passion for ruins that helped to launch the Grand Tour phenomenon. His work was pioneering because it showed the ruins as they really were, without imaginative reconstruction. It also featured unusual viewpoints that created a sense of drama, further reinforced by a clever use of light and shade. And the images were given additional force by the artful omission of many details. Through them, Piranesi determined the public view of Rome in the eighteenth century. Five of his sketches will be on show in the exhibition, replaced by five others halfway through the exhibition period.

The ‘Count and Countess of the North’ One famous couple who went on the Grand Tour were Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (later to become Tsar Paul I) and his wife Maria Fyodorovna. Pavel’s mother, Catherine the Great, sent him on the journey in 1781–82, hoping that it would give him the skills he needed to become a good ruler. Travelling incognito as the ‘Count and Countess of the North’ (comte et comtesse du Nord), the couple passed through central Europe into Italy. On the way, they visited a number of royal rulers in order to establish diplomatic and personal ties. They learned about civil government and military command and met influential philosophers and great cultural figures of the day. Their journey was a kind of broad-based professional field trip. In Italy, they were accompanied by ciceroni: guides who moved in elevated social circles, knew about current affairs, and were genuine art connoisseurs. Pavel and Maria’s ciceroni included Johann Friedrich Reiffenstein – who was extremely popular as a guide (particularly among German travellers) and had been appointed by Catherine as an advisor – and German painter Jacob Philipp Hackert, who guided the couple around Tivoli, the ancient resort outside Rome. The trip was also an opportunity to purchase works of art or commission them from the leading artists of the day. The couple’s purchases at this time included works by Hackert, Angelica Kauffmann and Pompeo Batoni, as well as antique .

Johann Friedrich August Tischbein, Portrait of Tsarevich Paul, n.d. Privécollection

Between Baroque and Neoclassical: Pompeo Batoni Batoni was born in , the son of a goldsmith, but moved to Rome at an early age. Like all the young artists of his day, he studied the classics and the work of artists like . His work echoed the austere lines of classical art but also harked back to the Renaissance and early Baroque. This hybrid style created a sensation and by around 1750 his fame extended far beyond Italy. Batoni received commissions from people in the highest echelons of the Church and from the most illustrious courts of Europe. Grand Tourists (especially those from Britain) were keen to be immortalised by the renowned painter. In 1750 Batoni and his large family moved to a house immediately beside the Spanish Steps. This was in the middle of the main artists’ quarter, already the leading destination for many Grand Tourists. They included Count Kirill Razumovski, who purchased his Hercules at the Crossroads in 1766 and commissioned Batoni to paint his portrait. During their Tour, Pavel and Maria bought his monumental painting The Holy Family. Both these works can be seen in the exhibition, together with two other large paintings by Batoni.

Pompeo Batoni, Allegory of Voluptuousness, 1747 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

The precursors, Winckelmann and Mengs The leading eighteenth-century theoretician in the field of classical art was Johann Joachim Winckelmann. His job as a librarian in Dresden had put him in touch with a range of scholars and fostered an interest in classical antiquity. Offered a scholarship in 1755, he travelled to Rome where he saw classical Greco-Roman sculptures for the first time and conducted archival research. The result was his first publication Gedancken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke in der Mahlerey und Bildhauer-Kunst (“Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture”) (1755), in which he identified as the basis for Western art. In a later book, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (“The in Antiquity”) (1764), he organized current knowledge of ancient art and presented its development as a coherent organic process featuring phases of growth, maturity, and decline. He spoke highly of great Greek sculptors like Phidias, and Lysippos. Because of his approach, Winckelmann is now regarded as the founder of art history as an academic discipline. Living in the age of the Enlightenment, Winckelmann was part of an intellectual movement that sought to view the world rationally and change it on the basis of reason. Enlightenment thought encouraged a new way of looking at art and generated a new aesthetic ideal that Winckelmann described as ‘noble simplicity and quiet grandeur’. This was the ideal of Neoclassicism, which was to become the leading style of the period. In 1758 Cardinal Albani appointed Winckelmann to be his librarian. He catalogued the cardinal’s collection of and designed the decorative scheme for his house in Rome. For the decoration of the villa’s walls and ceilings, he proposed an artist from Saxony: Anton Raphael Mengs.

Mengs was first brought to the Eternal City by his father, Dresden court painter Ismael Mengs, in 1741. He studied the art of classical antiquity and the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. In 1761 he accepted an invitation to go and work at the court of the Spanish king Charles III. From then on, he lived and worked alternately in Madrid and Rome. It was in the latter that he became acquainted with Winckelmann, in whose work he saw his own ideas reflected. United by the belief that the ultimate duty of art was to glorify beauty, the two men became close friends. Mengs’ reputation soon spread throughout Europe. He was a member of numerous art academies in Italy, as well as those in Augsburg and Madrid. He also became court painter to the kings of Saxony, Poland and Naples.

At the Villa Albani, Mengs painted one of the earliest Neoclassical works: his Parnassus , which is perhaps a blueprint for the entire movement. Apollo stands in the middle, his pose recalling that of the famous in the . He is flanked by the nine , disposed on each side of him and all with Greek profiles. Winckelmann thought that even Raphael would have revered this fresco and many of his contemporaries shared that opinion. Mengs also produced a version of his Parnassus on panel – one of the ten paintings by Mengs now in the collection of the Hermitage and in on display at the exhibition in Amsterdam. Catherine the Great ordered works from him in 1778 but Mengs had yet to produce them when he died the following year. Catherine the Great has succeed in buying works from the atelier of the late master, including The Annunciation and The Judgement of which are on display at this exhibition. In the end Catherine did also manage to get her hands on one of Mengs’ last masterpieces – and Andromeda, a painting adored by contemporaries, which can be admired now in Amsterdam.

Anton Raphael Mengs, Parnassus, after 1761 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg Anton Raphael Mengs, Perseus and Andromeda, 1778 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Goethe was another of those who made an extended visit to Italy. His trip took place between 1786 and 1788. While in Rome, he shared accommodation with painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein and became friendly with Winckelmann, Mengs and many other artists in the city. The account of his experiences takes the reader right across Italy but was published only years later in Italienische Reise (‘Italian Journey’) (1813–17), a version of which is on show in the exhibition. Goethe also had an enjoyable acquaintanceship with Angelica Kauffmann, one of the most celebrated Neoclassical artists. She presented him with her 1787 portrait of him, which he thought much too flattering.

Angelica Kauffmann Angelica Kauffmann was born in Switzerland and arrived in Rome, then the artistic of Europe, for the first time in 1763. After a long and successful interval in England, she eventually returned to Rome for good. By that time, Anton Mengs had died and she was able to hire the luxurious palazzo close to the Spanish Steps that had been his home. There, at Via Sistina 72, she held regular parties featuring exotic food, fine wines and entertaining conversation. Her house became known as a ‘temple of the muses’. She surrounded herself with people close to Mengs and Winckelmann and made many friends. Winckelmann infected her with his love of classical art and Neoclassical ideas began to appear in her work. Kauffmann’s particular was for theatrical compositions, used extremely skilfully as the settings for dramatic events in . To this mix she also brought a certain feminine sensitivity, as in Hector Calling up Paris to a Battle and Vergil Reading the ‘Aeneid’ to Augustus and Octavia (both on show in this exhibition). Her work met with great public acclaim and a real ‘Angelica mania’ took hold. It even affected Catherine the Great, who ordered work from her. During their Grand Tour, her son Pavel and his wife Maria visited Kauffmann at her Venice studio. When Kauffmann died in Rome in 1807, her funeral was a great ceremonial occasion. Her coffin was escorted to the Church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte by a vast cortege, in which paintings by her were borne aloft. The funeral ceremony took place under the artistic direction of Antonio Canova – the next great name in Neoclassicism.

Angelica Kauffmann, Self-portrait, c. 1787 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg Angelica Kauffmann, Virgil reading the Aeneid to Octavia and Augustus, 1788 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Antonio Canova Canova was born in , north-west of Venice. His grandfather taught him to sculpt at an early age. At fifteen he was apprenticed to Giuseppe Bernardi, a well-known sculptor In Venice, and it was there (at the Museo Farsetti) that Canova saw classical sculpture for the first time. In 1779 he went to Rome to study classical art at first hand, make sketches and meet other artists. From that moment on, something new happens in his work. Based on mythological nudes, his figures look heroic but Canova gives them faces from his own time, so that they seem to be individual human beings. He manages to strike the perfect balance in the representation of the nude. The sensual curves of the body radiate a pure and perfect beauty that obviates all suspicion of immorality. Whereas the vast majority of sculptors devoted themselves to copying classical statues for sale to Grand Tourists, Canova produced his own original designs for the commissions he received from churches and private collectors. By doing so, he breathed new life into the art of sculpture. The basic principles that he established would remain highly influential around the world until at least the middle of the nineteenth century. From the beginning of that century, Canova received regular commissions from ’s wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. It was for her that he produced the versions of , the en Psyche group (1800-1903) and Dancer (1805-12) that, thanks to Tsar Alexander I, entered the collection of the Hermitage following her death (in 1814). His iconic Three Graces, first ordered by Josephine but finished on commission of her son Eugene, also ended up in Russia: Eugene’s son Maximilian von Leuchtenberg married Maria Nikolaevna, the eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I. In addition to these works, the exhibition also features Winged Cupid and three portrait busts. It includes a total of eight top works by the foremost sculptor of his day.

Hubert Robert French artist Hubert Robert made his way to Rome in 1754 to perfect his skills as a painter of architecture and . In the decade he spent in Italy, he established an unchallenged reputation, both in Italy and in France, for scenes blending landscape and architecture. While in Rome, he became a friend of Russian diplomat and collector Aleksandr Stroganov, who introduced his work to Russia. Robert’s paintings blended reality with imagination, past with present, and the glorification of classical antiquity with the beauty of nature. For this reason, they appealed greatly to contemporary Russian taste. Paul and Maria were among those who admired the artist and commissioned works from him. They had met Robert during their Grand Tour and the landscaped parks at Paul’s Pavlovsk and Gatchina palaces were entirely inspired by his paintings. In 1803 Paul’s son, Alexander I, bought a set of eight Robert compositions of varying dates. Famous collectors like Yusupov and Razumovski were also eager purchasers of Robert’s work, as this exhibition demonstrates. In the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, when major shifts in public taste led to Robert’s work being forgotten in France, his paintings continued to feature in the interiors of Russian palaces and country houses. Consequently, over a hundred of his works were kept in Russian collections before the Revolution of 1917.

Antonio Canova, Hebe, 1800–5 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg Antonio Canova, Dancer, 1805–12 © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg Antonio Canova, The Three Graces, 1812–16© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

A rich selection The Hermitage Amsterdam has exclusive access to the collections of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Classic Beauties presents 60 works by 25 prominent artists from one of these collections, and tells the story of Neoclassical ideals and the phenomenon of the Grand Tour. The displays are further enriched with loans from other private and public collections, including Paul and Maria’s Pavlovsk Palace in Russia and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem (The Netherlands).

Sources This background story is based on the exhibition catalogue Classic Beauties, to which many State Hermitage curators have contributed: Sergej Androsov (Head of the Western European Art Department), Alexander Babin, Tatiana Bushmina, Ekaterina Deriabina, Lyudmila Davydova, Maria Garlova, Anna Trofimova, Anna Vilenskaya. The catalogue also includes essays by Dutch authors Thera Coppens, Eric Moormann and Bernard Woelderink.