Audience with Cardinal Aldobrandini in the Loggia of the Villa Belvedere in Frascati
Artist/Maker
DatesMade: Made 1822 - 1823
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 37 x 47 cm h x w: Ram 51,8 x 62,2 cm
Inventory numberNM 7372
AcqusitionPurchase 2016 Sara och Johan Emil Graumann Fund
Other titlesTitle (sv): Audiens hos kardinal Aldobrandini i loggian i Villa Belvedere i Frascati Title (en): Audience with Cardinal Aldobrandini in the Loggia of the Villa Belvedere in Frascati
DescriptionDescription: François-Marius Granet's painting is both a historical and a folklore subject. It shows a young girl asking Cardinal Aldobrandini, the man in red, for help. The scene is set about 1600, but the view shows the garden the way it looked when Granet stayed there in 1822. The choice of motif was a way for the artist to please his host and patron, a descendant of the Cardinal, Prince Aldobrandini Borghese. 3/1-2022 François-Marius Granet belongs to a group of prominent French artists who worked for many years in Rome and its surroundings in the early 1800s. Although he devoted himself mainly to plein-air painting, a narrative element frequently appears in his works with characters, often priests and monks. Occasionally, this resulted in veritable history paintings, with landscape views, as in Audience with Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini in the Loggia of the Villa Belvedere in Frascati, painted around 1822–23. The scene is set in 1600s, but the view is of the garden as it looked when Granet visited a later relative of the cardinal, Prince Aldobrandini-Borghese, nephew of Napoleon’s sister, Pauline Borghese. Catalogue raisonné: New Acquisition October 2017 French Romantic paintings of Rome Nationalmuseum has acquired works by three French Romantic painters who worked in Rome in the early 19th century. The three paintings straddle the boundary of the plein air and vernacular genres. Although based on direct observation of the scene, all three are believed to have been wholly or partially painted in the studio. To varying degrees, figures lend the works a narrative character. This anecdotal or historicising aspect is most pronounced in François-Marius Granet's (1775–1849) painting Audience with Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini in the Loggia at the Villa Belvedere, Frascati. The action is set around 1600, but the view shows the garden as it looked when Granet visited in 1822. The artist probably chose the scene to please his host, Prince Aldobrandini-Borghese, a descendant of the cardinal and brother-in-law of the notorious Pauline Borghese, Emperor Napoleon's sister. Granet was primarily a genre painter specialising in contemporary religious ceremonies and purely historical scenes. Monks, priests and other ecclesiastical dignitaries are therefore a recurring feature. The architecture is attractive, with picturesque forms and a refined treatment of light. Granet based his work on studies made on location. Much of this directly observed quality survives in the piece recently acquired by Nationalmuseum. François-Marius Granet arrived in Rome in 1802 and stayed for more than 20 years. Jean-Victor Bertin’s (1767–1842) one-year sojourn in the city was more episodic in nature. Like many other notable French landscape painters, he was a pupil of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, the pioneer of plein air painting. Bertin painted a mixture of historicised landscapes and distinctively atmospheric views based on plein air studies, populated by people from his own time. All the indications are that the latter kind of landscapes were painted in the studio. They achieved great popularity and were replicated multiple times by the artist and reproduced on china plates. In 1806–07 Bertin undertook a study tour of Italy, where he painted the recently acquired View of Tivoli Upstream of Cascata Vecchia. The scene has many of the characteristics of plein air painting, such as sharp light, but Bertin also tailored it to the artistic conventions of the time by including a staffage figure praying at an altar. This and other works by Bertin inspired the Danish artist Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg’s enthusiasm for topographical references, with very accurate reproduction of details, during his time in Paris and Rome. The same can be said of Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé (1782–1859) and his View of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina or the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, in Rome, painted around 1807. The artist had come to the city at that time to work for Count Choiseul-Gouffier on his famous illustrated work Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce, published two years later. The count also commissioned a larger version of the view from the Forum Romanum with the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, which was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1808. The finished painting, now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, includes numerous staffage figures. In contrast to this complete work, the artist’s preparatory study, now acquired by Nationalmuseum, includes only a few figures and retains the fresh character of an oil sketch. This newly discovered piece anticipates Eckersberg’s famous version of the same scene (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen) painted eight years later. These acquisitions have been made possible by generous donations from the Sara and John Emil Graumann Bequest, the Ulf Lundahl Bequest and the Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum has no budget of its own for new acquisitions, but relies on gifting and financial support from private funds and foundations to enhance its collections of fine art and craft.
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