Pallas Athena
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 35 x 35,5 cm [rundel]
Inventory numberNM 7148
AcqusitionTransferred 2014 from Kongl. Museum
Other titlesTitle (sv): Pallas Athena Title (en): Pallas Athena
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 35: FFORMER INV. NOS.: 451 (M. 1804); KM 87. TECHNICAL NOTES: Painted on a plain-weave, medium-coarse (13 × 14 threads/cm2), linen fabric. The support is unlined, and the mounting with staples on the strainer is original. The motif is circular and is painted on a thin red ground. There are remnants of blue paint on the left and lower tacking edges, the same paint as is used in the background. The painting is not varnished. Due to poor storage conditions, there is some mechanical damage: holes, paint losses and abrasions. The KM inventory describes the painting as being in extremely poor condition. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, III, p. 136, no. 451. Among Tommaso Maria Conca’s best and most celebrated works is the redecoration of the Villa Borghese undertaken from 1775 to 1782 on commission from Principe Marcantonio Borghese (1730–1800). His first work in this influential museum-like project was executed in 1775–78 for the room of the Dancing Faun, which Conca decorated with a central panel in oil of the Sacrifice of Silenius, surrounded by a tempera frieze depicting playful naturalistic satyrs. Thereafter, in 1778–82, he decorated the adjoining so-called Egyptian Room, influenced to a great extent by Mengs’s work for the Vatican Library. In general, Conca’s designs for the Villa Borghese were heavily influenced by antique sculpture, Raphael’s work for the Villa Farnesina and Annibale Carracci’s work in the Farnese Gallery.¹ As Conca’s successful decorations were made in particular for rooms housing the Principe’s collection of sculpture, they caught the attention of Pope Pius VI (1717–1799), who was creating his new Vatican sculpture museum at about the same time. In 1785 Conca was commissioned to paint the vault of the Sala delle Muse. The fresco decorating this vault is by far the largest in the galleries of the Museo Pio-Clementino, and the commission to paint it was one of the most prestigious in Rome at the time. The nine fields of the fresco – showing Parnassus with the gods, muses and Greek sages – are marked by a strong sense of quadratura. Four panels in oil are added below, showing Latin and Italian poets. The present Nationalmuseum painting is a preparatory study for these decorations, specifically for the figure of Pallas Athena. In a drawing by Conca in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, the principal elements of the fresco are present.² The central figures are Apollo and the muses framed by a temple and surrounded by various Greek orators, philosophers and poets placed on the steps of the temple. The iconography of Conca’s composition closely mirrors the sculptures displayed in the hall: the Apollo and the muses found just a few years earlier in 1774 at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, and a series of herms of famous Greek poets and philosophers. Conca of course had recent experience of just this kind of illustrative work and can to some extent be considered responsible for its revival and its style, exemplified in the Villa Borghese: decoration heavily laden with iconographic detail made to correspond to and enhance the princely collections of ancient marbles, the prestigious display of which was designed to demonstrate the collector’s connoisseurship not only of the art itself, but perhaps in particular of its content.³ Just like his work for the Villa Borghese, Conca’s paintings for the Sala delle Muse show his debt to similar examples from the Renaissance, especially Raphael’s decorations for the Villa Farnesina. The background of Conca’s original design shows the pillars of the temple, although these do not seem to neatly integrate or fit in with the illusionistic purpose of the quadratura composition. In the finished composition, this has been resolved in several different ways. The borders between the original four parts of the composition have all been considerably widened and given a trapezoid form, decorated with architectural figures painted in a grisaille technique to give the impression of sculptures. Conca also added a new central painting depicting the Flaying of Marsyas.⁴ Of great importance to the successful illusionistic effect of the quadratura design are the added gods and goddesses breaching the walls and vaults of the temple behind the figures. As a result, the feeling of spatial depth is enhanced in the composition and the opening towards the sky becomes more pronounced, even though it also incorporates the new central painting. The Cooper-Hewitt drawing is clearly in an advanced stage of finish and possibly served as a modello presented for the Pope’s approval. Through the later additions, however, the original design was considerably altered, and clearly every new element had to be carefully examined for approval as well. Almost certainly it is in this light that the Nationalmuseum study should be viewed. The study corresponds directly to one of the gods and goddesses added above the groups of muses, philosophers and poets: the Pallas Athena depicted above the group with Homer as the central figure. In all probability, it is an original study for this figure made by Conca for papal approval. The figure of Athena is beautifully rendered sitting on a cloud as viewed precipitously from below; the depiction of the soles of her feet, in particular, contributes to the illusion of the goddess floating on the cloud high above. In general the anatomy of her body is expertly executed, betraying the training and influence from Conca’s cousin. This can for example be seen in the idiosyncratic depiction of Athena’s left arm as it rests on her hip with the shield still strapped onto it. The warrior goddess was added both as a symbol of the themes of Homer’s great poems and as the goddess of science; at rest, yet intently watchful. The Nationalmuseum study is quite close to the finished painting. It is meticulously rendered, and even on this small scale Conca’s mastery of anatomy is evident. The colours of Athena’s garments are somewhat more muted in the finished work, the red for example exchanged for pink. The direction in which she holds the spear in her right hand has been changed from leaning on her shoulder to pointing outward so that it is not obscured by the vault in the background and becomes more visible when added to the finished composition. It would seem, then, that the Nationalmuseum study fits neatly in Conca’s design and working process for this particular composition: when the original design was altered to solve problems with the illusionistic effect of the quadratura painting and thereby to harmonize more closely with Michelangelo Simonetti’s (1724–1781) architecture, the added figures were of such importance that Conca seems to have made specific studies of them for the Pope’s approval. The painting cannot be found in Fredenheim’s catalogue and was consequently not included in Martelli’s original catalogue either. Nor is it listed among the additional paintings in Masreliez’s inventory. Yet it retains an original verso paper label with the attribution “Incerto. Pallade” by Corvi and Tofanelli. It also figures in the inventory of 1804.⁵ In all certainty it was a late addition to Martelli’s collection, and it is a clear example of how he also collected contemporary art of the highest quality and the latest fashion. Interestingly, Conca and Martelli shared friends such as Mengs and were both members of the Accademia dell’Arcadia, making it quite possible that Martelli bought the study directly from Conca. DP 1 Papaldo 1975, pp. 414–415; Il’700 a Roma, exh. cat., Rome, 1959; Collins 2000, pp. 494–495, cat. no. 339. 2 Collins 2000, pp. 494–495, cat. no. 339. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Sander 1872–76, III, p. 136, no. 451. [End]
Motif categoryReligion/Mythology
Collection
Geographical origin
TechniquePainting
Object category
Keyword