DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0050
T4
ANGELICA KAUFFMANN
Here it was that she met the celebrated Abbe Winckelmann, who described
her in very flattering terms. In a letter to his friend Franck he thus wrote :
“ I have just been painted by a stranger, a young person of rare merit. She
is very eminent in portraits in oil, mine is a half-length, and she has made
an etching of it as a present to me. She speaks Italian as well as German,
and expresses herself with the same facility in French and English, on which
account she paints all the English who visit Rome. She sings with a taste
which ranks her amongst our greatest ‘virtuosi. Her name is Angelica
Kauffmann.”
There is another interesting allusion to this portrait of Winckelmann in
a letter he wrote to Heinrich Fuessly, dated Rome, July 13th, 1764. “ My
portrait,” says he, “ is finished. The artist, Angelica Kauffmann, has just
begun engraving it (quarto size), and Herr Reiffenstein intends doing the
same.”
Winckelmann also alluded to the picture in a letter written three days after-
wards, addressed to Herr Volkmann the younger, at Hamburg, and then, on
the 18th of August of the same year, in a letter he wrote to another corre-
spondent, he for a third time alludes to the same picture :—
“ My portrait is being done by a rare person. . . . She is very proficient
in oil portraits. My own, which has cost thirty sequins, is quarto size.
The young woman I am talking about was born at Costniz (others say at Chur),
and was brought to Italy by her father, who is also a painter. She speaks
German just as if she was a Saxon, also Italian, French and English, therefore,
every Englishman who comes to Rome wants his portrait taken by Angelica.
I think she can be considered a beauty, and, as far as singing is concerned,
she ranks with our best virtuosi. Her name is Angelica Kauffmann.”
Winckelmann had come to Rome in 1755, fresh from writing his History
of Art, and had been appointed by Cardinal Albani as custodian of the amazing
collection of treasures he possessed in his palace. The German student
had speedily become the most learned teacher on Greek and Roman art, Rome
had ever seen, the highest authority on classical mythology, called by Opper-
mann “ the sentiment of past ages,” and the greatest art critic of the day.
His influence upon Angelica Kauffmann, to whom he appears to have been
introduced by the wife of Raphael Mengs, was considerable, and it lasted
throughout the whole of her life, almost all her knowledge of classic mythology
being gathered from him, while she kept up a steady correspondence with him
on all kinds of subjects for very many years.
Raphael Mengs had arrived in Rome in 1741, and lived there for three
years, where he was employed in copying the works of Raphael in miniature
for Augustus HI, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. On his return to
Saxony with the completed tiny pictures, he had been appointed special painter
to the King, with a substantial stipend, but was then ordered to return to Rome
ANGELICA KAUFFMANN
Here it was that she met the celebrated Abbe Winckelmann, who described
her in very flattering terms. In a letter to his friend Franck he thus wrote :
“ I have just been painted by a stranger, a young person of rare merit. She
is very eminent in portraits in oil, mine is a half-length, and she has made
an etching of it as a present to me. She speaks Italian as well as German,
and expresses herself with the same facility in French and English, on which
account she paints all the English who visit Rome. She sings with a taste
which ranks her amongst our greatest ‘virtuosi. Her name is Angelica
Kauffmann.”
There is another interesting allusion to this portrait of Winckelmann in
a letter he wrote to Heinrich Fuessly, dated Rome, July 13th, 1764. “ My
portrait,” says he, “ is finished. The artist, Angelica Kauffmann, has just
begun engraving it (quarto size), and Herr Reiffenstein intends doing the
same.”
Winckelmann also alluded to the picture in a letter written three days after-
wards, addressed to Herr Volkmann the younger, at Hamburg, and then, on
the 18th of August of the same year, in a letter he wrote to another corre-
spondent, he for a third time alludes to the same picture :—
“ My portrait is being done by a rare person. . . . She is very proficient
in oil portraits. My own, which has cost thirty sequins, is quarto size.
The young woman I am talking about was born at Costniz (others say at Chur),
and was brought to Italy by her father, who is also a painter. She speaks
German just as if she was a Saxon, also Italian, French and English, therefore,
every Englishman who comes to Rome wants his portrait taken by Angelica.
I think she can be considered a beauty, and, as far as singing is concerned,
she ranks with our best virtuosi. Her name is Angelica Kauffmann.”
Winckelmann had come to Rome in 1755, fresh from writing his History
of Art, and had been appointed by Cardinal Albani as custodian of the amazing
collection of treasures he possessed in his palace. The German student
had speedily become the most learned teacher on Greek and Roman art, Rome
had ever seen, the highest authority on classical mythology, called by Opper-
mann “ the sentiment of past ages,” and the greatest art critic of the day.
His influence upon Angelica Kauffmann, to whom he appears to have been
introduced by the wife of Raphael Mengs, was considerable, and it lasted
throughout the whole of her life, almost all her knowledge of classic mythology
being gathered from him, while she kept up a steady correspondence with him
on all kinds of subjects for very many years.
Raphael Mengs had arrived in Rome in 1741, and lived there for three
years, where he was employed in copying the works of Raphael in miniature
for Augustus HI, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. On his return to
Saxony with the completed tiny pictures, he had been appointed special painter
to the King, with a substantial stipend, but was then ordered to return to Rome