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Catalogue 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]

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Tommaso Conca | Pallas Athena | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2010