Day 208 - Portrait busts et al.








February 3, 2020

Gallery 549, a loggia off of gallery 548,  is devoted primarily to French and Italian portrait busts made between 1600 and 1800. A sign explains that the gallery is meant to evoke the practice of lining palace corridors with portrait busts,  both to signify admiration for ancient Rome, where the practice originated, and to celebrate contemporary figures, whose images were recognizable although sometimes somewhat idealized.

It's striking to me that I haven't heard of any of these sculptors, although their works display true mastery of the sculptor's art. Lace or crochet work on shirts and neckwear, for example, is evoked by curling surfaces and tiny holes in the marble. In a 1767 sculpture of a cardinal by Andre-Jean Lebrun, who was active in France and Poland, the cardinal wears a cassock decorated with 23 small buttons; the carving is so fine that you can practically see the stitches on the bound buttonholes as well as the pattern on the buttons, several of which have been left undone. I'm impressed, too, by a highly idealized - and, to my mind, highly homoerotic -  sculpture of the young Saint John the Baptist, made by Domenico Pieratti around 1625-30; I've never before seen the saint portrayed in this fashion.

Today's third object is a portrait bust of the Comte de Muy made in 1776 by Jean-Jacques Caffieri.  It is hard to see this bust as idealizing the count. His nose is long, its tip fleshy; he has a pointy head, bags under his eyes, and a distinct double chin. But he also looks keenly intelligent, with his steady and searching gaze, and, in fact, the count served as Minister of War.

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