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The Fantasy of the Imperishable in the Modern Era

Towards an Eternal Painting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Philippe Sénéchal
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At M. Bernard's I saw several magnificent paintings on porcelain by Monsieur Constantin. In two hundred years, Raphael's frescoes will be known only through Monsieur Constantin.

Stendhal, Voyage en France, 1837

If we compare the forms that the act of copying has assumed in various civilizations, we cannot fail to notice that a certain number of phenomena are specific to European culture since the Renaissance. Perhaps one of the most singular of these phenomena is the will to create and to possess imperishable reproductions of works that have been singled out, at a given moment, as the brightest jewels of Western art. The history of the fortune of Graeco-Roman sculptures has been masterfully related by Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny in Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, even if it would no doubt be worthwhile to give further consideration to the critical fortune of materials used for reproduction, and particularly to the particular prestige attached to bronze—from the Mantuan works of Antico to the reconstitutions of Greek Urbilder in bronze, instead of the plaster used earlier, which were executed at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as the two Doryphoros that Georg Römer realized from various ancient marble copies of Polyclitus's athlete. But, in fact, it was not only in modern Europe that copies were made in bronze. The production of copies using this alloy was particularly prevalent in imperial China after the rediscovery, in the second half of the eleventh century of our era, of a collection of archaic bronzes from the Shang era. This is why I prefer to call attention to a practice that appears to me, in contrast, to be unique to the Western world: the copying of renowned paintings in materials that are supposed to defy time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 46 , Issue 183 , September 1998 , pp. 69 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1981.

2. R. E. Stone, "Antico and the Development of Bronze Casting in Italy at the End of the Quattrocento," Metropolitan Museum of Art, XVI (1982): 87-116.

3. The first version, realized in 1910-12, previously at the municipal museum of Zczecin, is today housed in the National Museum in Warsaw; the second, exe cuted in 1920-21, adorned the Hall of Honor of the University of Munich until its destruction in 1944. See R. M. Schneider, "Polyklet: Forschungsbericht und Antikenrezeption. Polyklet zwischen Winckelmann un Furtwängler: Ein Forschungbericht," in H. Beck, P. C. Bol, and M. Bückling (eds.), Polyklet. Der Bildhauer der griechischen Klassik, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt-am-Main, Liebighaus, Museum alter Plastik, 17 October 1990 - 20 January 1991 (Frank furt-am-Main and Mayence, Liebighaus and Philipp von Zabern, 1990), pp. 473-504.

4. See D. Elisseeff's article in this same issue, "Copying in Imperial China."

5. On the renewal of interest in Roman and paleo-Christian mosaics in the Rome of Pope Barberini, see H. Whitehouse, "Copies of Roman Paintings and Mosaics in the Paper Museum: Their Value as Archaeological Evidence," in Cassiano dal Pozzo's Paper Museum, I = Quaderni Puteani, 2, n. d. [Olivetti, 1992], pp. 105-121; J. Osborne and A. Claridge, The Paper Museum., Series A. Part II, vol. I, Mosaics and Wallpaintings in Roman Churches (London, Harvey Miller, 1997); and I. Herklotz, Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) und die Archäologie des 17. Jahrhunderts (München, Hirmer, 1998).

6. G. Vasari, "Del mosaico de' vetri et a quello che si conosce il buono e lodato," in Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori (Florence, Torrentino, 1550 and Giunti, 1568); R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, ed., I, Testo (Florence, 1966), p. 148.

7. In 1759, Calandra's alterpiece was withdrawn, then exiled to the Macerata cathedral. On Calandra, see A. González-Palacios, "Giovanni Battista Calan dra, un mosaicista alla corte dei Barberini," Ricerche di storia dell'arte, 1-2 December 1976, pp. 211-226.

8. S. Röttgen, "The Roman Mosaic from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Cen tury : A Short Historical Survey," in A. González-Palacios and S. Röttgen (eds.), The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection (Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum, 1982), pp. 19-43; D. Petochi, M. Alfieri, and M. G. Branchetti, I mosaici minuti romani dei secoli XVIII and XIX (1981); and G. Cornini, "Lo Studio Vaticano del Mosaico," in M. Alfieri, M. G. Branchetti, and G. Cornini, Mosaici minuti del 700 e dell' 800, exhibition catalogue, Vatican City, Braccio di Carlo Magno, October - November 1986, (n. p., Edizioni del Mosaico, 1986). The author was unfortunately unable to consult F. Di Federi co's work, The Mosaics of Saint Peter's: Decorating the New Basilica, University Park and London, 1983.

9. In 1843, Aguatti created, for the art market, a reduced version of it in mosaico minuto, now in the Gilbert Collection. See S. Röttgen, "The Roman Mosaic…," cited in previous note, pp. 132-133, no. 41.

10. R. M. Mason and M. Natale (eds.), Raphaël et la seconde main, exhibition cata logue (Geneva, Cabinet des Estampes et Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 12 January - 25 March 1984), Geneva, 1984, pp. 189-221.

11. See Copier Créer, exhibition catalogue (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 26 April - 29 July 1993), Paris, RMN, 1993, pp. 296-297, no. 199.

12. J. Guilherme, L'Atelier du temps, Paris, 1964, pp. 177-185; A. Conti, Storia del restauro e della conservazione delle opere d'arte, [Venice,] Electa, [1973], pp. 141- 143; D. Rice, The Fire of the Ancients: the Encaustic Painting Revival, Ph.D., Yale University, 1979; T. S. Watts, "J. H. Müntz, Horace Walpole and encaustic painting: Müntz's experiments in England," Apollo (October 1994): 37-43; and M. T. Caracciolo, "Deux toiles de Cades retrouvées en Russie. Théories et pra tiques de la peinture à l'encaustique à Rome, vers 1780," Gazette des Beaux- Arts (October 1996): 155-172.

13. V. Requeño, Saggi sul ristabilimento dell'antico arte de' Greci e de' Romani pittori, Venice, Giovanni Gatti, 1784.

14. In fact, the empress had dreamed since the end of the 1770s of realizing a fac simile of the Loggie, but it was only ten years later that the idea of executing it all' antica was seized upon. M. T. Caracciolo, "Deux toiles de Cades…" cited in note 12 above, particularly pp. 163-167.

15. A. Lajoix, "Alexandre Brongniart et la quête de la reproduction en couleurs," Sèvres, no. 1, 1992, pp. 64-73, and no. 2, 1993, pp. 52-58 and 76-78; T. Préaud, "Brongniart as Technician," in D. E. Ostergard (ed.), The Sèvres Porcelain Manu factory. Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847, exhi bition catalogue (New York, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 17 October 1997 - 1 February 1998), New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1997, pp. 53-63; Ead., "Brongniart and the Art of Ceram ics," ibid., pp. 65-73; and Ead., "The Nature and Goals of Production at the Sèvres Manufactory," ibid., pp. 75-95, and particularly pp. 84, 86, and 89.

16. A. Lajoix, "Tableaux précieux en porcelaine," L'Estampille / L'Objet d'art, no. 247 (May 1991): 108-123. On Madame Jaquotot, see R. Rückert, "Marie-Vic toire Jaquotot, 1772-1855: porcelain painter and virtuoso pianist," Weltkunst, LV-15 (August 1985): 2103-2109; and LV-17 (September 1985): 2352-2358; and A. Lajoix, "Marie-Victoire Jaquotot (1772-1855) et ses portraits pour la tabatière de Louis XVIII," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français (1990): 153-171. On Abraham Constantin, see D. Plan, Abraham Constantin peintre sur émail et sur porcelaine, Geneva, Éditions de Genève, 1930; and R. M. Mason and M. Natale (eds.), see note 10, pp. 198-218.

17. These two plaques are conserved in the Musée national de céramique de Sèvres, Inv. 7259 and Inv. 16854 respectively.

18. Lettres adressées au baron François Gérard, peintre d'histoire, par les artistes et per sonnages célèbres de son temps, Paris, 1886, p. 329.

19. Regarding his painting on porcelain after the Fornarina (1823, 58 x 48 cm., Sèvres, Musée national de céramique, inv. 7251), Constantin asked Brongniart "that it not be exposed in too bright a light, like the original exhibited in the Tribuna, of which [his] copy is in precisely the same shade. In addition, Mon sieur, please tilt it and light it from above, with the source of light just over it." Sèvres, Archives de la manufacture, box T 9, bundle 3, letter dated 14 December 1822, cited by A. Lajoix, "Alexandre Brongniart…," op. cit. note 15 above, p. 76. The masterpiece of Sebastiano del Piombo, which was then thought to be by Raphael, is conserved in the Uffizi and measures 66 x 53 cm.

20. On Peisse, see N. Laneyrie-Dagen, "Louis Peisse et le ‘Musée des modèles' à l'École des Beaux-Arts," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français (1985): 217-241. On Blanc, see A. Boime, "Le Musée des Copies," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6e. période, t. LXIV (1964): 237-247; usefully corrected and com pleted by B. Foucart, "Copies, répliques, faux. IV. Le XIXe siècle. Les modèles élusifs et le ‘musée des copies,"' Revue de l'Art, no. 21 (1979): 23-29; P. Vaisse, "Charles Blanc und das ‘Musée des Copies,"' Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 39 (1976, 1): 54-66; and P. Duro, "Le Musées des copies de Charles Blanc à l'aube de la IIIe République. Catalogue," Bulletin de la Sociéte de l'Histoire de l'Art français (1985): 283-313.

21. The collection was bequeathed to the German emperor in 1894; today it consti tutes the Schack-Galerie, property of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. See E. Ruhmer (ed.), Schack-Galerie [Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Gemälde Kataloge, 2], München, 1969, 2 vols. Schack wished to possess reflec tions of the art that he preferred and that was in museums for all time, and espe cially to juxtapose modem art to ancient art to see if the former withstood the comparison without being crushed. He explained his rationale in Meine Gemälde-sammlungen, Stuttgart, 1889/3.

22. Franz von Lenbach actualized no fewer than seventeen copies for Count Schack, who was particularly proud of the Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg, copied in 1868 after the Prado Titian, to its true dimensions (3.36 m. x 2.8 m.), for which he had to have a special canvas made in Paris. See E. Ruhmer (ed.), Schack-Galerie, cited in preceding note, I, pp. 501-506; and II, fig. 194.

23. Ibidem, I, pp. 524-526; II, fig. 198.

24. Realized between 1833 and 1838, this painting can still be seen in the chapel of the Petits-Augustins.

25. Wolf's copy was executed in 1877-1878. E. Ruhmer, cited in note 21 above, pp. 583-585.

26. L. Auvray, Le Musée européen. Copies d'après les grands maîtres au palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, Librairie Renouard, Henri Loons successeur 1873, p. 60. On this copy, see P. Duro, cited in note 20, p. 286, no. 4. L. Auvray had already expressed his wish to see the copies painted by the residents of the Académie de France in Rome reunited in a single location and presented to the public, in "Chronique des Arts," Revue artistique et littéraire, 1 (1860): 181-183.

27. L. Auvray, cited in preceding note, pp. 20-21. See also ibid., pp. 46, 49, 65, and 97.

28. Ibid., p. 12: "Every year artists seem to see an increase in the series of master paintings that the Louvre does not possess and that they come to study"; and p. 98: "This room contains no fewer than sixteen copies after Raphael, bring ing to thirty-three the number of reproductions of his paintings whose origi nals the Museum cannot possess."

29. Ibid., p. 56, regarding the frescoes of Piero della Francesca in Arezzo: p. 59, on the Madonna del Sacco by Andrea del Sarto in Florence; p. 66, on Giotto's fres coes at the Arena in Padua; pp. 74 and 76 for Michelangelo's Last Judgment; and p. 110 for Raphael's School of Athens.

30. Ibid., p. 12: "Those who cannot travel as tourists would have before their eyes, classified by school and arranged chronologically, the masterpieces that are scattered throughout the monuments and the richest galleries of Europe." The Musée des copies would even be one of the first to have provided detailed labels for visitors. See ibid., p. 113: "We therefore congratulate Monsieur le Directeur des Beaux-Arts … for placing beneath each frame a badge containing the subject of the painting, the name of its creator, the school to which it belongs, the dates of the artist's birth and death, the place where the original painting is found, and the name of the author of the copy that is displayed. This is of great service to the visitors who cannot buy a catalogue; it provides free instruction, and this should be the case for all collections held by the State."

31. I am grateful to Philippe Malgouyres for having brought this museum to my attention.

32. The composition of the anthology merits a study of its own, one that would incorporate the critical reception of any given artist in Japan, as well as the granting or refusal of permission by any given museum or owner to repro duce the work in the agency's or individual's possession.

33. Paris, Grasset, 1985; Faith in Fakes: Essays, trans. William Weaver, London, 1986.

34. Sculpture suffers less from this obstacle, since galleries of plaster reproductions make it possible to see all the copies in the exact dimensions of the original.

35. See A. Conti, see note 12 above.