DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0116
6o
ANGELICA KAUFFMANN
The English Minister at the Court of Naples, Sir William Hamilton,1 had a
picture of Penelope, but for this again the artist refused to accept any recom-
pense. Then, for the eminent advocate Don Domenico Cirillo, a portrait
was painted of a little girl playing with a dove; and for another person, Don
Vincenzo Ciappo, she painted his own portrait, and presented it to him.
Four other commissions carried out in Naples were for Don Honorato
(sic) Gaetani, for Princess Czartoriski, for the Director of the Porcelain Factory,
Marchese Venuti, and for a Mr. Hassler (of Holland). The picture painted
for the Princess represented her own daughter adorning a bust of Minerva with
flowers; the one for Mr. Hassler was his wife’s portrait (including the hands);
and the one for the Director of the Porcelain Factory was his own portrait in
half length, and that again was presented to him by Angelica, evidently in
gratitude for certain favours she had received from him.
The big picture for the Royal Family does not seem to have been completed
in Naples, Angelica probably only taking away the sketches she had made of
the different members of the family, and intending to complete the picture in
Rome. She was restless in Naples, and eager to see what was being done to her
house in Rome, and therefore by December, 1782, we find her back in the
Eternal City, settled down in her own residence, where she stayed until 1784,
when, having completed the big picture of the Royal Family of Naples, she
took it with her, on the 24th of that month, and delivered it over to the Queen.
The fact that she was carrying out this picture quickly brought Royal
visitors to her studio. The Emperor of Austria, Joseph II, was at that time
in Rome. He claimed her as one of his subjects, as the place where she had
been born was, at that time, under the control of the Austrian Monarchy, and he
commissioned from her two large pictures for the gallery at Vienna, leaving
the subject and dimensions entirely to her, and merely asking that they should
be delivered as quickly as possible. Angelica had to stipulate that she must
first complete the picture for the Queen of Naples, and a painting that had been
commissioned for the Empress Catherine of Russia, and which ought to have been
delivered long before. She promised the Austrian Emperor, however, that
his commission should be carried out as quickly as possible; but, as a matter of
fact it was two years before he received his pictures.
We learn of her life in Rome at this time from a long letter which she wrote
to Dr. Fordyce, her old friend, who was at that time living in Warwick Street,
Golden Square, and this letter, one of some interest, is given in full :—
“ Rome, December 28th, 1782.
“ It is impossible to describe how very desirous I wTas to receive a line from
the friend I so much value and respect, and whose kind attention to me and to
1 There is a curious letter from William Beckford to Sir William Hamilton, dated October
12th, 1782. He writes in a bantering way: “ As for Angelica, she is my Idol; so say everything
that can be said in my name and tell her how I long to see Telemachus’s Papa and all the noble
Family.” (The Life and Letters of William Beckford, p. 163, by Lewis Melville.) Beckford
alludes, we suppose, to Angelica’s classical pictures.
ANGELICA KAUFFMANN
The English Minister at the Court of Naples, Sir William Hamilton,1 had a
picture of Penelope, but for this again the artist refused to accept any recom-
pense. Then, for the eminent advocate Don Domenico Cirillo, a portrait
was painted of a little girl playing with a dove; and for another person, Don
Vincenzo Ciappo, she painted his own portrait, and presented it to him.
Four other commissions carried out in Naples were for Don Honorato
(sic) Gaetani, for Princess Czartoriski, for the Director of the Porcelain Factory,
Marchese Venuti, and for a Mr. Hassler (of Holland). The picture painted
for the Princess represented her own daughter adorning a bust of Minerva with
flowers; the one for Mr. Hassler was his wife’s portrait (including the hands);
and the one for the Director of the Porcelain Factory was his own portrait in
half length, and that again was presented to him by Angelica, evidently in
gratitude for certain favours she had received from him.
The big picture for the Royal Family does not seem to have been completed
in Naples, Angelica probably only taking away the sketches she had made of
the different members of the family, and intending to complete the picture in
Rome. She was restless in Naples, and eager to see what was being done to her
house in Rome, and therefore by December, 1782, we find her back in the
Eternal City, settled down in her own residence, where she stayed until 1784,
when, having completed the big picture of the Royal Family of Naples, she
took it with her, on the 24th of that month, and delivered it over to the Queen.
The fact that she was carrying out this picture quickly brought Royal
visitors to her studio. The Emperor of Austria, Joseph II, was at that time
in Rome. He claimed her as one of his subjects, as the place where she had
been born was, at that time, under the control of the Austrian Monarchy, and he
commissioned from her two large pictures for the gallery at Vienna, leaving
the subject and dimensions entirely to her, and merely asking that they should
be delivered as quickly as possible. Angelica had to stipulate that she must
first complete the picture for the Queen of Naples, and a painting that had been
commissioned for the Empress Catherine of Russia, and which ought to have been
delivered long before. She promised the Austrian Emperor, however, that
his commission should be carried out as quickly as possible; but, as a matter of
fact it was two years before he received his pictures.
We learn of her life in Rome at this time from a long letter which she wrote
to Dr. Fordyce, her old friend, who was at that time living in Warwick Street,
Golden Square, and this letter, one of some interest, is given in full :—
“ Rome, December 28th, 1782.
“ It is impossible to describe how very desirous I wTas to receive a line from
the friend I so much value and respect, and whose kind attention to me and to
1 There is a curious letter from William Beckford to Sir William Hamilton, dated October
12th, 1782. He writes in a bantering way: “ As for Angelica, she is my Idol; so say everything
that can be said in my name and tell her how I long to see Telemachus’s Papa and all the noble
Family.” (The Life and Letters of William Beckford, p. 163, by Lewis Melville.) Beckford
alludes, we suppose, to Angelica’s classical pictures.