Andrea Gastaldi Turin, 1826 - 1889

Study for the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa escaping from the battlefield in 1858

Charcoal, with white highlights, on light brown paper 163 x 127 cm.

Provenance: The artist’s studio upon his death in 1889; and by descent until acquired by the father of the previous owner in the 1970s

Comparative literature: M. Ranzi, Les Beaux-arts italiens à l'exposition universelle de Paris, Paris, 1867 G. Lavivi, Andrea Gastaldi, studio critico, in “Gazzetta letteraria artistica scientifica”, XV, Torino, 1891, p. 286 U. Thieme & F. Becker, Kunstlerlexikon̈ , XIII, p. 240 A. Comandini, L’Italia nei cento anni del secolo XIX (1801-1900) giorno per giorno illustrata, vol. 3, Milano, 1918 A. M. Brizio, in Enciclopedia Italiana, XVI, Roma, 1932 R. Maggio Serra, Andrea Gastaldi (1826/1889). Un pittore a Torino tra romanticismo e realismo, Torino, 1988 E. Dellapiana, Gli Accademici dell’Albertina (Torino 1823-1884), Torino, 2002

This exceptional and impressive charcoal drawing is part of a series of rare, life-size studies, by Andrea Gastaldi, who was one of the preeminent Academy painters and leading proponents of historical romanticism in 19th century . The drawings are outstanding not only for their impressive size and the virtuosity of their execution, but also for their remarkable historical significance.

The present cartone was made in 1858 - a key moment in the artist’s career, after a crucial period spent in Paris. It was also the same year that he was elected Professor at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. Gastaldi held this influential position for 30 years and had a great impact on subsequent generations of Piedmontese painters. This drawing is a highly finished study for a detail of one of the most important and ambitious paintings of Gastaldi’s oeuvre: Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa leaving the battlefield in Legnano (Fig. 1). The large, finished canvas (348 x 268 cm.), was purchased personally by King Vittorio Emanuele II on the 5th June 1858, at the Permanente exhibition and today hangs in the Palazzo Reale, Turin. The purchase was recounted by Alfredo Comandini (op. cit., p. 819):

"In Turin, the King (…) visited the exhibition of Fine Arts with the Prince of Carignano and Cavour. The king acquired the painting by Gastaldi, Barbarossa crossing the enemy camp at night, which was much appreciated by the public and Massimo D'Azeglio.”1

The final painting depicted the Frederick I – known as “Barbarossa” - escaping from the battlefield in Legnano, a theme that was loosely inspired by the Histoire des républiques italiennes du Moyen-âge, by J. Ch. Sismonde de Sismondi. The Holy Roman Emperor, who was elected King of Germany in 1152, enacted his first major siege in Italy while en route to his coronation in in 1155.

1 Comandini op. cit., p. 819: “In Torino il re, dopo presieduto un consiglio dei ministri, recasi con il principe di Carignano e con Cavour a visitare l’esposizione di belle arti. Il re acquistavi il quadro del Gastaldi, Barbarossa che di notte attraversa il campo nemico, molto apprezzato dal pubblico e da Massimo d’Azeglio”.

According to the Swiss historian, the foreign emperor "wasn’t killed in the battle of Legnano as believed, and after a few days he reappeared in , alone, despondent, separated from that powerful army with which he believed to subjugate Italy"(Maggio Serra op. cit., p. 201, cat. no. 14).

After receiving the honour of the King’s patronage, it is not surprising that Gastaldi kept this related preparatory cartone. The intense scene depicts two dying soldiers, one falling forward and the other caught in the throes of agony after being shot in the breast by an arrow. It is a spectacular example of Gastaldi’s confidence in working on such a large scale and showcases the vibrancy and bravura of his draughtsmanship. The fact that this drawing is a final, preparatory study and not a ricordo made after the finished work, is confirmed by the countless pentimenti (artistic revisions to the drawing) as well as the number of apparent differences between the drawing and final painting. The painter would have used this work to model and refine the multi-figural composition and the complex, theatrical play of light and shadow in the scene. The figures drawn here are in fact closer to the very first compositional idea, as evidenced by a spirited bozzetto now in a private collection (Fig. 2; Maggio Serra, op. cit., p. 201, cat. no. 15). In the finished painting, Gastaldi changed the positioning of the hand holding the arrow and moved the two figures closer in the foreground, most likely in order to heighten its emotional and dramatic impact.

The work exhibits the international – particularly French - influence upon his style. For example, striking comparisons can be made between the soldier lying on his front in this drawing and a figure in Thomas Couture’s masterpiece: Les Romains de la decadence, 1847, Musée d’Orsay (Figs. 3 & 4). This series of drawings represents a successful and surprising compromise between the historical and idealized romanticism of the 19th century, and the almost photographic realism that seems to anticipate the 20th century’s re-evaluation of Baroque chiaroscuro and, more specifically, Caravaggism. These elements of unusual and powerful naturalism make the present work a clear example of how Gastaldi's art could transcend the rigid rules of academic painting and achieve a surprising modernity.

Gastaldi executed another large canvas, which depicts a similarly historicising patriotic subject: the Costanza dei Tortonesi (also known as The Thirst of the people of , or The Siege of Tortona). This was commissioned by the newly established Italian government and presented at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris. A large preparatory drawing for it, similar in both size and style to the present work was discovered recently by Lullo • Pampoulides and subsequently acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Fig. 5). Gastaldi’s reimagining of these Medieval battle scenes against foreign invaders, was an attempt to historicise and glorify the independence battles of the past, in order to inspire and draw potent comparisons with the political situation in Italy at the time. They therefore represented emblematic episodes that underlined the patriotic sentiments of the burgeoning Italian Risorgimento.

It is likely that these drawings for Barbarosa escaping and the Siege of Tortona served as ‘presentation pieces’ – a preview of the power and dynamism of the finished work, like the role terracottas and plasters performed for contemporary academy sculptors. Only a very small number of comparable examples of Gastaldi’s large preparatory drawings survive: one for Caligula Surrounded by Gold (for a painting that was never executed), and another for Emanuele Filiberto Infante, dating from 1884. Both are owned by the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin and are published in the only monographic study dedicated to the artist from 1988. Despite a dearth in modern scholarship, Gastaldi’s fame recently experienced a long overdue resurgence when in 2016 the city of Turin orchestrated a double monographic exhibition entitled Andrea Gastaldi, The Works and the Days, which was held at the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Albertina and the Museum of Decorative Arts Accorsi-Ometto.

ANDREA GASTALDI (1826-1889)

The artist came from a wealthy Turinese family; his father, a lawyer, was at first opposed to his son’s artistic inclinations, while his mother's brother, Giovanni Volpato – a resident at the Accademia Albertina, restorer and Inspector of the King’s private collection - had a great impact on the young man's ambitions.

Gastaldi studied in Turin, Florence, Rome and Paris. During the formative years he spent in the Ville Lumiére, he was influenced by the work of artists such as Thomas Couture, Horace Vernet and Paul Delaroche, partly acquiring the international style that allowed him to establish himself as one of the most appreciated and successful academicians in Italy. While in Paris, he met his future wife, Léonie Lescuyer, who was also a painter.

He soon received important public commissions and exhibited works at the Promotrice delle belle Arti, Turin and Expositions Universelle, in Paris. In the 1855 Parisian show he obtained an honourable mention for The Dream of Parisina and The Prisoner of Chillon (Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo). In 1858 he was appointed Professor of painting at the Accademia Albertina, Turin, a position he held for the following thirty years.

In full accord with the mid-19th century trend towards historical romanticism (of which Gastaldi was one of the foremost interpreters in Italy) the artist repeatedly depicted historical and heroic subjects, revelling in the didacticism which advocates of academic painting believed was a central function for art: to educate.

Fig. 1. Andrea Gastaldi, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa escaping from the battlefield in Legnano, 1858 Oil on canvas, Palazzo Reale, Turin

Fig. 2. Andrea Gastaldi, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa escaping from the battlefield in Legnano, 1858 Private collection

Fig. 3 Thomas Couture, Les Romains de la decadence, 1847 Oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Fig. 4 Thomas Couture, Les Romains de la decadence, 1847 (detail) Oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Fig. 5. Andrea Gastaldi, The siege of Tortona, 1867 Charcoal, highlighted with white colour, on light brown paper, The National Gallery of Art, Washington