DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0181
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the copy of which is placed upon Cornelia’s girdle in a picture Madame
Angelica painted of my Cornelia half-length. It is, I think, the best portrait
she ever painted, though the head she has done of me has been very much
approved of. They were both presents to us.”
This letter refers, it may also be noticed, to the picture of Miss Knight, to
which we have alluded under the year 1792. The painting of Angelica in
peasant costume is, according to the present Count de Salis, a particularly
charming painting, but, from the fact that it hangs in his country residence
in Switzerland, it has not been possible to obtain an illustration of it. Besides,
his own poor health has prevented him from supplying us, as he had hoped
to do, with copies of other letters, referring to Angelica, written to different
members of his family. He tells us that the connection between Angelica
and the de Salis family was a close and intimate one, that they had a great
admiration for her talent, and that, in the family correspondence, which fills
many volumes, there are many allusions to her, and always in agreeable
terms.
The reference to her with regard to Canova,1 which appears to belong to
about this date, reads thus :—
“ Canova’s friends were in the habit of reading books on art and history
to him while he worked, so that he might increase his learning. One day they
read that a portrait of Giorgione painted by the artist was in Widmann’s col-
lection. Recollecting a joke perpetrated at Venice some few years earlier,
Canova decided to play the same prank on the art critics in Rome. He
purchased a 16th-century canvas of a Holy Family which he scratched off,
and painted instead a head of Giorgione, imitating his manner and touch.
Prince Rezzonico and Prince d’Este were in the secret, and the former
announced, at one of the frequent dinners given to artists and men of letters,
that his nephews, the Widmanns, had had the portrait of Giorgione restored
and were sending it to Rome to have it criticised. A week later, the Prince
said the picture was on its way, and after another week that it had arrived in
Rome. Finally, at a largely attended dinner—amongst the guests being
Angelica Kauffmann, Gavin Hamilton, Volpato, Gian Gherardo dei Rossi, the
painter Cavallucci and a certain Burri, a celebrated picture restorer—d’Este
came in, breathless and dusty, bearing the precious case, well corded and
sealed, under his arm. When the canvas was unpacked, a general chorus
went up of ‘ Giorgione ! Giorgione 1 Very much a Giorgione ! ’ The
grave critics were in ecstasies of admiration of the style, the technique; and
effects of light and shade. Burri alone found fault with the restoration of the
right eye; but A. Kauffmann opposed him violently and the argument grew
hot. Canova entered in the midst of it and was immediately assailed with
1 See Malvini’s Life of Canova.
99
the copy of which is placed upon Cornelia’s girdle in a picture Madame
Angelica painted of my Cornelia half-length. It is, I think, the best portrait
she ever painted, though the head she has done of me has been very much
approved of. They were both presents to us.”
This letter refers, it may also be noticed, to the picture of Miss Knight, to
which we have alluded under the year 1792. The painting of Angelica in
peasant costume is, according to the present Count de Salis, a particularly
charming painting, but, from the fact that it hangs in his country residence
in Switzerland, it has not been possible to obtain an illustration of it. Besides,
his own poor health has prevented him from supplying us, as he had hoped
to do, with copies of other letters, referring to Angelica, written to different
members of his family. He tells us that the connection between Angelica
and the de Salis family was a close and intimate one, that they had a great
admiration for her talent, and that, in the family correspondence, which fills
many volumes, there are many allusions to her, and always in agreeable
terms.
The reference to her with regard to Canova,1 which appears to belong to
about this date, reads thus :—
“ Canova’s friends were in the habit of reading books on art and history
to him while he worked, so that he might increase his learning. One day they
read that a portrait of Giorgione painted by the artist was in Widmann’s col-
lection. Recollecting a joke perpetrated at Venice some few years earlier,
Canova decided to play the same prank on the art critics in Rome. He
purchased a 16th-century canvas of a Holy Family which he scratched off,
and painted instead a head of Giorgione, imitating his manner and touch.
Prince Rezzonico and Prince d’Este were in the secret, and the former
announced, at one of the frequent dinners given to artists and men of letters,
that his nephews, the Widmanns, had had the portrait of Giorgione restored
and were sending it to Rome to have it criticised. A week later, the Prince
said the picture was on its way, and after another week that it had arrived in
Rome. Finally, at a largely attended dinner—amongst the guests being
Angelica Kauffmann, Gavin Hamilton, Volpato, Gian Gherardo dei Rossi, the
painter Cavallucci and a certain Burri, a celebrated picture restorer—d’Este
came in, breathless and dusty, bearing the precious case, well corded and
sealed, under his arm. When the canvas was unpacked, a general chorus
went up of ‘ Giorgione ! Giorgione 1 Very much a Giorgione ! ’ The
grave critics were in ecstasies of admiration of the style, the technique; and
effects of light and shade. Burri alone found fault with the restoration of the
right eye; but A. Kauffmann opposed him violently and the argument grew
hot. Canova entered in the midst of it and was immediately assailed with
1 See Malvini’s Life of Canova.