The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757): The Queen of Pastel 9789048541409

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The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757)

Visual and Material Culture, 1300–1700 A forum for innovative research on the role of images and objects in the late medieval and early modern periods, Visual and Material Culture, 1300–1700 publishes monographs and essay collections that combine rigorous investigation with critical inquiry to present new narratives on a wide range of topics, from traditional arts to seemingly ordinary things. Recognizing the fluidity of images, objects, and ideas, this series fosters cross-cultural as well as multi-disciplinary exploration. We consider proposals from across the spectrum of analytic approaches and methodologies. Series Editor Dr. Allison Levy, an art historian, has written and/or edited three scholarly books, and she has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association of University Women, the Getty Research Institute, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library of Harvard University, the Whiting Foundation and the Bogliasco Foundation, among others. www.allisonlevy.com.

The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757) The Queen of Pastel

Angela Oberer

Amsterdam University Press

Cover illustration: Rosalba Carriera, A Young Lady with a Parrot, around 1730, pastel on blue laid paper, mounted to laminated paperboard, 60 × 50cm. Regenstein Collection, Chicago (Il), Art Institute of Chicago © 2018. The Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Firenze. Cover design: Newgen/Konvertus Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 899 6 e-isbn 978 90 4854 140 9 doi 10.5117/9789462988996 nur 641 © A. Oberer / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2020 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

Table of Contents List of Figures

7

Introduction13 1 Rosalba Carriera – An Independent Single Artist in Eighteenth-Century Venice 27 Carriera’s Early Years 27 Influential Friends 35 The Beginning of a Career: Carriera, an Exceptional Venetian Miniature Painter 39 Carriera’s Membership in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome 52 A New Reading of Carriera’s World en miniature61 Carriera’s Portrait of Philip Wharton (1698–1731)61 Carriera’s Daring Eroticism 64 The Young Gardener in Munich 65 Miniature Mythologies 69 Carriera and the Sister Arts 78 Carriera’s Lady Putting Flowers in her Hair86 Carriera’s Clients of Erotic Art 89 2 Carriera’s Discovery of Pastel Painting A Short History of Pastel Painting Successful Ambassador of a Neglected Technique Carriera in the Art World of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Venice

97 97 101

3 Carriera’s International Network 115 Attacked by the British 115 Carriera and the French 119 German Travellers on the Grand Tour 120 The Italianate Climate in Düsseldorf124 The House of Wittelsbach 126 The Importance of ‘Owning a Carriera’128 4 Carriera’s Stay in Paris Carriera’s Admittance into the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture

135 148

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THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROSALBA CARRIER A (1673-1757)

5 Carriera’s Oeuvre in Pastel 165 Carriera’s Portraits within the Venetian Tradition 165 From Unifying Formula to Character Studies 167 The Importance of ‘Being a Carriera’  171 Carriera’s ‘Galleries of Beauty’176 Character Studies and Erotica 182 Carriera’s Favourite Pupil, Felicita Sartori 186 Carriera’s Young Lady with a Parrot190 Portrait or Allegory? 195 Mythological Subjects 198 The Reception of Carriera’s Erotic Pastels 205 Carriera’s Religious Works for Dresden 213 6 The Single Woman, the Spinster

217

7 Carriera’s Last Journeys – The End of an Enviable Career Carriera in Modena Carriera in Vienna The End of an Enviable Career

249 249 251 256

8 Carriera’s Ways of Self-Fashioning 259 Carriera’s House on the Grand Canal, a Fashionable Space of Self-Representation259 Self-Fashioning through Self-Portraits 272 Carriera’s Earliest Self-Portrait 273 Carriera’s Self-Portrait in the Uffizi 274 Carriera’s Self-Portrait as Winter in Dresden, 1730–31286 Carriera’s Self-Portrait in Old Age in Windsor Castle, c.1744290 Carriera’s Self-Portrait in the Accademia in Venice, 1746 292 Conclusion297 Bibliography299 Index of Names

319

List of Figures and Plates Figures Figure 1

Carriera’s house on the Grand Canal Archive of the author

Figure 2

Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Anton Maria Zanetti c.1700, pastel on paper, 45 × 31.5 cm. Stockholm, National Museum, NMB 2102. © National Museum permission.

Figure 3

Rosalba Carriera, Girl with a Dove 1705, watercolour, gouache on ivory, 15 × 10 cm. Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, inv. 442. © Courtesy Accademia Nazionale di San Luca.

Figure 4

Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Philip, Duke of Wharton 1720–25, tempera on ivory, 8.2 × 5.7cm. Venice, Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico.

Figure 5

Rosalba Carriera, Young Girl as a Gardener 1709, watercolour and gouache on ivory, 10 × 7.6 cm. Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, inv. D 620a. © Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich.

Figure 6

Rosalba Carriera, Venus and Cupid 1707–11, oil on ivory, 9 × 7.1 cm. Originally in Dresden, Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, miniature not part of the collection since 1924. © Reproduction: H. Pfauder, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Figure 7

Rosalba Carriera, Venus and Cupid Before 1709, watercolour and gouache on ivory, 10.3 × 8.5 cm. Copenhagen, National Gallery of Denmark, inv. KMS4837.

Figure 8

Paolo Veronese, Venus and Adonis c.1586, oil on canvas, 68 × 52 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 1527. © KHM-Museumsverband.

Figure 9

Rosalba Carriera, Armida and Rinaldo About 1715, tempera on ivory, height 8 cm. Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, inv. MIN108. © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth.

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THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROSALBA CARRIER A (1673-1757)

Figure 10 Federico Bencovich, Hercules and Omphale Eighteenth century, oil on canvas, 130 × 108 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie in der Residenz Würzburg. © Fotoarchiv, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. Figure 11 Anton Raphael Mengs, Portrait of Frederick Christian Saxony 1750–52, pastel on paper, 55.5 × 44.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunst­ sammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 174. © Staatliche Kunst­ sammlungen Dresden. Figure 12 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Clemens August of Bavaria 1727, pastel on paper, 57 × 45 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 21. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Figure 13 Hyacinthe Rigaud, Portrait of Louis XV as a Child 1715, oil on canvas, 208 × 154 cm. Musée National de Versailles, MV 3695. © bpk/RMN – Grand Palais/Gérard Blot. Figure 14 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Antoine Watteau 1721, pastel on paper, 55 × 43 cm. Treviso, Musei Civici di Treviso – Museo di Santa Caterina. © Musei Civici di Treviso. Figure 15 Rosalba Carriera, Nymph from Apollo’s Retinue 1721, pastel on paper, 61.5 × 54.5 cm. Paris, Louvre, Cabinet des dessins, inv. 4800. © bpk/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden/Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut. Figure 16 Detail of François Girardon, Apollo Attended by the Nymphs Marble, 1666–73. Versailles, Apollo Grotto. Archive of the author. Figure 17 Leonardo da Vinci, Saint John the Baptist 1513–16, oil on panel, 69 × 57 cm. Paris, Louvre, inv. 775. © Louvre, Paris. Figure 18 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Lucrezia Mocenigo c.1708, pastel on paper, 52 × 41 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 23. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

List of Figures and Plates

9

Figure 19 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo 1735–40, pastel on paper, 42 × 33 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 16. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Figure 20 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Suor Maria Caterina 1732, pastel on paper, 44 × 35 cm. Venice, Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico. © Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico, Venice. Figure 21 Nicolas Largillière, Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Madame Claude Lambert de Thorigny (Marie Marguerite Bontemps, 1668–1701), and an Enslaved Servant 1696, oil on canvas, 139.7 × 106.7 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no. 03.37.2. © bpk/The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Figure 22 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Faustina Bordoni c.1724–25, pastel on paper, 44.5 × 33.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 118. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Figure 23 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Faustina Bordoni c.1731–40, pastel on paper, 47 × 35 cm. Venice, Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico. © Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico, Venice. Figure 24 Rosalba Carriera, Apollo 1740–46, pastel on paper, 67 × 52 cm. Saint Petersburg, the State Hermitage, inv. OR-17961. Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo by Konstantin Sinyavsky. Figure 25 Bust of Antinous 2nd century AD, marble, 80 cm. Venice, Museo Archeologico Nazionale – Museo di Palazzo Grimani, inv. 382. © Museo di Palazzo Grimani. Figure 26 Rosalba Carriera, Madonna with Downcast Eyes Pastel on paper, 29 × 23 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 57. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Figure 27 Anton Maria Zanetti, Caricature of Rosalba Carriera 1720–30, brown ink on paper, 9 × 6.9 cm. Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini. © Fototeca della Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice/Matteo de Fina.

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THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROSALBA CARRIER A (1673-1757)

Figure 28 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Enrichetta Anna Sofia d’Este 1723, pastel on paper, 55 × 42 cm. Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, inv. 1890:829. © Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. Figure 29 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Empress Wilhelmine Amalie 1730, pastel on paper, 65.5 × 51.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 20. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Figure 30 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait c.1708, red chalk on paper, 35 × 26.6 cm. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. kdZ 28844. © bpk/ Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Jörg P. Anders. Figure 31 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait in Old Age c.1744, pastel on paper, 56.7 × 45.8 cm. Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 452375. © Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II 2018. Figure 32 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait c.1746, pastel on paper, 31 × 25 cm. Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia. © Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Plates Plate 1 Rosalba Carriera, Lady Putting Flowers in her Hair c.1710, watercolour on ivory, 8.6 × 10.5 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1940.1203. Plate 2 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Frederick Christian Saxony c.1738–40, pastel on paper, 63.5 × 31.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsamm­ lungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Gal.-Nr. P 2. © bpk/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden/Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut. Plate 3 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Louis XV 1720–21, pastel on paper, 50.5 × 38.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsamm­ lungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 9. © bpk/Staatliche Kunstsamm­ lungen Dresden/Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut.

List of Figures and Plates

11

Plate 4 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Felicita Sartori 1740–41, pastel on paper, 70 × 55 cm. Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, inv. 1890:9988. © Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. Plate 5 Rosalba Carriera, A Young Lady with a Parrot c.1730, pastel on blue laid paper, mounted to laminated paperboard, 60 × 50 cm. Regenstein Collection, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago © 2018, The Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Firenze. Plate 6 Rosalba Carriera, Diana 1740–46, pastel on paper, 67 × 52 cm. Saint Petersburg, The State Hermitage, inv. PO-17960. Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo by Konstantin Sinyavsky. Plate 7 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait 1708–9, pastel on paper, 71 × 57 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv. 1890:1786. © Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. Plate 8 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait as Winter 1730–31, pastel on paper, 46.5 × 34 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 29. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Introduction The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757): The Queen of Pastel is the first extensive biographical narrative in English of Rosalba Carriera. It is also the first to provide a scholarly investigation into the external and internal factors that helped to create this female painter’s unique career in eighteenth-century Europe. It documents the difficulties, complications and consequences that arose then, or that more generally can also arise today, when a woman decides to become an independent artist. This book contributes a new, in-depth analysis of the interplay between society’s expectations, generally accepted codices for gendered behaviour, and one single female painter’s astute strategies for achieving success as well as autonomy in her professional life as a famed artist. I have written this study with the intention of presenting this outstanding and fascinating painter to a wider, English-speaking audience, as to date, there are surprisingly few publications on this artist in English.1 Furthermore, it is intended to offer a basis for future investigations into Carriera’s contributions to the fields of art history, history, gender and sociology. Over forty years have passed since Linda Nochlin published her famous and groundbreaking essay with the provocative title ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Painters?’2 Her presentation of the social factors that held women back in their pursuit of an artistic career has provided a theoretical ground for a new scholarly approach to the subject. Ever since then, feminist and gender studies have explored the historical process of artistic production and the lives and careers of those women who, generally with great unconventionality, pursued their aims in the artistic realm. New questions have been asked about their private, social and public environments. After the publication of the first compendia of forgotten names of female artists across various cultures and ages in the 1970s,3 new methodological approaches in the various academic disciplines began further opening up this new field of scholarly investigation. The resulting momentous paradigm shift has raised our awareness, and has also changed, and is still changing, how we evaluate women’s contributions to the arts.4 1 While seventeenth-century artists like Camilla Guerrieri Nati (1618–post 1690) or female painters under Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici (1642–1723) were included in the 2016 publication on Women Artists in Early Modern Italy, edited by Sheila Barker, no chapter was dedicated to Carriera, being born only in 1673; she was only mentioned in passing. 2 The article appeared in the January issue of ARTnews in 1971. 3 See Pollock’s introduction to Parker and Pollock, 2013 [1981], p. xvii. 4 In the same introduction mentioned above, Pollock gives an overview of the most important and influential publications in the field from the 1970s onwards, Parker and Pollock, 2013 [1981], pp. xvii–xxvii.

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_intro

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THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROSALBA CARRIER A (1673–1757)

In the light of these four decades of rigorous research, as well as of increased public interest in female artists, it is difficult to understand why a figure such as Rosalba Carriera has almost disappeared from view, the one artist who was more celebrated in her day than any female painter before her. As Nochlin and Sutherland Harris have observed, Although several women painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had international reputations, none enjoyed as great a success nor had as much influence on the art of her contemporaries as Rosalba Carriera.5

Even today she is barely known outside a relatively small circle of art lovers and connoisseurs whereas, in the eighteenth century, the mere mention of her first name was enough to evoke an enthusiastic response in Italy, Germany, France and England. Only in Venice, her birthplace, does she still enjoy a certain degree of fame, but beyond the lagoon, she has all but sunk into oblivion. Not even art historians seem to have been particularly intrigued by Carriera, exhibiting little or no interest in her life, her outstanding achievements, or her pioneering role in the realm of the arts. The limited number of books, papers and articles (especially in English) dealing with Carriera stand in stark contrast to her erstwhile fame.6 One reason for Carriera’s dwindling reputation may simply be the long fall from grace of eighteenth-century art and eighteenth-century culture in general. Even when academic disciplines concerned with social, political, historical, cultural and gender studies rediscovered the Rococo period in the late twentieth century, the Venetian artist seems to have escaped notice. Another reason for this lack of enthusiasm among the majority of art historians or connoisseurs may be her preferred medium, pastel. This technique had been neglected in favour of the better-researched areas of old master drawings and oil painting, as Jeffares writes in his introduction to his Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800.7 Nevertheless, some scholars have worked on her, basing their accounts primarily on the first biographical account of the artist’s life by Dézallier d’Argenville (1762). In Julia Dabbs’s anthology, Life Stories of Women Artists, 1550–1800 (2009), which makes more accessible some of the fundamental biographical sources on female artists from approximately 1400 to1800, the author republished and translated d’Argenville’s text, adding for the first time an insightful commentary on this source.8 As regards early art history contributions to Carriera’s recovery and acknowledgement, we must mention two monographs dating from the early twentieth century that marked an 5 Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Women Artists, 1976, 161. 6 Neither the 1995 exhibition nor the respective catalogue, Levey, ed., Splendori del Settecento veneziano, 1995, dedicated an extra section to Carriera. Merely four pastels and three miniatures were taken into consideration. 7 Jeffares, http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Carriera.pdf (accessed on 7 February 2017). 8 Dabbs, 2009, 337–47.

Introduction

15

initial, promising revival of interest in the painter. The first was published by Emilie von Hoerschelmann (1908)9 and the second by Vittorio Malamani (1910).10 Both scholars studied her work in conjunction with written sources, including some of her letters and diary entries. Yet in the decades that followed, hardly any other scholarly literature on the Venetian artist has appeared. It was not until 1985, when Bernardina Sani produced an edition of most of the surviving literary sources, including Carriera’s correspondence, her diaries and other documents concerning her life, that a decisive basis for research into her life and work has come into existence.11 Fortunately, Catherine Sama and Julia Kisacky are preparing the long-awaited translation into English of this unique treasure.12 Sani then wrote numerous articles on the subject and published a comprehensive monograph on the painter with the artist’s first catalogue raisonné in 1988, which the author later expanded and updated to reflect the latest research in a 2007 edition.13 Shortly before this, Ursula Mehler had published a short monograph on Rosalba Carriera in Germany in 2006.14 To her credit, she added contemporary documents pertaining to Johann Caspar Goethe (1710–1782), father of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), and how he knew about Carriera and praised her work. This material further illustrated the artist’s reputation and fame in eighteenth-century Germany. The same year, Neil Jeffares published his groundbreaking Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, in which he reassembled and presented pastels executed by artists of all schools in the eighteenth century and before. This ambitious and fundamental publication has been made available as an online version (Pastellists.com) that is regularly updated. It remains the largest and most complete source of information regarding pastels and pastel artists ever published. In honour of the 250th anniversary of the artist’s death, the Galleria di Palazzo Cini in Venice hosted an exhibition in September and October 2007; and in the context of this event, a conference was held entitled Rosalba Carriera, ‘Prima pittrice 9 Hoerschelmann, 1908. 10 Malamani, 1910. The author added an appendix with 104 letters of Carriera’s correspondence. 11 Sani, 1985. These documents are now part of the Ashburnham collection of manuscripts in the Laurentian Library in Florence, a ‘holding which consists of approximately 2,000 manuscripts once belonging to the mathematician and bibliophile Guglielmo Libri (1802–1869) who sold them in 1847 to Lord Bertram, fourth Count of Ashburnham. After the latter died in 1878, the Italian government bought the library and gave it to the Laurenziana in 1884. Most Ashburnham exemplars can be dated well before the eighteenth century and are often of Italian origin. Some of these codices had been stolen by Libri from various libraries in Italy and elsewhere.’ See the online catalogue of the library, https://www.bmlonline.it/la-biblioteca/cataloghi/fondoashburnham-catalogo/ (accessed on 26 April 2016), and Hoerschelmann, 1908, 7–8. Carriera’s diary, instead, was published before by Alfred Sensier in 1865. 12 The book project is entitled Rosalba Carriera: Correspondence of an Eighteenth-Century Venetian Artist, ed. and introduced Catherine Sama, trans. Julia Kisacky and Catherine Sama. I thank Catherine Sama for the communication of this project. 13 Sani, 1988, 2007b. 14 Mehler, 2006.

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THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROSALBA CARRIER A (1673–1757)

de l’Europa’. The exhibition catalogue (2007)15 and the publication of the proceedings of the conference, the Atti del Convegno (2009), are the most comprehensive publications on Carriera to have been completed in recent years.16 The contributions addressed a range of topics, including the painter’s artistic formation, her relationship with contemporary artists, collectors and commissioners both in and outside of Venice, her activity as a miniature painter, the most famous collections of her paintings in Dresden, and the presence of her works in museums in Russia, Venice and England. Also in recognition of Carriera’s anniversary in 2007, Harald Marx, at the time director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, which holds the largest collection of her pastels, and Andreas Henning, curator of Italian paintings of the same collections, published a book entitled Das Kabinett der Rosalba.17 Half of it concentrates on the artist herself, giving a detailed and updated account of her life, including some of the eighteenth-century protagonists with whom Carriera was acquainted, and discussing those of her works which are still kept in Dresden; but the authors also incorporate chapters on ten contemporary or later pastel painters like Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702–1789), Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788), Therese Concordia Maron (1725–1806), Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779) and many more, whose works are part of the Kunstsammlungen. Thea Burns’ book on The Invention of Pastel Painting was also published in 2007 in which the author follows a technical art history approach relating the materials and techniques of pastel paintings to their functions as cultural signs. She dedicated two insightful chapters to the pastels of Carriera.18 As for the analysis of eighteenth-century Venetian art in general and for the more specific study of Carriera herself, two publications need to be mentioned as being extremely illuminating and helpful. The first one is entitled Italian Culture in Northern Europe in the Eighteenth Century (1999) and was edited by Shearer West. In her introductory essay, West underlines the importance of studying the impact of Italian culture in northern Europe, an attempt for which her book was the first example. West’s multidisciplinary approach as well as her own insightful essay in the same compendium, ‘Gender and Internationalism: the case of Rosalba Carriera’, are particularly interesting in the context of my study. In her essay West also asks questions that are relevant to my research regarding the artist’s bourgeois background, on the one hand, and her public manner as an aristocrat on the other, her well-staged role as a modest, saintlike spinster which seems to contrast with her erotic and eroticizing art, and the limits of representation and self-representation. 15 16 17 18

Pavanello, ed., Rosalba Carriera ‘prima pittrice de l’Europa’, 2007. Pavanello, ed., Rosalba Carriera 1673–1757: Atti del Convegno, 2009. Henning and Marx, 2007. See Burns, 2007, chs. 5 and 6.

Introduction

17

The second volume that is worth mention is Richard Spear and Philip Sohm’s path-breaking book of 2010, Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painter. This volume gains by exposing the role that money had on the artists’ personal and professional lives. Even though Carriera is hardly ever mentioned in the book, the main fields of interest laid out in Sohm’s introduction – including the ethics and psychology of money, the market value that involves gifting and the average of prices of artworks – are of crucial importance to the analysis of Carriera’s position in her hometown. Sohm’s separate examination of the general situation for painters in Venice is equally helpful in putting the most successful of the female artists of the lagoon into a wider context. My inquiry centres on the Venetian artist who in the eighteenth century was also called the ‘queen of pastel’. It examines her oeuvre and creative processes and, for the first time, constructs a more intimate, personal, as well as professional, history of this unique female painter. This expanded and illustrated monograph questions previous assumptions, myths and stereotypical generalizations made regarding her career, her art and her life. In contrast to previous explorations, this research ascertains specific traits and attributes of Carriera that, once discovered and spelled out, become visible in all of the roles she assumed in her daily life: those of artist, businesswoman, intellectual, head of the family and single woman. Fundamental questions I ask are: What kind of artist was Carriera? How did she manage to build up her career? How did she run her business and organize her own workshop? Which role did she play within her family structure? What are the specific characteristics of her paintings? Which external and internal factors helped her achieve success? What do additional professional and private writings further reveal through the analysis offered in this book of the kind of person Carriera was in her public and private life? In which ways did the house where she lived become part of her self-fashioning? Finally, what do her self-portraits reveal in terms of self-enactment and possibly autobiographical turning points? The respective observations and thoughts are heavily based on the analysis of her letters and private notes that include diary entries and letters she collected from the year 1700 until her death in 1757. All offer a vast array of information rarely to be found elsewhere, especially on the life of a painter. As Michael Levey asserts, ‘No comparable literary treasure exists for any other artist of the era, and it is hard to imagine that any such ever existed in such scope.’19 Diaries serve as an inner monologue and represent the most intimate form of autobiographical reflection, whereas letters offer an opportunity for self-expression and for the exchange of personal and intellectual ideas between women. Letter writing in general, and epistolography in particular as a personal and empowering form

19 Levey, 1995, 30.

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THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROSALBA CARRIER A (1673–1757)

of communication for and between women, was, especially during the eighteenth century, of huge significance. The private letter, not the scholarly, official or business letter, and not even the fictive artistic product, but the personal, often spontaneous letter […] gave women the opportunity to cultivate social […] contacts and build friendships with other women, and – in a more restricted way – with men; to write about their own sphere of life gave women relevance and valourized, upgraded them. The letter documented and enlarged the living space of women, their mentality, their problems; it could be an authentic testimony, a genuine ego-document.20

As such, epistolary communication has been dealt with in numerous studies since the 1980s.21 To date, the sources regarding Carriera have been primarily used to reconstruct the chronology of her oeuvre and the identification of some of her portraits, but they offer much more to discover. Whether the artist planned to follow the example of the astonishing number of Italian women who published their letter collections is unclear but it does remain a possibility.22 The mere fact that the artist decided to conserve them is evidence – as Sani justly points out – of her interest in conserving the single steps, the various phases that led to her success: from the commissions, observations about her art, to the documentation of an international following that included a growing number of well-known and influential people from all over Europe.23 Furthermore, this book represents the first attempt to interpret some of Carriera’s most intriguing miniatures and pastel paintings, works whose astonishing popularity greatly enhanced her role as a Venetian artist. These pieces show that she was well-aware of the weight of local painting tradition, as well as the new possibilities it offered. Equal emphasis is put on the analysis of two important aspects of her artistry with these miniatures and pastel paintings: her capacities as an erudite history painter and her pioneering position as one of the first, if not the first internationally regarded female painter who produced erotic and eroticizing art. 20 Becker-Cantarino, 2000, 150. See also Adam, 2004, 8; Geyer-Kordesch, 2009, 179. 21 For a broad history of letter writing from the ancient Egyptians until the twentieth century, see Petrucci, 2008, and Kaborycha, 2016, 2–8. Regarding the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Petrucci, 2008, 111–28. On different theories as well as the role and significance of writing letters in the eighteenth century see Robert Heinz Vellusig, Schriftliche Gespräche: Briefkultur im 18. Jahrhundert (2000), and the extensive bibliography in Becker-Cantarino, 2000. The volume Per lettera: La scrittura femminile tra archivio e tipografia seoli XV–XVII, published in 1999, and edited by Gabriella Zarri, concentrates on letters as a fundamental part of female selfrepresentation and ideal documents reflecting major questions in social history, but is less poignant in our context, having excluded the eighteenth century. 22 For a list of Italian women’s single-authored letter collections published since the mid-fifteenth century see Kaborycha, trans. and ed., Corresponding Renaissance, 2016, 18. 23 Sani, 1985, I, 6.

Introduction

19

The opening chapter of this study, ‘Rosalba Carriera – An Independent Single Artist in Eighteenth-Century Venice’, introduces the protagonist within an exploration of how Carriera started her artistic career. It is inextricably linked to the discussion of some of her miniatures, the production of which marked the beginning of her professional life of a painter. Not surprisingly, her miniatures are even less known and studied than the pastel paintings she began executing at a later date. The smallness of these items does not make them easy to exhibit, which often leads institutions to close them away. This tendency has made it even more difficult for a broader public to become aware of them. Until the beginning of the twenty-first century, miniatures in general were largely overlooked in the art and museum world, as the word ‘portrait’, unless specified otherwise, is often tacitly understood to mean a tempera or oil painting. A newborn interest in those small-scale paintings among the art historians, however, has led to a series of exhibitions, catalogues, conferences and articles. Still, only an astonishingly small number of these new publications have concentrated on Carriera’s contributions to the field.24 What is primarily underlined in these writings is her innovative role in the development of technical aspects of these works, such as her use of ivory plates as a painting support or her unusually broad brush strokes;25 to date, hardly any of her pieces have been examined in depth from an art historical, more, specifically, iconographical point of view, and hardly any attempt has been made to place her works in a larger social context. Particularly helpful in this context are Marcia Pointon’s enlightening studies, ‘Surrounded with Brilliants: Miniature Portraits in Eighteenth-Century England’ and ‘Accessories as Portraits and Portraits as Accessories’.26 This inquiry continues with how Carriera became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and is followed by an analysis of her small-scale paintings in the section entitled ‘A New Reading of Carriera’s World en miniature’. An unsuspectedly high level of erudition and creativity is revealed in these pieces when compared with some oil paintings by Federico Bencovich (1677–1753) and especially by Paolo Veronese (1528–1588). The conspicuous qualities of her paintings are evident in her methods of adaptation and her reinterpretation of their works. Carriera was consciously inserting herself into the tradition of the ‘golden age’ of Venetian painting, 24 One of the first attempts to reconsider and study miniatures from a modern art historical point of view was the exploration of the Collection Tansey in Germany in Pappe and Schieglitz-Otten, eds., Miniaturen aus der Sammlung Tansey, 2000. The analysis of the numerous pieces led to a more specific catalogue that concentrated on the miniatures of the Rococo period, Miniaturen des Rokoko aus der Sammlung Tansey, also prepared by Bernd Pappe and Juliane Schieglitz-Otten, published in 2008. Two years later, Stephen Duffy and Christoph Martin Vogtherr presented their study on the Miniatures in the Wallace Collection. In 2016, Pappe and Juliane Schieglitz-Otten published another catalogue presenting Miniatures from the Baroque Period in the Tansey Collection. The various paintings executed by Carriera in those collections found little consideration, and in 2018, the same scholars presented their latest study, Portrait Miniatures. 25 See especially Bernardo Falconi’s contributions published in 2008 and 2009. 26 Pointon, 2001, 2016.

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while also proving she was aware of the contemporary innovations of her colleagues. I argue that Carriera was also familiar with both ancient myths and Renaissance literature, which she drew upon in adapting her colleagues’ works to her own witty inventions. One of the most fascinating aspects of some of her pieces is their eroticism, either thinly veiled or overt. Mary Sheriff’s study on Fragonard: Art and Eroticism has been fundamental in illuminating this aspect of Carriera’s work.27 Interesting also were the reactions of some of her clients or the complete silence in her correspondence about her titillating art. Owners’ effusive responses reflect the ways her commissioners and the artist interacted, but they are equally precious indicators of the specific handling and specific function of miniatures in general. They were objects of mainly private consumption and were all haptic – two aspects that play an important role when discussing the subject matters depicted on them, especially when they offered erotic or eroticizing images. Chapter 2, ‘Carriera’s Discovery of Pastel Painting’, elucidates the second phase of the artist’s career, which led to a real milestone: her discovery of pastel painting. The discourse on this history of her preferred medium is based on scholarly contributions by Kosek, McCullagh, Shelley, Burns and Jeffares.28 These investigate the various advantages the technique offered, and the role Carriera played in its historical agenda. The fact that during the lifetime of Carriera an explosion in theoretical literature on pastel painting appeared on the market is another topic of this chapter.29 The artist herself played a pivotal role in the writings on her preferred medium. Evidence of this role appears in her personal notes and recipes, either copied or invented by herself, for the making of colours and pastel sticks. These technical issues, which read as if written in a handbook, were published by Manlio Brusatin in 2005 under the title Maniere diverse per formare i colori nella pitttura tratta dalle memorie manoscritte della pitttrice Rosalba Carriera.30 The same chapter analyses ‘Carriera in the Art World of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Venice’. Based on the above-mentioned publication Painting for Profit (2010), it is possible to illuminate the painter’s role as a woman artist within the Venetian art world and art market. Comparing the prices of her works of art with contemporary artists shows that, despite being a miniature and pastel painter, 27 Sheriff, 1990. 28 Besides the information Jeffares included in his dictionary of the history of pastel painting, Kosek in her 1998 article on the heyday of pastels in the eighteenth century and McCullagh’s contribution to the study of French portraits executed in the same medium have summarized the development and increasing fame and popularity of the technique. See http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Carriera.pdf (accessed on 10 March 2018); Kosek, 1998; McCullagh, 2006; Burns, 2007; Shelley, 2011. 29 See the list of treatises in Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Misc/Treatises.pdf#search=%22historyof pastel%22. 30 Brusatin, 2005, 91.

Introduction

21

Carriera managed, not only to make a living, but also to reach unprecedented success as a woman. Krellig’s research on her lifestyle, her financial situation – including the various forms of investments she made – is another helpful source to give a bigger picture of what ‘success’ meant and implied for Carriera.31 From a purely entrepreneurial point of view, an important part of her achievement was to rely more on foreigners than on local clients, taking advantage of the continuous flux of travellers who came to Venice to visit the city, to enjoy the many forms of entertainments and to buy art. Chapter 3, ‘Carriera’s International Network’, gives voice to the artist’s surprising and singular career. It delineates the various figures and relationships that helped her to assert herself as a painter both locally and internationally. The final section of this chapter, ‘The Importance of “Owning a Carriera”’, explores a particularly interesting aspect of her international success that can be gauged from her correspondence: the artist’s widespread fame led to a new aesthetic convention. At a certain point, the ownership of a work by Carriera began to count more than her ability either to depict a specific subject or to execute a painting with a specific technique. And this exceptional aspect, I argue later in Chapter 5, led to ‘the importance of “being a Carriera”’, which denotes the phenomenon of acquiring and presenting a recognizable identity that clients desired to associate themselves with. Chapter 4 focuses on what was probably the most influential time in Carriera’s life: her stay in Paris during the years 1720–21. Central to the account of her experiences in France is the analysis of the procedure of her admittance to the Accadémie de Peinture et Sculpture. My interpretation of the reception piece that Carriera submitted reveals fundamental aspects of the artist’s intellectual and methodological approach. She makes references to ekphrastic discourses and alludes to outstanding examples of Italian and French art in this piece in ways that, I argue, prove her to be an excellent and erudite history painter. These qualities are even more pronounced than Mary Sheriff shows in her study on Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and Angela Rosenthal in the context of Angelica Kauffmann.32 Carriera sent a letter to Paris that contains a detailed description of her reception piece and reveals how she drew upon Italian Renaissance and French Baroque art. This letter further offers the possibility of inserting this event into the sister-arts and paragone debate which follows the discourses that have been opened primarily by Hagstrum’s pioneering work of 1958, The Sister Arts: A History of Literary Pictorialism and English Poetry from Dryden to Gray. Regarding the eighteenth century, the collection of essays in Articulate Images: The Sister Arts from Hogarth to Tennyson, edited by Richard Wendorf in 1983, represents one of the main contributions to the field. The 31 Krellig, 2017. 32 Sheriff, 1996, and Rosenthal, 1996.

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most recent study of the sister-arts debate that analyses the relationship between visual arts and literature is Thora Brylowe’s book Romantic Art in Practice, in 2019. Even though the author focuses on the English cultural world between 1760 and 1820, the way she describes how the sister-arts practice reveals both inconsistent and flexible notions of what the ‘sisters’ were reveals key features of how Carriera went about building her own artistic authority. The mechanisms that the respective artists and craftsmen used show interesting parallels to what Carriera was doing in Venice.33 She not only highlights the parallels between painting and poetry following the Horatian formula ut pictura poesis, but she introduces the relational complexities of her personification to celebrate the supremacy of the visual arts and to define herself and her role as female painter in eighteenth-century Venice. A central contribution of this study is Chapter 5 in which Carriera’s oeuvre in pastel will be examined. In the first part of the inquiry I focus on her specialty, that is, pastel portraits. My aim is to convey that her success is based on the ways her paintings can be inserted both within the tradition of Venetian painting since the Renaissance and current discourses about various identity-shaping mechanisms. I reflect upon how much the famed ‘Venetian myth’ played a role in her artistic production and also on how her flattering depictions of most of her clients can be understood as the creation of Carriera’s group identity. By referring to what has become known as the ‘Kneller mask’, and by drawing upon Thea Burns’ research on the role of makeup in the eighteenth century,34 I develop a discourse on the ‘Importance of Being a Carriera’. The high status of owning ‘a Carriera’ explains why critics, connoisseurs and art lovers during the artist’s life did not criticize the uniformity in some of her works in the same harsh way that modern art historians or critics have done in the past and still do. Yet there do exist individualized portraits in which the artist abandoned a unifying formula; her likeness of Sister Maria Caterina and her portraits of the mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni (1697/1700–1781) are discussed as outstanding examples of Carriera’s capacity to make character studies and to mingle allegorical images with portraits. A particularly beautiful and captivating example is her portrait of her favourite student, Felicita Sartori (c.1714–1760), in which various levels of meaning are subtly combined. I also analyse other themes treated by Carriera in the pastel painting technique: she contributes to theme of the ‘galleries of beauty’, a discourse profoundly explored by Wenzel,35 that became particularly popular during the eighteenth century. Subject matters arising from mythology and paintings with religious content will be investigated as well. 33 See Brylowe, 2019, 5. 34 See Burns 2002b and 2007. 35 See Wenzel 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

Introduction

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Among Carriera’s pastel portraits and mythological works are some particularly fascinating eroticizing pieces that I read, as in the case of some of her miniatures, in combination with comments by her contemporaries. I use these interpretations to reflect on how clients and collectors in her own lifetime perceived and treated these outstanding works and to highlight the kind of confidence and openness that existed between them and the artist. Another question discussed in this chapter is how Carriera and her clients and friends inserted the artist and her paintings into the paragone debate, especially in its focus on the advantages of painting versus writing. I argue that her role in this debate is another contribution to the numerous studies on the sister arts I have mentioned. Chapter 6, ‘The Single Woman, the Spinster’, centres on Carriera’s status as an unmarried woman, a topic of frequent discussion among her contemporaries and early biographers. I explore the possible reasons behind Carriera’s unconventional decision not to enter into marriage; I also take a close look at the advantages she experienced by remaining single. It will not be possible to establish how much the artist was involved in emancipatory discourses of her time, such as Moderata Fonte’s (1555–1592) Il merito delle donne (The worth of women) or Lucrezia Marinella’s (1571–1653) Le nobiltà e l’eccellenza delle donne co’ difetti e mancamenti di gli huomini (The nobility and excellence of women with the defects and deficiencies of men).36 But the fact that Carriera was introduced to one of the most fundamental English feminist texts of the day, Judith Drake’s Essay in Defence of the Female Sex (1669), and had even translated parts of it, is convincing evidence that she was indeed aware of the feminist issues of her time. Equal attention is given to the artist’s personal approaches; that is, she carefully chose the tactics she used to create such an exceptional position for herself in the complex cultural world she inhabited. This chapter explores and documents, how Carriera came to market herself as a ‘curiosity’ of Venice, advertising her work consequently as something quite literally extraordinary. Like other eighteenth-century women, Carriera constructed her own social network to compensate for being excluded as a single woman from those networks occupied by women with supportive husbands and patrons. Studies with a sociological approach, like Hufton’s article ‘Women, Work and Family’ (1995),37 or Slatkin’s comprehensive book on Women Artists in History (2001, first published in 1985) and her Voices of Women Artists (1993)38 as well as Borzello’s A World of Our Own: Women as Artists (2000)39 are just four of the fundamental texts used in this analysis.

36 The first edition was revised and expanded in 1601 and 1621; V. Cox, 1995, 513. See also Malpezzi Price/ Ristaino, 2008. 37 In Hufton, 1995, 15–45. 38 Slatkin, 1993, 2001. 39 Borzello, 2000.

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In Chapter 7, I depict the last journeys and final years of Carriera’s life, which includes a trip to Mantua, another to the Habsburg court in Vienna, and a description of her devastating illness before dying in 1757. The final chapter explores other unique strategies of self-fashioning that Carriera adopted to become so uniquely successful. The discourse starts off with a discussion of how the palace on the Grand Canal she lived in represents a three-dimensional self-portrait, where furniture, wall decorations and household items play together in the creation of a persona. Rosenthal’s study of Angelica Kauffmann and Modesti’s book on Elisabetta Sirani with their respective reflections on the role of the workshop for a woman painter also contain important information for this inquiry.40 Particularly helpful as well is Rosenthal’s article ‘She’s Got the Look’ that offers fundamental considerations regarding the complicated position of a female portraitist working in the same room with male clients.41 Recognizing her house as a multifunctional space where the artist lived and worked, and where she and her family regularly received a conspicuous number of guests, scholarly discourses on the function and meaning of salons since the seventeenth century are considered as well. The early research by Molmenti, ‘Galanterie e salotti veneziani’ (1904), is the first attempt to reconstruct parts of the Venetian salon culture. In 2003, a conference on Italian salons between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries took place in Milan, the proceedings of which were published in 2004 in a book edited by Elena Brambilla and Maria Luisa Betri that is the first and to date the most comprehensive study of Italian salon culture and the role that women played in it, with a comprehensive bibliography.42 Tiziana Plebani, whose studies cover various aspects of the culture of conversation during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, contributed to the latter publication with an analysis that includes not only the salons in Venice but also the role of other places and spaces of social and conversational life such as the casini, the theatres, and the botteghe da caffè (coffee houses) or the squares.43 Following Tiziana Plebani’s studies on public space and public and social life, Irene Zanini-Cordi published an article in 2013 on the botteghe da caffè as a locus of Venetian (engendered) sociability. Hers is a more recent study on another phenomenon like the salon where conversation and social gatherings catalysed social change and cultural shifts.44 Renate Unfer Lukoschik edited a revealing volume entitled Der Salon als kommunikations- und transfergeneriererender 40 Rosenthal, 1996, and Modesti, 2014. 41 Rosenthal, 1997. 42 Salotti e ruolo femminile in Itala tra fine Seicento e primo Novecento, in 2004. 43 Plebani, 2004, 153. For some of the numerous articles and books published by Plebani, see the bibliography at the end of this book. 44 See for example Plebani’s article on social life and conversations in Venice (2004) or on the relationship between the state and the emotions (2012) as well as her book on chocolate (1991). See also Zanini-Cordi, 2013, 26–50.

Introduction

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Kulturraum, with contributions on primarily Italian salons arising from two conferences held between January 2007 and May 2008.45 The second part of this chapter examines some of Carriera’s most famous self-portraits in which I agree with De Girolami Cheney et al. in regarding this specific, artistic form of self-representation as a ‘source of revelation, not merely a signature’.46 By leaving this discussion to the end, I intend it to complete the picture of Carriera I paint in preceding chapters on her role as a female painter and her well-calculated tactical moves intended to promote a specific image of herself. Based on the findings of the previous chapters, I bring my reading of Carriera’s self-portraits to bear on the more general discussion of eighteenth-century female portraits in studies such as Frances Borzello’s Seeing Ourselves: Women’s Self-Portraits (1998)47 and the comprehensive study Self-Portraits by Women Painters by Liana De Girolami Cheney, Alicia Craig Faxon, and Kathleen Lucey Russo, first published in 2000 and then again in 2009.48 Susan Sidlauskas’ article, “Not-Beautiful: A Counter Theme in the History of Women’s Portraiture” (2008),49 and Roziska Parker and Griselda Pollock’s Old Mistresses: Woman, Art and Ideology (2013)50 are further helpful sources in the examination of some of Carriera’s self-portraits. Also Woods-Marsden’s book on Renaissance self-portraiture (1998),51 Brown’s study The Painter’s Reflection (2000)52 as well as the exhibition catalogue on Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque (2007)53 are taken into consideration in the exploration of Carriera’s different ways of depicting herself. Particularly intriguing in this context are two paintings: her self-portrait in the Uffizi and her last self-portrait in the Accademia in Venice that appears in the respective literature as a depiction of Tragedy. The painting in Florence is discussed, for it showcases in the most conspicuous way the strategies the artist used to create a specific image of herself, while her work in Venice reveals other aspects. The way was pointed to the discovery of a fundamental key to a code I use for reading this fascinating piece by Sohm’s influential study The Artist Grows Old (2007) in which artists’ experience of ageing is explored in conjunction of how collectors, clients, critics and biographers dealt with old painters, Campbell’s research on portraits of old women in early modern Italy (2010) and Dabbs’ insightful article on portraits of the aged women artist (2012). Dabbs study offers the possibility of contextualizing the 45 Unfer Lukoschik, 2008. Surprisingly, although the focus was on the Italian peninsula, none of the scholars participating in the debate published an inquiry on Venice. 46 De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, p. xxvi. 47 Borzello, 1998. 48 De Girolamo Cheney et al., 2009. 49 Sidlauskas, 2008. 50 Parker and Pollock, 2013 [1981]. 51 Woods-Marsden, 1998. 52 Brown, 2000. 53 Fortunati Pietrantonio et al., 2007.

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painting in Venice within a specific genre; it is the exploration of the link between the painting and Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia – though, first published in 1593, and again in 1603 –leading to a new interpretation of the work. Instead of representing ‘Tragedy’, it more likely is the depiction of ‘Melancholy’ and of ‘Old Age’. Unless otherwise noted, all the translations from Italian and French into English were made by Martino Trexler, the ones from German into English are mine.

1 Rosalba Carriera – An Independent Single Artist in Eighteenth-Century Venice Even during her lifetime, Rosalba Carriera was celebrated, not only as the most important woman artist of Italy, but also as the most renowned female painter in all of Europe. Numerous letters from home and from abroad bear witness to her status and contain boundless recognition and admiration; everywhere hymns were sung in praise of her skill and her personality, often in lofty and impassioned language: ‘Not without due cause is Signora Rosalba valued as an ornament of Italy, and Europe’s foremost female artist’,1 ‘She fills Europe with her works’, ‘[Rosalba is] one of the brightest lights in painting that your Italy has ever given us’,2 ‘[…] the glory of her sex’, ‘the most talented female artist of our century.’3 During the eighteenth century, her international reputation and fame grew to the point that the father of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Johann Caspar Goethe, and the French artist, engraver and writer Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715–1790) referred to her simply as ‘Signora Rosalba’ or ‘Mademoiselle Rosalba’.4 It had long since become unnecessary to add her surname in order to identify her. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century an art historian echoed a similar euphoria: ‘the once all-admired Venetian diva, […] at whose feet the gentility lay – not only from her home country, but also from all cultivated states in the Europe of her time – languishing for the work of her palette.’5

Carriera’s Early Years Rosalba Carriera was born on Rio di San Barnaba in the Contrada di San Basilio in Venice on 12 January 1673 to Alba Foresti (1655–1738) and Andrea Carriera (1645– 1719). Her father was himself the son of a painter, Costantino from Loreo,6 but instead of following his father’s devotion to art, Andrea earned a living for his family as a lawyer. Historians describe Andrea Carriera as a slightly insecure, latently timorous 1 ‘la signora Rosalba giustamente stimata un ornamento d’Italia et prima pittrice de l’Europa.’ Sani, 1985, I, 89. 2 ‘la gloire de son sexe’, ‘[…] elle remplit Europe de ses ouevres’, ‘uno dei più grandi lumi di pittura che ci abbia dati la vostra Italia’; quoted by Pavanello, 2007a, 57. 3 “la più virtuosa pittrice del nostro secolo”; Abate N.N., 1843 [1755], 21. 4 Mehler, 2006, 5; Cochin, 1773, 160. 5 Hoerschelmann, 1908, 5. 6 Del Negro, 2007, 33.

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_ch01

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man.7 After beginning his career in the civil service in Venice as a cancelliere (government employee), he was promoted by 1701 at the latest to capitano and vicario, which required that he work for extended periods of time in Aviano in the north-east area of Italy called Friuli.8 During the second half of 1671, Andrea married Alba Foresti, daughter of Don Anzolo Foresti.9 Except for the few descriptions by some of Carriera’s contemporaries, and some aspects of her mother mentioned in the literature about the artist, unfortunately little is known about Alba. What is generally indicated is that she was talented with handicrafts and had a passion for the production of lace and embroidery. It was the increasing success of her eldest daughter that motivated Alba to play an important role in Venice and in the artist’s professional life by acting as a liaison between the painter and her friends and potential clients. She cultivated her daughter’s relations through the exchange of letters and gifts with clients and admirers.10 In addition, she invited guests and held receptions at the Carriera home in Venice and also abroad.11 A little-known portrait, which is ascribed to Francesco Pavona (1695–1777) and is part of the collection of the Palazzo Mocenigo in Venice, is said to represent Alba Foresti. If this picture really does portray the artist’s mother as the inscription on the back suggests, further interesting aspects regarding Alba come to light: she is depicted half-length, sitting on a chair, her gaze fixed on the observer, while her left arm rests on books and sheet music on a small table by her side, and she holds in her other hand an open tabatière or snuffbox.12 In light of the utensils shown on the table, this fairly unambitious portrait does not underscore her love of handicrafts and her capacities as embroiderer and maker of the famous Venetian lace, but instead it emphasizes her intellectual capabilities and her musical and literary interests. The tabatière could refer to her being a woman of fashion – we know 7 Zava, 2007, 15. 8 Most extensively regarding Andrea Carriera see Del Negro, 2007, 33–35, and Del Negro, 2009, 51–55. 9 Contrary to the long-held view that Alba came from humble beginnings, her father’s honorific of Don indicates a respected rank; see Mehler, 2006, 10. 10 Del Negro, 2009, 50. 11 Record of this can be found, for example, in an entry Carriera made in her diary on 7 December 1720, where she wrote that her mother had hosted and entertained princesses and duchesses during their trip to Paris, while she herself spent time in the art academy. ‘Went to the Accademia; meanwhile there came to our apartment where my Mother was, Princesses, Duchesses etc.’ The original text reads: ‘Andata all’Accademia; nel qual tempo vene al nostro appartamento ov’era mia Madre, Prencipesse, Duchesse etc.’ Sani, 1985, II, 771. 12 Mehler, 2009, 172. Pavona knew Carriera, as proved by a letter written by him on 13 November 1741 that would have accompanied a box of pastel sticks he apparently sent from Bologna to Venice. Sani, 1985, II, 677. A note by Baron Frederick de Walter, who accompanied King Frederick IV of Denmark (1671–1730) on his travels through Italy, documents that Carriera executed a portrait of her mother at the beginning of the eighteenth century. On 24 March 1709, he confirmed the picture’s arrival in Florence and he told Carriera of the extremely positive reaction to this work: ‘The portrait of Madame your Mother has been viewed by His Highness the Grand Duke and received his approbation to the highest degree, just as it received it from all of Florence. Thus your portrait will also be most welcome in the gallery of His Highness.’ The original reads: ‘Le portrait de Madame votre Mère a été vu de S.A.R. le Mgr le Grand Duc et a eu son approbation au suprème degré, comme aussi celle de tout Florence. Aussi le votre sera le très bien venu dans la gallerie de S.A.R. le.’ Sani, 1985, I, 128. As far as I can tell, the painting in question is either lost, or has not been identified – yet.

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that she did snuff tobacco herself13 – as well as to her role as the proud mother of the eminent painter who decorated these attractive collector’s items.14 Alba ensured that all of her daughters received an excellent, above-average education; they were not only taught embroidery and the production of lace, an activity they continued throughout their lives,15 but also music, Latin and French. As the firstborn Carriera girl, Rosalba was also known to have been widely informed about the classics and contemporary poetry. The sisters’ curriculum, which was a mark of high society, was relatively uncommon for the Venetian girls at that time.16 Ten days after the birth of the future artist, according to her baptismal certificate dated 22 January 1673, the newborn was christened with the names ‘Rosalba and Zuanna’ (Giovanna). Her godfather was Carlo Gabrieli, an influential and wellknown notary who proved to be extremely helpful to her during her later career.17 Just over two and a half years later, on 7 October 1675, Alba gave birth to another girl, Giovanna Carriera. Documents pertaining to this second child, who was called by friends and family ‘Neneta’ or ‘Zanina’, state that she too was officially baptized as Rosalba Zuanna. Del Negro explains this fact by suggesting that the first Carriera girl was possibly so ill as a small child that her parents feared the worst and so gave 13 See Sani, 1985, I, 382, n. 1. 14 Carriera made a portrait of her mother, to date unknown, which is documented by a letter that the representative of the Danish king, Frederik de Walter (1649–1718), wrote on 24 March 1709, and by Carriera’s answer on 30 March, the same year; see Sani, 1985, I, 128 and 130. In the context of Alba’s interests, intellect and education, a passage from a letter that mentions her is worthy of note. On 6 March 1706, a friend of the family, the Augustinian Felice Ramelli (1666–1740), wrote to Carriera from Rome: ‘She is surely the woman who, to my knowledge, has the clearest vision of the world’. The original reads: ‘Elle est assurement la femme de ma connoissance la plus clair voyante du monde’. Sani, 1985, I, 97. Equally interesting is the fact that Ramelli, who dedicated himself quite successfully to miniature painting as well, expressed in his Christmas greetings of 1720 that he hoped that the mother of the three girls would have enough interesting books to devour. Regarding Ramelli’s role as an artist, see Johns, 2003, 23. 15 See for example a letter by Giovanna written in Vienna in 1530 where she makes clear references to the various techniques and to how the different fashion in Austria would have given them less work in that field; Sani, 1985, II, 514. She also let her mother know that she found some flower patterns for her; see Sani, 1985, II, 518. 16 Del Negro, 2007, 35. Rosalba’s sister Giovanna wrote both Latin and Italian poetry. See Sani, 1985, II, 826–27. In addition, Carriera exerted herself in English, which was a fact also known among her contemporaries. ‘Even Signora Rosalba speaks French and English fluently.’ The original text reads: ‘Anche la Sig.a Rosalba favella francamente francese e inglese’. Sani, 1985, II, 804. See also Del Negro, 2007, 35. 17 The baptismal certificate stating: ‘[22 January 1672] Rosalba and Zuanna daughter of Signor Andrea Carriera Chancelor, and of Signora Alba Foresti his spouse was born on the 12 of said lives in the neighbourhood of St. Basil. Signor Indoro Serali on behalf of the very illustrious and most reverend Monsignor Primicerio Sanudo of St. Mark’s and Signor Bonandin Bonandini Nodaro da Loreo and Sig. John Bap.st Vicentini in said place Archdeacon Cadenazzo baptizing.’ The original text reads: ‘Adì d.to [22 Genaro 1672 m.v.] Rosalba et Zuanna figlia del Signor Andrea Carriera Cancelier, et della Signora Alba Foresti di lui Consorte nacque li 12 detto stà nella Contrà di S. Baseglio Il Signor Indoro Serali per parte dell’Ill.mo et Rev.mo Monsignor Primicerio Sanudo di S. Marco et il Signor Bonandin Bonandini Nodaro da Loreo et il Sig. Gio Batt Vicentini in ditto loco Battezzò Arciprete Cadenazzo.’ Archivio Storico del Patriarcato di Venezia, Parrocchio di S. Pietro, Registri dei battesmini, reg. n. 15, c. 108. Quoted by Zava Boccazzi, 1996a, 94. Regarding the role that the entire family Gabrieli played in the Carriera family over three generations, see Krellig, 2017, 97.

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Figure 1 Carriera’s house on the Grand Canal Archive of the author

their second-born daughter the same name.18 Two years later, on 10 September 1677, the youngest of the three daughters, Anzola (Angela) Cecilia, also called ‘Anzoletta’, was born. Little is known about the first two decades of Carriera’s life except for the fact that she early on set up her workshop and instructed her sisters in painting there, while also producing her earliest artworks. These included the above-mentioned paintings for the lids of tabatières and other types of miniatures. The practice of teaching her sisters had been common in artists’ families since the Renaissance, and reflected the classical role allocated to the oldest daughter, which was to take responsibility alongside the parents for her younger siblings.19 It was not long before this particular oldest child became the one to whom both parents always deferred. As the first born, she took over many of her father’s duties during his absences and soon she occupied the position of the head of the family, which both her parents and sisters treated respectfully. In 1700, the family moved from the Rio di San Barnaba to a house on the Grand Canal in the quarter of San Vio, next to the Ca’Venier dei Leoni (Figure 1), after a contract in Alba Carriera’s name was signed on 1 November 1700 with a nobleman called Matteo Zambelli.20 18 Del Negro, 2007, 34. 19 Famous examples of artists who taught their sisters are Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588), Sofonisba Anguissola (1532–1624) and Elisabetta Sirani, just to name a few. Regarding women artists from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century who taught other women and/or family members, see ffolliott, 2016, 23. 20 The address on the letters reads ‘S. Vio tra ca’ da Mula e Ca’/ Venier sopra Canal/ Venezia’. See for example Sani, 1985, I, 272.

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An additional document signed in May 1701 shows that the main occupant’s name on the contract was altered to be Rosalba Carriera.21 While the ambitious artist was working on building her career, she apparently had also begun to oversee the general running of the household. The fact that Carriera started to collect her correspondence in 1700, the year when the family moved into the palace on the Grand Canal, could be read as a sign she was becoming more and more conscious of the beginning of a new phase of her family life and of herself as a public person. The city where Carriera was born remained the core of Italy’s most successful republic and, despite its waning international significance, Venice remained a hub of continental culture. The long celebrated ‘La Serenissima’, the most serene maritime republic, faced a period of decadence during its last century of independence before the end of the Republic was declared in 1797. The decline that the city and its proverbial grandiosity were undergoing is measurable on different levels. The definite loss of its holdings in Turkey, Greece and the East during the first twenty years of the eighteenth century noticeably reduced its dominions. Already by the end of the sixteenth century, its foreign trade was being diminished by the opening of new trade routes to the East. But even before the beginning of the economic decline, the numbers of Venetian nobility were drastically shrinking. As the ruling class who ran the government consisted exclusively of members of the nobility, ‘the Venetian State, in whom power ultimately resided, was led to elevate large numbers of new men (not families) who reinforced conceptions of the nobility as a caste of wealth and administrative expertise.’22 And these newcomers were not always as highly esteemed. As Logan put it: eighteenth-century Venice was characterized by ‘economic, political and social structures that had become ossified’,23 one consequence of which was an exponentially expanding poverty. Steward pointed out that the number of citizens defined as poor and subsidized by the state grew from 445 in 1586 to a potentially threatening 17,956 in 1760, to a total of 23,015 in 1787. At the same time one-sixth of the population was sustained by officially administered charity.24 As economic decline, social tensions and political difficulties clouded Venice during the eighteenth century, the Republic’s geopolitical position became increasingly fragile. Paradoxically, these threats to La Serenissima gave birth to a richly flowering cultural production. Music, painting and the decorative arts started to bloom again by the end of the seventeenth century, and an increase can be seen in the 21 Zava Boccazzi, 1981, 217. Carriera never bought the palace, keeping in line with the habit of most of the local population in the eighteenth century; 95 per cent of Venetians were renters (see Ago, 2010, 268), and all but one painter in Venice rented (Sohm, 2010, 19). 22 Of these, three-fifths were traders or merchants, one-fifth were lawyers and professional men, and onefifth were nobles of the terra ferma. Steward, 1996, 15–16. Regarding the difficulties, Venice had to keep the class of the nobility pure since the fifteenth century; see for example J. C. Davis, Decline of the Venetian Nobility as a Ruling Class (1962). 23 Logan, 1972, 271. 24 Steward, 1996, 16.

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importance and number of the celebrations, processions and festivals like carnival, at least two every month. These entertainments probably served as a kind of disguise and camouflage to hide unpleasant realities; they also delighted and distracted the remarkable and steady growth of visitors who travelled to Venice, which was not likened to any other place in Europe. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, between 30,000 and 40,000 foreigners are estimated to have been present in the city.25 They came not only to see the spectacular city in the lagoon with its splendid art and architecture, but also to indulge in its world of luxury and libertinism for which it was well-known far beyond its borders. Pleasure-seekers did not have to search very hard as the months-long carnival season had been artificially protracted beyond October to February. During carnival visitors travelled to see Piazza San Marco’s ceremonial processions, dances, bullfights, acrobatic displays, wrestling and boxing tournaments and fireworks; and at all times of the year they joined in on masquerades where, as a contemporary witness put it, participants could “forget all marks of distinction, and resign themselves up to joy and liberty, frequently attended with folly and great disorder.”26 Also annually occurring were thirty-six ducal processions. On 9 May tens of thousands of visitors from various parts of Italy and from abroad arrived for the Ascension Day celebrations including the so-called ‘Sposalizio del Mar’ (the Marriage of the Sea), which symbolized the Venetian domination over the Adriatic.27 This was also a time when gaming houses, which took their name from the Venetian word for small house casino, became very popular. In 1638, the Ridotto became an official, government-owned gambling house established in the Palazzo Dandolo on the Grand Canal. But there were also private parlours to go to, like those of Elena Priuli Venier or Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo (b.1715) (see Figure 19).28 At the time of the end of the Republic in 1797, there were 136 gambling houses in Venice, but nobles also played and betted in cafes, theatres and barbershops.29 To enter a casino did not exclusively mean to go gambling; some became well-established places where males and females came together for informal, entertaining and literally playful communication.30 In 1744, Venice registered various types of casini, the majority of which were run by women.31 Similar to the casini were other places where sociability facilitated 25 Rossi, 1996, 426. 26 Hibbert, 1987, 132. 27 Whitaker, 2017, 15–16. 28 Regarding the meetings at her casino, see Plebani, 2004, 163–65. 29 Ferraro, 2012, 193–94. 30 Compared to coffee houses, they could be more easily heated and offered a more intimate space to meet outside of houses or palaces, away from watchful family members. They offered ways for aristocrats to mingle with citizens, male and female, and also opportunities for women to run or rent out casini by themselves, gain noteworthy independence and organize a social life apart from that of their husbands, including also the possibility of conducting love affairs. Plebani, 2004, 160–61. 31 There existed the so-called casini di conversazione, the ones for prostitutes, the ones for gambling, the ones for lunches, the ones for men and foreigners, the ones for nobles and citizens, those for husbands and wives, and those exclusively for men. As Plebani points out, social differences or hierarchies played a

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communication and social mobility like the famous coffee houses, the first of which was opened in 1683 under the colonnades of the Procuratie Nuove. The places where people consumed this modern, exotic drink, which were called botteghe da caffè, became so popular that by 1763, Venice hosted 213 of them.32 However, these entertaining locations in Venice offered much more than conversation and refreshments. A wide assortment of concubines, courtesans and prostitutes, for which Venice was well-known throughout Europe, could satisfy all kinds of desires. Their numbers are astonishing: in the seventeenth century as many as 20,000 courtesans were to be found in Venice, out of an estimated city population of around 160,000.33 Sexual commerce added a flair to Venetian frivolity that in the eighteenth century the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) made even more famous around Europe. At the same time, the intellectual culture in Venice turned back to its roots, with significant results. Printing in Venice had been of paramount importance during the Renaissance, and by the seventeenth century Venice was also recognized as the city of books and booksellers. Considered to be one of the most prolific publishing centres in Europe, the city also brought forth Italian journalism; it became ‘a focal point for the collection, production, and diffusion of political and military news, such that the tool destined to be the principal vehicle for such news in the following centuries, the gazette, is generally attributed to Venetian origins.’34 The importance of theatre to Venetian culture and society in that period can hardly be overestimated. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the city boasted fourteen active theatres, at least eight of which were continuously open during the year. A broad public consisting not only of aristocrats, but also of the lower and middle classes,35 flocked to see the latest dramas and comedies by numerous playwrights such as Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), the first major Italian professional dramatist, and minor role, and so this liberty, especially for women, provoked criticism from different sectors, including the local magistrates, which led to the Venetian state’s attempts during the eighteenth century to prohibit the gatherings by closing some of the casini. 32 Zanini-Cordi stresses in her enlightening article on Venetian coffee houses that these then-new and modern institutions were important places, physically and metaphorically, for bringing together a socially and economically diverse group of people, women included. In this new locus of sociability and creativity, the democratic nature of these interactions caused ‘reverberations within the social, but also political sphere, eventually undermining support for the status quo of forms of obligation’. Zanini-Cordi, 2013, 22–23 and 27. Apart from representing public spaces for enjoying the new beverage while indulging in conversation and other forms of sociability, these cafes offered also another kind of service: Their rooms could be rented out for private parties or meetings of groups of nobles, men or women, and even gatherings without gender restrictions, called compagnie di nobili. Zanini-Cordi, 2013, 31. 33 Hibbert, 1987, 136. 34 Domenico Caminer (1721–1795) is considered to be the true founder of modern Italian journalism, as he was the author of a multitude of these printed periodicals, called both gazette and avvisi; Infelise, 2013, 655–56. In 1768, for example, he founded L’Europa letteraria, one of the most important literary journals in Venice. 35 Nicastro, 2011, 151.

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his rivals Pietro Chiari (1712–1785) and Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806).36 Connected with the Venetian the world of theatre, where musical drama predominated, is seventeenth-century Venice’s revolution in music in general, which resonated throughout Europe.37 During carnival from October to February, as well as from Ascension Day to mid-June and during September several public opera houses were open to entertain Venetians and foreigners alike. The world’s first opera was staged in Florence in the late sixteenth century, but Venice fully developed the genre, turning the city into Europe’s undisputed capitol of musical drama.38 By the end of the eighteenth century, nineteen opera houses in the city offered many new performances each season and also attracted composers, musicians and opera singers from all over Europe. Wealthy Venetian families funded and supported the principal houses such as the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo, which was the largest and most frequently visited.39 At the same time, city orphanages and ospedali were becoming centres for choral and instrumental music. Thanks to Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) who trained orphaned or abandoned girls and performed in the famous Ospedale della Pietà, this institution gained increasing international attention. Curious tourists from all over Europe came to see and listen to these unusual performances by trained female musicians. Spreading what was called ‘Vivaldi fever’, he remains Europe’s most important representative of Venetian Baroque music.40 Women’s other successes as performers on Venice’s cultural stage were just as exceptional. ‘The prominence of women artists, poets, translators, salonnières, and journalists in Venice was indeed one of its distinctive characteristics,’41 which was 36 Carlo Gozzi was the younger brother of Gasparo (1713–1786), who married Luisa Bergalli (1730–1779) in 1738. In 1747, together with Gasparo – himself the author and translator of ancient and contemporary comedies – he founded the Accademia letteraria tradizionalista dei Granelleschi (1747–61) with the aim of recovering the forms and structures of the Italian linguistic tradition. 37 Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), the gambist and composer from Cremona, moved to Venice in 1613 to work until his death as maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Marco. The choir of San Marco was soon famous for its performances of oratorios and for the musical virtuosity of its singers and instrumentalists. Monteverdi, who revolutionized vocal music, marking the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music, became the most important protagonist in the development of opera. 38 In 1598 Daphne, generally considered the earliest version of opera, was performed in the home of Jacopo Corsi (d.1604) in Florence based on music by Jacopo Corsi himself and Jacopo Peri (1561–1633). See also Ferraro, 2012, 188–89. 39 Razzall, 2017b, 114–15. 40 Glixon, 2013, 872. 41 Findlen, 2009, 15. See also Plebani, 2008, 120–31. As for higher education of women in Venice, it is significant that as early as 1678, the Venetian Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684) obtained a degree in philosophy from the University of Padua. This female Venetian scholar was ‘la prima donna laureata del mondo, the world’s first woman university graduate; and none would succeed her for about 200 years’. M. King, 2013, 600. Luisa Bergalli, besides being a poet, a translator of classical and French theatre, and a playwright herself, published the most extensive anthology of Italian women writers until the 1700s and was the first woman in Europe to run a theatre. Another example of an outstanding and successful Venetian woman who like Carriera helped shape European culture of the eighteenth century was the author, translator and editor, Elisabetta Caminer Turra (1751–1796). Daughter of the above-mentioned journalist, editor and author

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noted by many foreign visitors. Among other female painters in Venice during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who need to be mentioned, other than Rosalba Carriera, is Giulia Lama (1681–1747), who became, after Elisabetta Sirani (1638– 1665), one of the first women known to draw and study the nude from live models.42 Elisabetta Lazzarini (1662–1692), sister and pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini (1655–1730), and the flower painter Margherita Caffi (c.1647–1710),43 who worked for the Medici in Florence as well as for the Habsburgs in Madrid and Innsbruck, are just two other names to add to the list of gifted and talented women in Venice who managed to establish careers as artists. All of these accomplished female figures were an integral part of Venice’s intellectual and cultural life, and, like Carriera, they acted as cultural brokers beyond the borders of the lagoon in cities such as London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Dresden and Potsdam.44 Also like Carriera, they served as artistic ambassadors who attracted visitors from abroad to come to Venice so as to see them spend money acquiring gifts and artworks to take back home, as well as indulge in the spectacular events presented regularly on the streets and squares and inside the theatres. The acquisition of art by foreigners led to Venice’s quite unparalleled cultural expansion, which despite the city’s internal crisis, influenced changes in taste elsewhere in Europe, and, it especially helped to spread Carriera’s fame.

Influential Friends Despite the fact that we have hardly any information regarding Carriera’s youth, we can look to the correspondence that the artist started to collect around 1700 to reconstruct some of her personal relationships with those who played a decisive role in building up her career. Domenico Caminer, she first collaborated with her father on his new literary periodical, L’Europa letteraria, then went on to edit and publish it herself until her death. See Sama, 2009, 131. As far as the world of music is concerned, Venetian Barbara Strozzi (c.1619–1664) supported the success of others like Carriera. Strozzi had been trained, among others, by Antonio Vivaldi, and built a career as a composer and an accomplished singer; Sama, 2009, 135. 42 Fortune and Falcone, 2009, 64. Her life and career are poorly documented but we know that she supported herself as a seamstress. Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Women Artists, 1976, 165. Lama was most likely trained first by her father Agostino Lama (d.1714), then by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682–1754), who might have been a relative of hers, and she may have attended the school of Antonio Molinari (1655–1704), which means that she was probably ‘the first woman to have gone anywhere near the academic training’. Borzello, 2000, 57. See also Ruggieri, 1983, 119. Lama has left behind miniatures, portraits and numerous altarpieces that can still be seen in various churches in Venice as well as some 200 drawings featuring both male and female nudes. 43 Baldassin Molli, in Limentana Virdis, ed., Le tele svelate, 1996, 106–18. Sutherland Harris, 1996, 378. Both her father, Vincenzo Volò, and husband, Lodovico Caffi (1644–1695), were still-life painters. See also Poli, 1996. 44 Findlen, 2009, 13.

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One of these influential figures was the collector, antique dealer, caricaturist and copperplate engraver Antonio Maria Zanetti (1679–1767), with whom Carriera established an important and long-lasting friendship in her late twenties. She invited him to her home, and he was one of the male friends with whom she regularly frequented Venetian salons and public events. Zanetti was himself trained as an artist, and later in life practised wood-engraving and drawing. Particularly well-known are his caricatures of well-known figures in the city’s cultural life.45 He associated with the most illustrious artists and intellectuals of his day and soon also distinguished himself as a refined conversationalist, prolific art collector and sophisticated connoisseur. In doing so he played an eminent role in the cultural life of both Venice and other locations abroad.46 His role as intermediary figure between the young and ambitious painter Carriera and his wide-ranging cultural network was enormously important; he opened an extensive artistic horizon for this determined woman at the beginning of her spectacular career. As Sani put it, all of Europe turned to Zanetti when it came to acquisitions, opinions, appraisals or research regarding drawings, prints, cameos or gems.47 So also did the young ambitious Carriera profit from Zanetti’s wide-ranging circle of collectors, art lovers and connoisseurs. A substantial amount of correspondence between Carriera and Zanetti, as well as comments of her other contemporaries, are proof of an intense and intimate friendship that was to last their whole life; and it might not be a coincidence that his portrait (Figure 2), dated around the year 1700, is considered to be one of Carriera’s first documented works, especially as he might also have eventually advised her to become interested in pastel paintings.48 It is a bust portrait of the young Zanetti, who was around twenty years of age at the time. He is turned to the right, wearing a curly wig, powdered white, and his angelic face shows a subtle smile playing on his lips while he looks the observer directly in the eye. Especially if we focus on his clothes, the texture of the brown and blue fabric or the texture of his white shirt, it becomes obvious that Carriera had just started using the new medium. Her treatment of the textiles seems tentative and does not have anything to do with her later pieces in which the quality of satin, silk or cotton becomes most tangible. Also her rendering of Zanetti’s face still shows a certain

45 Bettagno, 1969, 20–26. See also Bettagno, 1994, 122–23. As to Zanetti’s caricatures, see Lucchese, 2015. 46 Regarding Zanetti’s role as intermediary figure in Dresden and Paris see Magrini, 2015, 229–37. 47 Sani, 1985, I, 9. 48 Sani, 1985, I, 10. Regarding Zanetti’s portrait see Sani, 1988, 13; Sani, 2007, 11, and cat. no. 1, p. 59. See also a miniature in the Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice which was said to depict Zanetti; Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 54, p. 89. The inscription on the back of the pastel proves, that as an elderly man aged eighty-three, Zanetti sent the pastel to the statesman, collector and, in the first half of the century ‘talent scout of the king of Sweden’, Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695–1770) in Stockholm, where it became part of his family collection; see Sohm, 2010, 220. Olof Fridsberg made an aquarelle painting that shows a piece on the rear wall in the cabinet of Tessin’s widow in Stockholm that corresponds perfectly to Carriera’s pastel. Barcham, 2009, 147.

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Figure 2 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Anton Maria Zanetti c.1700, pastel on paper, 45 × 31.5 cm. Stockholm, National Museum, NMB 2102. © National Museum permission.

insecurity in how to achieve perfect skin colour and how to hide the movements of the pastel sticks on the paper surface. Another important figure in the Venetian culture and society with whom Carriera and her family maintained close contact was Giovanni Battista Recanati (1687–1734), member of various Italian academies, he was thought to be one of the most educated men in the whole of the lagoon city, where he stood out as an excellent scholar, philologist, author and art collector.49 The extant letters are proof of another profound friendship Carriera kept with a handful of people in her home city. 49 Henning and Marx, 2007, 46. Regarding his collection of paintings by Canaletto and Giambattista Tiepolo, see Magrini, 2000, 277–81.

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Not surprisingly, the artist was also acquainted with various painters, musicians and other representatives of the local cultural scene among which the portrait artist Sebastiano Bombelli (1635–1719) needs to be mentioned. In 1696, the Veronese painter Antonio Balestra (1666–1740) arrived in Venice, whose work she would copy and who would become a close friend of the entire Carriera family. Another artist Carriera befriended was Felice Ramelli (1666–1740), whom she must have met during his stay in Venice from 1700 until May 1701. Their relationship continued after his departure, as revealed by the numerous letters that the artists regularly exchanged. Their friendly correspondence lasted from 1700 to 1730 and most likely they mutually influenced one another in their work as miniaturists.50 Carriera’s correspondence is proof of the fact they exchanged information regarding mutual acquaintances or clients and occasionally sent each other examples of their works.51 After the marriage between her youngest sister Angela and Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675–1741) took place between 1703 and 1704, Carriera also formed a very close relationship with her brother-in-law.52 On a professional level, they helped each other out on commissions, supported each other in enlarging their network which was particularly fruitful for both, as Pellegrini travelled frequently in order to complete various commissions for Europe’s aristocracy or to work directly at various courts. In 1708, he and Angela arrived in London where they lived for around four and a half years.53 After the couple left England in the summer of 1713, they moved on to the court of Prince Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1666–1732), in Düsseldorf.54 Until 1720, Pellegrini is known to have also worked in Hannover, Antwerp, the Hague, Amsterdam and then again in England. Between 1720 and 1721, the couple lived in Paris at the same time as Carriera was staying there. Following a brief interlude in Venice, Angela and her husband travelled to Würzburg and from there to Dresden, where they arrived in 1725.55 In the same year, and again in 1727 and 1730, both are known to have stayed in Vienna, while in 1736 and 1737, it is recorded that they spent time in Mannheim and once again in Würzburg.56 As far as the personal relationship between Pellegrini and Carriera is concerned, some of the letters he sent to his 50 Johns, 2003, 22–25. 51 See for example the letter in which Ramelli expresses his thanks for having received a box covered with glass, a frame and a miniature inside; Sani, 1985, I, 45. 52 The Museo Correr in Venice conserves a painting that is believed to be a self-portrait of Pellegrini; according to the inscription underneath the likeness, he depicted himself at the age of twenty-nine, interestingly enough in the form of a miniature; see Favilla and Rugolo, 2007, 45–47. 53 Pellegrini received some interesting commissions during his stay in London: he decorated at least two country houses, Castle Howard in Yorkshire and Kimbolton Castle in Huntingdonshire, and certainly three of the famous city palaces of the time: Burlington House in Piccadilly, the Manchester House in Arlington street and Portland House in St. James’s square. See Knox, 1995, 47. 54 Pellegrini worked for the prince, especially in Bensberg castle; Knox, 1995, 89–127. 55 Knox, 1995, 159. 56 Mehler interprets this very unsettled, restless life as one of the reasons why the marriage remained childless. See Mehler, 2006, 15–16.

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sister-in-law prove a rather intimate bond allowing for curious wordplays and occasionally, even if intended in an affectionate way, the use of crude or vulgar language.57

The Beginning of a Career: Carriera, an Exceptional Venetian Miniature Painter Carriera started her life as a painter at a time of significant growth in the number of professional female artists in Europe. While during the Renaissance and Mannerist periods only 35 women are known to have pursued this profession, by the Baroque, the number had increased to 200.58 In the eighteenth century the situation further improved. As De Girolami Cheney et al. put it: In a […] stylish atmosphere or enlightened enquiry, more women would pursue their own professional careers than had previously been seen. This is especially true in the fine arts. The eighteenth century was accordingly the great transitional period for women artists.59

In contrast to most of her female colleagues, though, Carriera was not born directly into an artist family in which daughters generally learned their trade from their fathers, brothers or sisters.60 The advantage for those women was that their 57 It appears that wordplays would be part of other vulgarities used in the family in an affectionate way, especially by Antonio Pellegrini, her husband. See for example Carriera’s brother-in-law who greeted the artist ‘Carissima Sig.ra Merda’, i.e. ‘Dearest Mrs. Shit’. See his letter written 22 July 1714; see Sani, 1985, I, 289. Another example is given by Antonio’s way of closing an undated letter to his wife with the following words: ‘I send you a hug. From my innermost heart and lungs from me with my nose up your ass.” The original text reads: “Io vi abbraccio. Con le visere del cuor e del polmon da me del naso in tel culon.’ Sani, 1985, II, 825. In 1710 Pellegrini wrote from London to the Carriera family: ‘we may tell each other our successes, either by a fire, and in the country, or in a room, but without visitors crawling up our asses. […] Mrs. Anzoletta is drying my ass (is annoying me). […] Eat shit whoever can guess it and if I had more paper, I would go on until the morning’. The original text reads: ‘posiamo racontarsi li nostril suscesi, o al foco, e alla campagna, o in una camera, senza visite al culo. […] Sig.ra Anzoletta me secha il C….ulo […]. Merda in boca chi la indovina e se avesse più carta anderei dietro sino dimatina.’ Sani, 1985, I, 174–75. In a letter dated 11 February 1713, Pellegrini wrote from London to Carriera: ‘Your tongue lick the hole of my ass, sweet Madonna Testicular.’ The original reads: ‘La vostra lengua el b… del C…ul me lecha, Madona C…ogiona’. Sani, 1985, I, 229. 58 De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 68. 59 De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 98. For the nineteenth century, they provide a stunning statistic: ‘Between 1840 and 1879, the number of women in the United States who identified themselves as artists increased fourfold, and between 1870 and 1900 the number of women artists and teachers grew dramatically faster, from 420 to 11,031. In England, there were 278 professional women artists in 1841, and 1,069 in 1871. In France, The Artist of May 1880 stated that there were 2,150 lady artists, including painters in oil, sculptors, miniaturists, ceramicists, watercolorists and draftsmen in pastel and crayon.’ De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 145. 60 Sutherland Harris, in Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Le grandi pittrici, 1979, 39; Barker, in Barker, ed., Women Artists, 2016, 8. Concerning the apprenticeship and education of women artists see Borzello, in Rideal, ed., Mirror Mirror, 2001, 22–26.

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instruction could take place en famille without already openly challenging convention before building a career.61 While it is true that Carriera’s grandfather, Pasqualino Carriera, was a painter, he can be excluded as her teacher, because he died before she was born. In fact, it is not entirely clear who taught the girl to paint. The only account we have as to the humble beginnings of her career was recorded by Antoine-Joseph Dézallier d’Argenville (1680–1765) in his early biography of the artist in the Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres (Brief lives of the most famous painters). Here it is in the form of the following anecdote: Inspiration pierced through the small amusements of youth, which really began to bore her. She took it upon herself to copy a figure that her father had designed for the heading of a sonnet; a friend, who learned to draw from a foreign painter, made her master see the drawing that Rosalba had made; his astonishment was extreme; he glimpsed there the excellence to which she would arrive one day. This master encouraged her to continue, and gave her several of his drawings to copy: it is thus that auspicious beginnings give proof of the great artist.62

As Dabbs makes clear in her revealing article ‘Anecdotal Insights’, this episode perpetuates certain stereotypical ideas of the woman artist with the significant divergent detail that it was a female friend (‘une amie’ in French) who first noticed her talent. Furthermore, the account says that it was due to ‘inspiration’, an unprecedented notion for a woman artist, that Carriera turned from childish activities to a more intellectual pursuit of art.63 Dabbs also points out that it is an anecdote we cannot now corroborate; indeed, the fact is that the question of who this teacher was has not yet been resolved. Carriera’s friend, the French banker, art connoisseur and collector Pierre Crozat (1661–1740), claimed that it was the snuffbox painter Jean Stève (d.1728) who had persuaded Carriera to undertake some type of artistic activity, 61 ffolliott, 2016, 425. Well-known examples of painters between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries who were trained by their fathers are Catherina van Hemessen (1526–1587), Barbara Longhi (1552–1638), Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614), Marietta Robusti (1560–1590), Fede Galizia (1578–1630) and Artemisia Gentileschi (1593– 1652). Also Chiara Varotari (1600–1660), Elisabetta Sirani and Theresa von Moron (1725–1806), sister of Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779). All were introduced to the art of painting thanks to their fathers. See further examples in Greer, 2001 [1979], 12–26. 62 Translation by Dabbs, 2008, 35. The original reads: ‘L’inspiration perça donc à travers les petits amusements du premier âge, qui commencoient fort à l’ennuyer. Elle s’avisa de copier une figure que son pere avoit dessinée à la tête d’un sonnet; une amie, qui apprenoit à dessiner d’un peintre étranger, fit voit à son maître le dessein qu’avoit fait la Rosa Alba; son étonnement fut extrême; il y entrevit l’excellence où elle parviendroit un jour. Ce maître l’encouragea à continuer, et lui donna plusieurs de ses desseins à copier: c’est ainsi que d’heureux commencemens announcent les grands artistes.’ Dézallier d’Argenville, 1762, 314. Seven years earlier, the anonymous abbot, N.N., had claimed as well that at the age of fourteen, she had started copying her father’s amateur drawings; Abate N.N. 1843 [1755], 9. 63 Dabbs, 2008, 35–36.

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an assumption repeated by the collector and art critic Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694– 1774) in his Abecedario.64 Beyond that hypothesis, a wide range of possible teachers have been mentioned in the literature about the talented young woman: Carriera’s friend Zanetti indicated first Antonio Lazzari (1639–1713), then Giuseppe Diamantini (1621–1705) and Antonio Balestra.65 But also the above-mentioned portraitist Sebastiano Bombelli and Federico Bencovich (1677–1753) are considered to be candidates for the responsibility for her artistic training.66 At the same time, it is reasonable to assume that Felice Ramelli also had a profound impact on Carriera’s professional career. Benedetto Luti (1666–1724), a recognized pastel artist himself, might also have been influential in Carriera’s artistic development. However, extant documents do not provide any compelling evidence of any single, most prominent teacher. Mariette stated that before indulging in the art of painting, Carriera did not have anything else to do other than design lace patterns; she and her female family members pursued the craft of producing the fashionable local lace throughout their lives, even in old age. And though we do not have documentation of the Carriera women profiting from their precious works of handicraft, the claim of Pierre-Jean Mariette that the artist found in her painting activity a lucrative substitute for the production of the famous local lace might have some foundation:67 by the second half of the seventeenth century the lace production in Venice began to face stiff competition with products introduced from Flanders and France and thus became less profitable for the Venetians.68 Still, it seems probable that the girl first discovered her artistic and creative capacities while producing embroidery designs and lace patterns for her mother and for herself.69 In fact, four examples of flower drawings in the Vianelli collection in Chioggia have been attributed to Carriera and most likely they served that purpose.70 An anonymous abbot postulated another avenue for the artist; he wrote an early biographical account in 1755 of Carriera’s life and career entitled Memorie intorno alla vita di Rosalba Carriera, celebre pittrice veneziana, raccolte dall’Abate N.N., stating that as a young girl, the future artist copied masterpieces in drawings, working also in oil and trained herself in the technique of miniature painting.71 Carriera’s 64 Mariette, 1851–60. Also Carriera is mentioned among the artists discussed; see I (1851), 329–30. See also Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Women Artists, 1976, 161, n. 2. 65 A. Zanetti, vol. 5, 1771, 449. 66 Only in Moücke’s account do we find the version that she imitated her own father whose hobby, according to the author, was drawing; see Moücke, 1762, 240. For other suggestions and hypotheses, see Gatto, 1977, 745–49; Mehler, 2006, 12–15; Zava, 2007, 15–16; Sani, 2007a, 51; and Mehler, 2009, 171–73. 67 Mariette, 1851–60, I (1851), 329. 68 The grimness of the lacemakers’ situation was recorded by the overseers of the island who determined that in the early seventeenth century, only a few families who had specialized in this craft had a viable annual income. See Jones, 2014, 410–11. 69 Jeannerat, 1931, 772; 781, n. 2. 70 Mehler, 2006, 13. The same Vianelli owned a series of drawings by Carriera who had copied old master paintings; see Sani, 2003, 498. 71 Abate N.N., 1843 [1755], 10. Regarding Carriera’s oil painting of the king of Poland, Augustus III (1686– 1763), in Vienna, see Hans Werner Grohn in Venedigs Ruhm im Norden, 1992, cat. no. 21, pp. 130–31.

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exceptional mastery, however, that she developed while creating her miniatures and pastels, cannot be fully explained by either designing lace patterns or by copying paintings in Venice. This unanswered question led this same biographer to write that little or nothing could be said regarding her teacher as she learnt more by herself than from anybody else.72 And Sani, too, the primary Carriera expert, concludes that: The fascinating dilemma in reconstructing Rosalba Carriera’s career is just this, how a woman, educated, as many witnesses attest […], in the context of a family whose lace-making mother was well acquainted with drawing, could have surpassed the artisanal stage even while limiting her range of action to two, highly specialized techniques.73

We might just have to accept the idea of a – for the most part – prodigious autodidact. What is just as striking is the fact that she managed to run her own studio. Her single-minded, firm approach and determined business tactics as an independent studio artist were not at all what her contemporaries would have regarded as appropriate for her sex. Normally, the best female artists in the eighteenth century could hope for was to find work in the market as independent artists, which was a venture always coupled with the risk of marginalization. The idea of a woman setting up her own company or workshop, without a man overseeing the business transactions, was almost unheard of.74 But Carriera succeeded, starting with her studio production of miniatures on wood or ivory – close to eighty miniatures are known to be from her hand – the sale of which made her a considerable profit.75 By concentrating on miniatures at the beginning of her career, the young painter adopted an art that had evolved in the sixteenth century from illuminated manuscripts, and that for nearly four centuries had enjoyed widespread popularity among the European elite.76 The fascination with these pictures en miniature which were first produced in France and England was also fostered during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by an impressive production of handbooks and treatises on this 72 ‘De’suoi maestri poco o nulla può dirsi, pochè ella apprese più da sé medesima che da altri.’ Abate N.N., 1843 [1755], 18. 73 ‘Il dilemma che affascina nella ricostruzione dell’iter di Rosalba Carriera è proprio questo, come una donna, educata, secondo le testimonianze di molti […], nell’ambito di una famiglia in cui la madre ricamatrice aveva una dimestichezza con i disegni, abbia superato lo stadio artigianale pur delimitando il suo raggio di azione a due tecniche molto specialistiche.’ Sani, 2007b, 38. 74 Limentani Virdis, 1996, 20; Borzello, 2000, 65. About the culture that since the Renaissance had taught Venetian women to challenge gender restrictions, see Labalme, 2010, 109. 75 As far as Carriera’s works on ivory are concerned, see Falconi, 2008 and 2009. 76 Accrescimbeni, 2010, 40. The generally accepted etymology of the word miniature denotes that it derives from Latin minium, a term deriving from medieval book illumination that refers to a red-lead-oxide pigment. See for example Garnier-Pelle et al., 2007a, 9, or see the introduction to European Portrait Miniatures, edited by Pappe et al., 2014, 8.

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specific art form.77 Even if we do not know for sure how or through whom Carriera was introduced to the en miniature technique, or if she ever read any of its treatises, she surely was aware of what experts and art lovers particularly appreciated in miniature paintings: that they called for extreme artistic and artisanal skill, so as either to capture and portray a person’s features and character or to depict a mythological or pastoral scene in such tiny detail, achieved only by a painter with great delicacy of execution. Nicholas Hilliard (c.1547–1619) gave an exemplary description of the specific qualities of miniatures in his treatise The Arte of Limning, written between 1598 and 1603 even though only published for the first time in 1912: it excelleth all other painting whatsoeuer in sondry points, in giuing the true lustur to pearle and precious stone, and worketh the metals gold or siluer with themselfes, which so enricheth and innobleth the worke that it seemeth to be the thinge itse[l]fe, […] benning fittest for the decking of princes bookes or to put in juuells of gould and for the imitate[ion] of the purest flowers and most beautiful creaturs in the finest and purest coullers […], and is for the seruice of noble persons very meet in small voloms in priuat maner for them to haue the portraits and pictures of themselues, their peers, or any other forraine.78

The vast majority of miniatures were indeed portraits of loved ones, family members or friends but also celebrities or royalty could be represented in this form. Outside of Italy, these small-scale paintings enjoyed an increasing popularity which can be ascribed not only to the necessary artisanal skills but especially to the fact that miniatures, rather like pieces of jewellery, are endowed with a particular, extremely personal value for their owner; they are deeply ‘sentimentally invested artifacts’.79 Whether functioning as a means of communication between lovers, family or friends, these ‘portrait objects’ become for each owner a ‘topos of affective private engagement’.80 77 One of the earliest studies of miniature painting that was published was a widely circulated booklet by the musician, painter and friend of Charles I (1600–1649), Edward Norgate (1581–1650), entitled Miniatura or the art of Limning (first written in 1627–28 and substantially revised between 1648 and 1650). About twenty years later there appeared the first work on printed painting devoted to miniatures, the École de la mignature by the anonymous monogrammist C.B., who has been identified as Claude Boutet as well as Christophe Ballard. Hofstetter, 2008b, 62. Boutet described, among other things, the tradition of miniatures on parchment in his popular Traité de mignature pour apprendre aisément à peindre sans maistre, first published in Paris in 1672. It was a treatise that found international regard, also in Italy, and circulated in many editions. The Milanese editor Giuseppe Galeazzi published the Italian translation Trattato di miniatura: per imparare facilmente a dipingere senza Maestro in tre versioni, 1758, 1777 and 1783. In Venice, in the second half of the eighteenth century, it was Francesco Garbo who published the same book in probably four different editions; see Falconi, 2008, 21, n. 10. For an overview of handbooks and treatises see Pappe, 1993, 262–64. 78 Hilliard, 1911/12, 16. 79 Pointon, 2001, 48. 80 Pointon, 2001, 53.

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These ‘intimate objects’,81 as Marcia Pointon has called them, are closely linked to the ritual of exchanging gifts. They are often, more specifically, amorous tokens that bear the likeness of the beloved and as such reflect an intimate relationship between the person portrayed and the owner of the piece.82 An extraordinary testimony of this kind of miniature can also be found within Carriera’s oeuvre: in one of her pastel portraits we find a woman holding a miniature in her right hand that seems to depict James V, Duke of Hamilton (1702–1742).83 According to the family tradition the lady in question was a mistress of the duke,84 which could explain why she is holding his small likeness right above her heart to further underline the emotional bond between the lovers. As gifts, rather than pieces sold for money, handed over or sent directly by the artist, miniatures could further serve as a way to publicize the artist’s work, to open or strengthen important business relationships. And Carriera also used this ritual, which was an accepted way of gaining publicity even for a woman painter. It offered an opportunity to find new clients or bind older ones closer to her. Already in the first letter of her published correspondence, on 2 May 1700, Antonio Orsetti wrote to the artist thanking her for a portrait miniature he had received, apparently as a gift. In exchange, he informed the painter, he had sent two pairs of summer gloves and two nice smelling small sacks to perfume the gloves on their journey.85 As far as celebrities, royals or any other rulers are concerned, these tiny pieces could be used, instead, to underline dynastic relationships. They also served as diplomatic gifts to consolidate power, request and suggest loyalty and allegiance, or to symbolize and underline political alliances.86 Carriera was asked to make numerous miniatures as gifts for rulers all over Europe who intended to use them for these same purposes. In a letter Carriera received from a certain Gueffier in Paris in 1733, we read that the king of France, Louis XV (1710–1774), had received the new Venetian ambassador at court, presenting him with a miniature portrait of himself ‘all decorated with diamonds’ (tout garnis de diamonds).87 In the case of the Danish King Frederick IV (1671–1730), who asked her through his representative Frederik de Walter to make a portrait of the king to be placed inside a golden snuffbox and to be handed over to ‘Madame La Marquise de Bentivoglio’, the royal intention was certainly of a more private kind.88

81 Pointon, 2014, 16, and her insightful and widely quoted article ‘Surrounded with Brilliants’, of 2001. 82 See also Elston, 2018, 29. Koos talks about the possibility of these images developing a fetish character; Koos, 2016, 235. 83 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 107, p. 119. 84 See Burns, 2007, 77. 85 See Sani, 1985, I, 42. 86 Vogtherr, 2010, 16. 87 Sani, 1985, II, 579. 88 See Sani, 1985, I, 129.

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Miniatures were displayed on walls, in special cabinets or kept in secret places at home. As a letter from Giorgio Maria Rapparini (1660–1727), the poet and secretary of Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm (1658–1716) in Düsseldorf, reveals, dated 20 October 1710, he had set up his own cabinet to put his miniatures on display.89 It was the place where Carriera’s works, for which he had special frames made that suited the collection, could be admired, as he underlined.90 By the end of the seventeenth century, the small-scale likenesses had become a trans-European idiom of intimacy, as Pointon has remarked.91 As essentially private ‘ambulant portraits’92 they were also carried and worn by their owners, but the wearing of miniatures was also clearly gendered. As part of a parure, they could adorn elite ladies, hanging from a ribbon, or be made to hang like jewels, mounted on bracelets or necklaces, even on rings. Miniatures enclosed in containers of precious materials fused economic and sentimental value. Among Carriera’s miniatures no examples of extremely small items to be set inside of jewellery have survived, but her correspondence offers proof that she did execute minuscule paintings for rings, and that she entertained relationships with goldsmiths for this kind of work.93 Men, on the other hand, would conceal miniatures underneath their clothes. They would keep them hidden inside pockets, as the public display of miniatures on someone’s body was considered effeminate.94 Evidence of the importance that certain miniatures could have for their owners, who carried their favourite pieces with them, can also be found in the context of Carriera’s clients, even though it is not clear how and where the little paintings were transported. The main purpose of a letter that Frederik Weiberg in Copenhagen wrote to the artist, on 3 January 1711, was to convince Carriera to make a self-portrait for him. In order to flatter the artist and possibly to convince her to accept his request, he assured her that even though he was sent by the Danish king to many different places and famous courts, he always carried her miniatures with him and showed them everywhere.95 89 Rapparini is an important example of those middlemen who developed a semi-professional status easing the importation of Italian art and music into Northern European courts in the eighteenth century; see West, 1999a, 11. 90 In summer 1715, Rapparini expressed the wish to own a miniature made by Carriera’s sister Giovanna, the only artist not represented among his ‘jewels’. Sani, 1985, I, 293. 91 Pointon, 2014, 17. In the same article, Pointon explores the ways in which the intimacy of miniatures contributed to friendship and familial networks and to libidinal and scandalous relations. See also below the discussion of some of Carriera’s miniatures. In various letters in Carriera’s correspondence, precious frames are mentioned that turned her miniatures into real jewels; see for example Bartolommeo Sampellegrini’s letter, dated 10 April 1742, in Sani, 1985, II, 683. 92 Pointon, 2001, 48. 93 See Sani, 1985, I, 63–64; and regarding her acquaintance with a goldsmith in her neighbourhood in Venice, see Sani, 1985, I, 353. Unfortunately, neither the commissioner, the subject depicted, nor the woman who would wear the pieces mentioned in the letter are known. 94 G. Reynolds, 1996, 638. As Pointon has explained in the context of eighteenth-century England, the wearing of miniatures was clearly gendered; Pointon, 2001, 51 and 59. 95 Sani, 1985, I, 179.

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Linked to the transport and handling of miniatures is another fundamental aspect which is their close relationship to the body, either the body that wears them or the one that holds them. The fact that they are meant to be taken in the hands of the recipient and needed to be held and seen from close up underscores the aspect of tactility and enforces the implicit relationship of artefact to body.96 They address the organ of sight and simultaneously solicit physical contact by touching, by holding, caressing or kissing the highly invested object. As Pointon underlined, they are above all haptic, ‘they bespeak the body that has held or worn them. In this they bridge representation and artefact and connect with social practices such as letter-writing.’97 Miniatures like letters are mainly objects of private consumption and ‘materially stage a presence that is occasioned by absence and that materially and symbolically represents an intimacy that geographical and physical distance have rendered impossible.’98 Further interesting analogies between these forms of communication exist in the underlying sentimental ties, in the aspect of privacy, or even secrecy, and in the process of opening and penetrating the interior either to reveal the portrait or, having broken the seal, to read the personal message. Carriera’s correspondence offers fascinating testimonies of precisely this kind of thrill which will be discussed further, but first a few more details about her mastery of this medium. The question of precisely how and when Carriera decided to train in miniature painting remains open to date, but by the end of the seventeenth century at the latest she must have reached a professional level in the production of these precious pieces. The earliest of her letters regularly mention commissions of miniatures, either in the form of jewel-like artefacts in precious cases or containers or inserted into the lids of tabatières, snuffboxes for tobacco, that Carriera called fondelli.99 These treasured artefacts were hugely popular at the time and served as decorative collectors’ pieces. Like chocolate and coffee, the consumption of tobacco, a new and stimulant plant, spread very quickly.100 Its extensive use resulted in an increase in the production of the popular and colourful snuffboxes made for the purpose, and these were regarded as precious items and socially acceptable accessories. As diplomatic or courtly gifts that passed literally from hand to hand, their practical function and use could be substituted by social processes in which they were instrumental in political exchanges throughout European courts and institutions.101 In order to protect the fragile images they were covered with glass or particularly clear crystal. 96 Pointon, 2001, 57, 62–64. 97 Pointon, 2014, 17. 98 Pointon, 2014, 21. 99 Also the anonymous Abbot N.N. stated that since 1698, Carriera became more and more famous for her miniatures; see Abate N.N. 1843 [1755], 10. 100 Menninger, 2009, pars. 40–43, 55. 101 Pointon, 2001, 58.

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By concentrating on portraits, and especially on miniature portraits, Carriera focused on what her contemporaries regarded as a typically female genre, in fact in 1762, d’Argenville wrote: One of her female friends […] advised her to stop doing large oil paintings […] and devote herself to miniatures, being more appropriate to a person of her sex.102

This choice went hand together with the widespread appreciation in the Rococo period for refined objects in general and small-scale works of art – according to the general principle tant plus petit, tant plus beau (the smaller, the more beautiful).103 Even if we do not have any precise knowledge of her development as a miniaturist, it seems reasonable to believe that the training of her manual capacities in the minuscule, detailed work of preparing lace patterns and producing pieces of lace and embroidery would have been to her advantage. As to her choice to focus on miniature painting, it was most likely a clever strategy for beginning to build her career. In concentrating on miniatures she occupied a niche left almost completely empty, not only in Venice, but also in the whole of Italy. Also, Carriera became the only artist to successfully specialize in this art form.104 While in England portraiture in any format had turned into the most important and most popular genre at the time, it was not nearly as popular on the peninsula. The Italians had a reputation for showing little interest in portraiture, even in the form of miniatures, and also for being reluctant to pay for portraits which led the Scottish portrait painter Katherine Read (1723–1778) to complain: I will expect in a few days to begin a picture of the brother of Princess Cheserina from whom I shall have perhaps some such useless trinket. For you must know that the Italians despise people so much that are obliged to do anything for money that Mr. Grant thought it proper to name no price when the question was asked.105

Likewise, John Moore (1729–1802) commented in his A View of Society and Manners in Italy, first published in 1781: The Italians, in general, very seldom take the trouble of sitting for their pictures. They consider a portrait as a piece of painting, which engages the admiration of 102 Translation by Dabbs, 2009, 345. The French original text reads: ‘Une de ses amies […] lui conseilla de quitter le grands tableaux à l’huile […] & e de s’attacher à la miniature, comme plus convenable aux personnes de son sexe.’ D’Argenville, 1762, 315. Regarding common notions on presumably typically female genres since the Renaissance see for example ffolliott, 2013, 427–35. 103 Favilla and Rugolo, 2007, 17. 104 An investigation carried out in 1758 regarding the crafts in Venice mentions sixteen miniaturists in the city, but none of them having reached international renown. See Sani, 1981, 135. 105 Quoted in Rosenthal, 1996, 92.

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nobody but the person it represents or the painter who drew it. Those who are in circumstances to pay the best artists, generally employ them in some subject more universally interesting, than the representation of human countenances staring out of a piece of canvas.106

Consequently, Carriera did take considerable risks when she started by specializing in portraiture; she had to rely mainly on herself to create the demand for her pieces. By not having to face cruel rivalry in the field, though, she surely gained great advantage. Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650–1718) mentioned in his traveller’s book from 1697, entitled Guida de’ Forestieri per succintamente osservare tutto il più riguardevole nella Città di Venetia, that there were only seven miniature painters in the city apart from Carriera and her sister Giovanna, most of whom are almost completely unknown today.107 By dedicating herself to miniature painting, she also escaped having to compete seriously with those artists who earned their living by painting altarpieces or frescoes.108 Thanks to her specialization she aptly avoided any clash, especially with her male colleagues who maintained themselves as history painters. Most likely they would have placed some obstacles to her choice of a career in that specialty. The case of her contemporary colleague Giulia Lama in Venice serves as an eloquent example for the kind of complications Carriera would probably have had to deal with if she had tried to enter the male-dominated official art scene of Venetian history painters. On 1 March 1728, the scientist and intellectual Abate Antonio Schinella Conti (1677– 1749) wrote a still-famous letter to Madame de Caylus, Marthe-Marguerite Le Valois de Villette de Mursay, Marquise de Caylus (1673–1729), about how the local painters literally persecuted Giulia Lama.109 Even though he does not explain the reasons for their oppression, Lama’s choice to intrude on the circle of history painters seems to be the most probable cause for her being maltreated in this way by her ‘enemies’, as Conti called them. Conversely, Carriera’s male colleagues, according to Sutherland Harris, left her in peace; most likely they did not even perceive her or her small-scale works as a professional threat. Generally, miniature painters were not seen as fulfilling the same intellectual standards as history painters who worked on an easel or in fresco; they were usually not viewed as part of the central art establishment and thus enjoyed only a lower reputation.110 106 Moore, 1781, II, 73. 107 Coronelli, 1697, 23. 108 Sutherland Harris, in Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Le grandi pittrici, 1979, 29–30. Orlandi mentions another female miniaturist in Venice, Caterina Litterini, daughter of Agostino Litterini (c.1642–1730), who was born in 1665. As we hardly know any of her works, she did not seem to be a serious rival of Carriera, either. Orlandi, 1753, 448. 109 Pallucchini, 1970, 161. 110 Vogtherr, 2010, 19–20.

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As Owens put it in the context of Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807): Miniature painting did not appear to have been inherently opposed to the participation of women. By painting miniature portraits, women did not upset ideals of their gender, and in turn, miniature portraits did not assume an inferior status when the artist was a woman.111

On the contrary, some of her male colleagues might have even appreciated her role as a magnet for the multitude of tourists who came to meet the exceptional artist. Within her restricted Venetian context, Carriera not only succeeded through her focus on this tiny format but also, and especially, she introduced a complete novelty to the city in her execution of portraits ad vivum in miniature. In accordance with a fairly standard format – she typically depicted on oblong, oval-shaped ivory plates the size of which varied from about 5.5 to roughly 15 centimetres112 – Carriera usually depicted a simple view of either the head and shoulders or of a half-figure in front of a simple background. Whether they were of real or fictitious persons, her miniatures generally followed a similar composition, a similar aesthetic formula. In her bust portraits, her figures usually turn their heads in the opposite direction of their bust, as in the miniature depicting Philip Wharton (1698–1731) (see Figure 4) or as in one of her earliest self-portraits which I will discuss below. The pose with one arm raised in front of the body in a roughly 90-degree angle is repeated in a fair number of her works. If we look, for example, at either her Lady at Breakfast once in Dresden, her Young Girl as a Gardener in Munich (see Figure 5), her Lady at the Harpsichord, her Flutist in the Hermitage or her depiction of a lady dressed as Diana,113 we get the impression that this kind of arbitrariness could lie in the fact that she most likely streamlined the production process in preparing her miniatures. Other artists of the time are known to have done so as well: starting with general outline, the pose, the gesture and the clothes while leaving the parts of the face empty to be filled in at the very end.114 With a repertoire of decorative motifs she could vary the reproduction of standardized images.115 Miniatures in which the figures are depicted full size are extremely rare in Carriera’s oeuvre. Not by coincidence Hans Bötticher, the intermediary figure between the artist and Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1683–1756), had to be very precise when he requested one. In his letter dated 2 December 1709, he clarified:

111 Owens, 2018, 36. 112 Falconi, 2008, 19. As mentioned above, we have notice of extremely small miniatures for rings, for example, but none of these examples seem to have survived. 113 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 21, p. 72; cat. no. 26, p. 75; cat. nos. 31 and 32, p. 77; and cat. no. 41, p. 82. 114 See also Kirchner, 2016, 26–27. 115 See also Goldthwaite, 2010, 285.

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a miniature of her hands with an entire figure on it, meaning including both feet, either seated or standing.116 In making miniatures in Venice, Carriera also profited from how, since the end of the 1600s, the city had been dealing in popular and attractive snuffboxes with great commercial success. Once the artist had built up a reputation, the collectors and other buyers of snuffboxes could come directly to her home and acquire the miniatures to be put inside. Whether or not destined to be inserted in a tabatière, the artist’s miniatures were the ideal artefact to appeal to international tourists, thereby guaranteeing herself a continuous flow of potential clients: travellers passing through Venice were able to commission a miniature portrait on the spot and on departure to take the easily transportable work of art home with them as either as a memento or a display of material wealth.117 Being small in size, such paintings could also be sent by post or courier service at a reasonable price.118 This way, Carriera did not have to leave her home in Venice, and yet was able to cater to her customers throughout Europe. Another advantage for Carriera in concentrating on miniatures and later pastel paintings lay in the fact that both offered her certain practical conveniences, especially when contrasted with oil painting or sculpture.119 No extraordinary physical strain on her part, no tiring endless-seeming sittings on the part of her clients, and in addition, no exposure to chemicals with strong and unpleasant odours were involved. Furthermore, Carriera was first to recognize the promising qualities of ivory as a medium for the small and intimate paintings. During her lifetime she was the one artist responsible for making its use internationally popular.120 Still, in confronting the difficulties involved in painting on ivory, she played a pioneering role that should be acknowledged as experimental. Compared with parchment, paper or vellum (usually made from calfskin of an abortive calf), ivory was a support to painting that was technically the most problematic. The cutting of ivory and the preparation of its surface, which needs to be roughened because it is a water-repellent material, is difficult and time-consuming. Also, there was the real risk that the colours painted on ivory would fade after some time, a problem that Carriera regularly confronted. When Prince Christian Ludwig II, future Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, realized that the colour of all his small paintings (petits tableaux) changed and started to turn pale, his disappointment was noted in a letter to Carriera by Hans Böttcher on 3 April 1710.121 Christoph Ludwig Agricola (1667–1719), a painter himself who in 1709 owned 116 Sani, 1985, I, 147. 117 Pointon, 2001, 56. In the context of pastels see also West, 1999b, 50. 118 Regarding the risks involved in sending her artwork, see below in the context of her discovery of pastel painting. 119 Owens, 2018, 39. 120 Boutet talks about the use of ivory already in his treatise on miniatures where he recommends the use of a piece the size of a hand; see the third edition, 1678, ch. 14. Jeannerat, 1931. 121 See Sani, 1985, I, 155.

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some miniatures by Carriera, even a later one that portrayed himself,122 pointed out the same problem with some of her pieces that he saw in Schwerin. In May 1710 he wrote from Germany in more shocking detail that Christian Ludwig II’s miniatures were damaged to the point that they had become almost unrecognizable thanks to their colours having literally disappeared.123 In September the same year, Agricola wrote again, saying that even though his own miniatures were perfectly in shape, some of those of the same prince of Mecklenburg had suffered, especially the parts painted with carmine.124 Carriera was also struggling with how sensitive small pieces of ivory were to changes in humidity and temperature, which could make them bend or even break.125 She was dealing with a medium requiring long drying periods that, when she applied paint at various levels, could take up to an entire year.126 And yet ivory’s semi-transparent quality offered her the possibility of producing particular light effects by leaving some parts of the miniature unpainted, usually sections of the flesh tones of the face, hands or other parts of the body.127 Other external factors, which were not directly linked with the painting process or the aesthetics of these miniatures – that is, ivory’s exotic origins, its rarity as a material and the resulting preciousness of its artefacts – must have influenced her to use it to contribute to a new fashion.128 Living and working in Venice, Carriera would also have benefited from the fact that decentsized ivory plates were more easily available than in other places in Italy.129 As for how the use of ivory affected her personal technique, Carriera combined the ivory support with broad brush strokes which she used to apply the gouache colour mixed with a lot of white, creating an aesthetic effect quite different from the pointing and small, linear brush strokes typically used by her colleagues. She created her own unique technique with ivory that was more similar to oil painting and more convincing from the point of view of realism. In our attempt to reconstruct the early phases of Carriera’s artistic career, we notice that probably the first time her name appears in a publication was in Coronelli’s traveller’s book from 1697, where she is in fact mentioned, together with her sister Giovanna, as a miniature painter, not as a pastellist. Pastel, which involves the application of sticks consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder, did not become a

122 See Sani, 1985, I, 192. 123 See Sani, 1985, I, 160. 124 See Sani, 1985, I, 167. 125 Keil, 1999, 10. 126 Henninger-Tavcar, 1995, 9. 127 Falconi, 2008, 14. 128 Keil, 1999, 11. ‘The ivory medium used in [her] early miniatures was increasingly prized for its rarity, portability and luminosity, characteristics of the material deftly exploited by the artist.’ Johns, 2003, 22. 129 The family friend Abbot Felice Ramelli asked her various times to send larger pieces of high-quality raw ivory from Venice to Rome. See Sani, 1985, I, 194.

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medium that Carriera worked in until later in her career.130 Consequently, in perhaps the first of Carriera’s self-portraits, she depicted herself in her mid-twenties looking out at the viewer while she alludes to her profession with paintbrushes rather than crayon sticks.131 In the correspondence that Carriera started to collect in the year 1700, she noted that she had already received commissions for her miniatures from France, England, Denmark, and Germany. Generally speaking, the first requests came from countries where these small-scale paintings had become much more fashionable than in her own country and in her home city.132 In order to serve this multifarious clientele, Carriera realized she needed to build and maintain an international network for which Venice, one of the most important tourist attractions in Europe, offered the best conditions. A more curious fact further reflects how popular her earliest works became during this initial stage of her career. In a letter to her by Rapparini written on 23 February 1709, he complained that forgeries of her miniatures were already in circulation.133 A patron had told him that his musician Valeriano Pellegrini had given him some ‘things’ by the Venetian artist, but Rapparini was sceptical about their value, knowing how, as he put it, many people like ‘to baptize copies and other things in her name.’134 Carriera’s response has not survived, but it can be deduced from another letter he wrote to her in July of the same year that she was aware of these unauthorized copies being made of her work; he wrote asking for clarification regarding a certain ‘Signor Ridolfi’. Apparently Carriera had mentioned Ridolfi as being the one responsible for these forgeries. He was an artist Moretti identifies as Ridolfo Manzoni, who was born in Castelfranco Veneto around 1674 and whose name Coronelli mentioned right after Carriera’s in his list of miniature painters.135

Carriera’s Membership in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome The first official recognition of Carriera’s artistic capacities occurred at the beginning of the eighteenth century: her nomination and induction into the Roman Accademia di San Luca. Her friendship with Christian Cole (d. 1735) proved to be particularly fruitful in this matter. He was a British diplomat who worked from 1707 to 1708 as secretary to Lord Manchester, the British ambassador in Venice, before becoming 130 Coronelli, 1697, 23. 131 See Chapter 8. 132 In a letter, for example, that the French collector and art dealer Louis Vatin sent to Carriera on 6 June 1700, we learn about some of her miniatures depicting a ‘Cupid in candlelight’, a ‘Lady sealing a letter’, and a Madonna, plus twelve other fondelle that the artist had sent to Paris. See Sani, 1985, I, 43. 133 See Sani, 1985, I, 126. 134 See Sani, 1985, I, 126. 135 Moretti, 2011b, 310.

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himself ‘minister resident of Great Britain’, a position he held from 1708 to 1714. Carriera and Cole probably met around 1701, and during the years they communicated with each other he continually made gestures of friendship to the artist; for example he often sent her pastel sticks and other useful materials for painting.136 It is also thanks to Cole that Carriera learned English, which enabled her to appreciate one of the most fundamental English feminist texts of the day – Judith Drake’s Essay in Defence of the Female Sex.137 The degree to which Carriera’s knowledge of Drake’s essay can be seen as a sign of her own emancipation is unclear, but the fact that she translated some parts of the book into Italian reveals she at least had some interest in the theme as well as willingness to improve her English, a language she seems to have liked. The author and historian Joseph Spence (1699–1768) reported that she had asked him to speak in English to her because she found it to be such a concise and expressive language.138 She also added: ‘I pray in English because that language is so short and expressive.’139 As for Cole’s role in her nomination for the membership in the Roman art academy, it was he who joined in a probably premeditated campaign to accept Carriera as an official member, which was orchestrated by Antonio Balestra, Sebastiano Ricci and Felice Ramelli. Carriera, who was in her early thirties at this point, had already become a clever businesswoman and determined artist. She not only headed her family but ran her own workshop. Considering the strength of will and unique capacities that she needed to exert in order to insert herself into the Venetian and international art markets, it is surprising aspect how she reacted in this situation. For the first time, she was being offered outstanding recognition by the prestigious, internationally recognized institution Roman art academy; however, she procrastinated avoiding, as it appears, to answer Cole’s letters. On 31 January 1705, Cole wrote from Rome: I have spoken with the secretary of the Royal Society of St. Luke. I have told him that neither the reputation of Signora Rosalba nor mine would run any risks. He says that Signor Carlo Morat is now the Prince of the painters, that when she is to be admitted to this order she must send her portrait and some small thing of her work to be viewed in the gallery of this Academy. So I pray that she write to me and that She be pleased to send her portrait and some small thing, and I will make her entry there.140 136 In a letter Cole wrote on 1 November 1704, he mentioned also a portrait Carriera had made of him which apparently had great success among his friends and acquaintances who saw it. See Sani, 1985, I, 82. 137 A book mentioned in one of Cole’s letters presumably refers to Judith Drake’s text; see Sani, 1985, II, 750. 138 Whistler, 2009, 182. 139 Spence, 1966, 605. See also the undated letter Carriera wrote in English; Sani, 1985, II, 749. 140 ‘Io ho parlato con el secretario de la Reale Società de S. Luca. Luj ho detto che non verrebbe risquar la riputazion de la Signora Rosalba, né la mia. Luy dice che il signor Carlo Morat è adesso Principe de li pittori, che quando Ella serà admessa in questo ordine, bisogna che invia suo ritratto et qualche piccola cosa del suo

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What Cole refers to is a reception piece and a self-portrait and that every artist member of the academy had to deliver, something that demonstrated a ‘mastery of both art and genre by representing adequately a specific subject’.141 Unfortunately, Carriera’s answer to Cole’s letter is unknown. More than two months later, on 14 March 1705, Cole wrote to her again: I did not wish to answer before having served your Lordship at the Academy of St. Luke, where You have already been received. Signor Joseph Ghezzi, painter and secretary of the Academy, has asked me to beg you to send your portrait and something on ivory of your work, as soon as you can. I hope this will happen while I am here and I pray that you send this to me. And I will send it on as soon as I have received said portrait, the velum with the seal and other things concerning your diploma. I hope You will be pleased with my efforts because it will make your name live with greater brilliance, which is already immortal. […] I pray once more that you send your portrait and work soon.142

He even included a string with a knot in it to show Carriera the measures of the requested painting, but once again, we do not know whether or what the painter answered. Nearly two months later, Cole wrote a third time on 9 May 1705 to remind Carriera of the miniature she had pledged to send: The knight Carlo Marat continues to be Prince. I wait with very great impatience your portrait and work in ivory which will be of great ornament to the hall of this very noble academy.143

Carriera must have been well-aware of the significance of this membership, whose required reception piece she was apparently having difficulties in finishing. I suspect these were caused by her nervousness regarding the task, other academy members’ lavoro per esser guardato in la galleria di questa Accademia. Così prego de scrivermi e Ella sia contenta di inviar suo ritratto e qualche piccola cosa, e poi io la farò entrare là.’ Sani, 1985, I, 87. 141 Sheriff, 1990, 33. The tradition of also leaving a self-portrait to the institution goes back to the first president Federico Zuccari (c.1540–1609); see Prinz, 1971, 26. 142 ‘Non voleva risponder avante che havesse servito sua Signoria all’Accademia di S.t. Luca, ove Ella è già adesso ricevuta. El Signor Ioseppo Ghezzi, pittore e segretario academico, m’ [h]a pregato di pregarla de inviar suo ritratto et qualche cosa sopra ivolio del suo lavoro, subito che poterà. Spero che questo serà mentre ch’io starà qui e prego ch’elle l’invia a me. Et io l’inverrò subito che ricevuto detto ritratto, la charta pecora col sigillo et altre cose della diploma sua. Spero che piacerà a Ella questo mio procedere perché ferà vivere con più gran lustro suo nome, che già serebbe immortale. […] Prego ancora una volta ch’ella invia presto suo ritratto et lavoro.’ Sani, 1985, I, 87–88. 143 ‘Il cavaliero Carlo Marat continua esser Principe. Aspetto con grandissima impatienza il suo ritratto e lavoro in ivoglio che sarà un grand’ornamento per la sala de questa nobilissima accademia.’ Sani, 1985, I, 90.

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threatening expectations, and pressures from Carlo Maratta (1625–1713) and Cole. As a result of her hesitating, procrastinating, she ultimately fell behind in her work. It was not until three months after Cole had contacted her for the first time in this matter that Carriera provided a meagre excuse for the delay. Just a week later after her friend’s last letter, she casually wrote at the end of a letter dated 16 May 1705: Signor Iles in leaving Venice left me a box so that it might be painted upon his return, but the continuous opportunities to paint portraits, always in a rush, has made it impossible until now to paint it; thus I cannot tell you how much I regret this. The same reason, and being bothered by a little fever, which comes upon me every third day has caused me to not be punctual in sending what I must to the Academy which I regret even more still, because its appearance will seem ridiculous, like the birthing of a Mountain.144

Cole was still waiting, but nothing was happening. A further three months passed before Cole returned with the same request. On 15 August 1705, he wrote from Rome: I see that I had judged correctly concerning the trip by Monsignor Champigni because the air is bad here, they say, until the middle of the month of September so it would have been better to send your gift to the academy by the courier that takes 15 days, it runs safely and does not cost much. I will remain here until the 24th of September, on that day I leave without doubt, it would cheer me if I could see your portrait and the other thing before such time. I will only reach Venice toward the month of December and this would be too late to send something that is so desired in Rome. Your Ladyship is her own master, if Monsieur Musters gets here before the 24th of September it might be good to send them with Him.145

Carriera’s answer is dated one week later. It seems she was now making an effort not to keep her friend waiting unnecessarily, and thus responded straight away. Her reply opens with a self-effacing statement, followed by an accusation of her English clients 144 ‘Il Sig.r Iles nel partir di Venetia mi lasiò una scatola perché al suo ritorno fosse dipinta, e la continua occasione di far ritrati, e sempre con premura, m’ha reso sin hor impossibile il farla; onde non gli dico quanto ciò m´incresca. Il medesimo motivo, e l’esser sturbata da una piciola febretta, che mi viene ogni terzo giorno fa ch’io non sii pontuale nel spedire ciò che devo per la Cademia cosa che molto più ancora mi spiace, poiché così sarà più ridicola la comparsa, come il parto della Montagna.’ Sani, 1985, I, 91. 145 ‘Vedo ch’io haveva giudicato bene del viaggio de Mons.r Champigni perché fa cattiva aria dicono qui fin il mezzo del mese 7bre perciò sarebbe stato meglio d’inviar il vostro regale a l’accademia per il procaccio chi va in 15 giorni, va sicuro e non costa molto. Io starò ancora qui fin al 24 de septembre, quel giorno parto senza dubio, me n’allegrarebbe se potessi vedere il vostro ritratto e altero avanti questo tempo qui. Non arriverò in Venetia, che verso il mese de decembre e questo sarebbe troppo tardi per inviare una cosa che è tanto desiderata in Roma. V.S. è patrona, se Monsieur Musters arriva qui avanti le 24 7bre sarebbe bono d’inviarle per Luy.’ Sani 1985, I, 92.

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for continuously putting her under pressure and another mention of the little fever she used earlier as an excuse for the delay. No longer was she able to mask her guilty conscience: With the next mail I will transmit everything by mail should Signor Munster not leave within a few days, which is unlikely, given the heat which still makes itself felt considerably. You, meanwhile, prepare yourself to see the worst thing that I have made in my days as I have been so awkward in being unable as I wished to do more than one lid to a snuffbox [to choose from] and then send the best one. You will say that I have had plenty of time, and this is very true; but Your Illustrious Lordship should not judge me without compassion, it was my care to serve the English nation that I greatly esteem, that has continuously requested portraits and then a little fever, which from time to time has disturbed me throughout this summer. These are not [real] excuses, but they should excuse my tardiness, so that they will not reproach me for the imperfection of this work for which you might, after you have seen that it is not worthy of being exposed to the scrutiny of those virtuous ones, promise to these same to send them a miniature, after you have reached Venice. My blushing at confronting these honours forces me to bore you with these expressions and to submit all to your prudence.146

Emphasizing that her letter was not a pretext for failing to send the requested miniature only reinforces the impression that she did indeed use the English clients and her febreta (little fever) exactly for this purpose and for a second time. Moreover, the fact that Carriera underplayed her own capacities in the letter and that she had painted a number of miniatures portraying a girl with a dove – various versions, in other words, of her chosen subject for a reception piece – makes one again suspect that she was tense, nervous, possibly afraid of the verdict to be passed on her by the other academy members. It seems as though she felt intimidated and unsure of herself and not to be up to the task; and so she kept on procrastinating and trying new and other solutions.147 The insecurity that surfaces here reflects a side of Carriera’s 146 ‘La posta ventura transmetterò ogni cosa per la posta quando il Sig.r Munster non partirà pochi giorni dopo, la qual cosa è difficile, per il caldo che ancor qui assai si fa sentire. Lei intanto si prepari di veder la peggior cosa ch’habbi mai fatto ai miei giorni, poiché fui sì sgratiata di non poter come bramavo far più d’un fondello e poi mandar il meglio. Dirà lei che io ho havuto del tempo assai, et questo è verissimo; ma V.S. Ill. ma non mi lascierà senza compatimento, quando sapia che l’origine di ciò, che gli parerà trascuatezza, fu la premura di servire alla natione inglese ch’io molto stimo, che di continuo fa instanza per ritratti e poi una febreta legera, che di quando in quando mi sturba tutto quest’estate. Se queste che non son scuse, mi faran scusa alla tardanza, so che non me la faranno all’imperfezione dell’opera per il che lei potrebbe dopo ch’havrà veduto ch’ella è indegna d’esser esposta alla visita di quei virtuosi, promettere alli medesimi di mandargli la miniatura, doppo che sarà lei gionto a Venetia. Il rossore con il quale incontro questi onori m’obligha tediarla con queste espressioni et di rimettere tutto alla sua prudenza.’ Sani, 1985, I, 93. 147 Sani, 1985, I, 93, n. 2.

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character for which there is rarely any other convincing evidence. In most of her other letters, she deploys a rhetoric of self-effacement as a staged form of modesty; in this situation, presumably, serious self-doubts did appear. She must have felt, therefore, all the more relieved to receive Cole’s letter dated 19 September 1705, in which he relayed the reaction in Rome to the reception piece she had submitted: My last was of the 12th of this month, after having received your very kind one of the same 12th in which You make too little of your great artistry in drawing and painting in miniature. Thursday I received your portrait148 […] yesterday went to Sig. Josepho Chiari and there I found Sig. Cavalier Carlo Maratti, Prince of the Academy, I showed them your work, which was admired equally by both. Sig. Cavaliere held it for more than half an hour in his hand and said that Your Ladyship had chosen a difficult subject, white on white, and had worked like a great master, that Guido Reni could not have done better. I do not dare to repeat all the praise with which the great painter I mentioned did justice to your merits, for fear that your great modesty would call it flattery. I showed it afterwards to Sig. Joseppo Ghezzi, good painter and secretary of the academy who gave it his applause. They will show it to the Pope who takes pleasure in and understands these things.149

On the following Sunday, Cole wrote, a meeting in the academy would be held and Carriera would be proposed as a candidate for membership. Finally, the artist sent a miniature, the Girl with a Dove (Figure 3), which is noteworthy as another proof of how highly this type of small-scale art was prized outside of Venice and especially also by the representatives of the academy, which at the time was one of the most renowned in Europe. It shows a young girl, a donzella, as it was called in the academic minutes,150 in white clothes against a blue background. She looks the observer in the eye vibrantly, a smile playing on her slightly open mouth, while she holds her skirt with both hands to indicate she holds a fluttering dove.151 The miniature most likely represents an Allegory of Innocence as Johns suggests and as it was called in the Academy’s early 148 He is alluding to the portrait of Carriera that Sebastiano Bombelli had painted and which is conserved in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. 149 ‘Mia ultima era dell 12 instante, ho doppo ricevuto la sua gentilissima del stesso 12 nella quale Ella fa valere troppo poco sua grand arte nel deseignare depingere in miniatura. Giovedì ho ricevuto suo ritratto […]. Hieri andiede dal Sig. Josepho Chiari pittore et la trovò il Sig.r Cavalier Carlo Maratti, Principe del Accademia, li ho mostrato suo lavoro, chi fu admirato egualmente da tutti duoi. Il Sig.r Cavalliero la teneva più de meza hora in mano et diceva che V. Signora haveva chiesto un sugetto dificile, bianco sopera bianco, che haveva fatto da maestra grande, che Guido Rheni no poteva fare più. Non ardisco ripetere tutte le lode con che fece giustitia il detto gran pittore al suo merito, de paura che la sua gran modestia le chiamerebbe flatteria. L’ho fatto vedere doppo al Sig.r Joseppo Ghezzi, bravo pittore et secretario del Accademia chi ha dato il suo applauso. La feranno vedere al Papa chi si diletta assai et intende.’ Sani, 1985, I, 94. 150 Johns, 2003, 33. 151 See also Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 16, p. 70.

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Figure 3 Rosalba Carriera, Girl with a Dove 1705, watercolour, gouache on ivory, 15 × 10 cm. Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, inv. 442. © Courtesy Accademia Nazionale di San Luca.

guidebooks;152 and, as such, it follows a tradition in eighteenth-century literature and painting of images depicting innocent children as metaphors for physical and moral purity.153 Johns holds convincingly that Carriera intended to depict an allegory of innocence of the soul rather than of the body, while simultaneously conveying to the male audience and male judges her self-awareness as an unmarried woman.154 Carreria’s general artistic interest in allegories needs to be underlined, for she was the first eighteenth-century artist to explore allegorical themes extensively in miniature paintings.155 By presenting this type of an allegory in this particular situation (and not one of her portraits or genre scenes), Carriera simultaneously managed to 152 See Johns, 2003, 33–34. 153 Benton, 1996, 22–25. 154 Johns, 2003, 33. 155 Johns, 2003, 25. Scarpa published the miniature of a Lady with Carafe, allegedly by Carriera, which is more likely to be a personification of Temperance, as the female figure is shown mixing liquids. Scarpa, 1997, 10.

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‘transcend the decorative “feminine” medium’,156 thereby cleverly positioning herself on the traditional, more highly esteemed level of a history painter. Allegories together with mythological or biblical scenes, were associated with the highest art genre, that of history painting. Unlike the lesser genres, history paintings ‘were made to teach, to lead, to instil virtue, and to capture gloire.’157 In this, Carriera justified her position as a female painter in the forefront of one of Europe’s most highly regarded institutions, whose membership roster included those judges viewed as the most apt in recognizing and rewarding excellent art. Until that point in history, only very few women such as Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) and Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665) had worked as history painters. Not until many decades later did Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun use the same strategy when she submitted an allegory of Peace Bringing Back Abundance in 1780 as her morceau de réception to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture.158 On top of delivering a reception piece, Carriera was, like her colleagues, expected to present the academy with a self-portrait, as was mentioned in various of Cole’s letters. This, however, Carriera failed to produce. Finally, it was Sebastiano Bombelli who painted her portrait, which still hangs in the academy as proof of the artist’s first official recognition.159 The extraordinary event took place on 27 September 1705, when she was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. Since its foundation in 1593 by Federico Zuccari (c.1540–1609), the Academy had for more than three centuries been accepting women as full members.160 Nevertheless, it treated her case in a particularly flattering way, as Carriera was even accepted as an academica di merito, a title and rank clearly superior to that of academica d’onore, which was reserved for collectors, connoisseurs or patrons of the arts.161 Three distinguished men agreed to award Carriera the highest possible title: the director of the academy at the time, Carlo Maratta, the painting professor Benedetto Luti and the life secretary Giuseppe Ghezzi (1634–1721).162 To include a cultural celebrity, which the successful Venetian miniaturist had become, according to Johns, was a commodity in which art academies were increasingly 156 Johns, 2003, 33. 157 Sheriff, 1996, 111. 158 Regarding Vigée-Lebrun’s admission to the French academy, see Sheriff, 1996, ch. 3. 159 No explanations have been offered yet regarding this extraordinary fact. I will discuss this issue in the last chapter on Carriera’s self-portraits. When the portrait arrived in Rome, Cole was disappointed with the quality and had to inform Carriera that it was also slightly damaged; see Sani, 1985, I, 94. As to the painting in the Accademia, see Cessi, 1965. 160 Modesti pointed out that in the reformed statutes of 1617, no mention is made to women at all: ‘We find that female artists were now considered a normal part of the academy, without need for special statutes to accommodate them, and so able to practice in the theoretical discourses and teach.’ Modesti, 2014, 67. See also Missirini, 1823, 84–85. 161 Sama, 2009, 126. In terms of women artists and academies during the eighteenth century, see the summary given by Sutherland Harris, in Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Le grandi pittrici, 1979, 35–37. 162 Johns, 2003, 20.

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willing to invest. It is possible that Maratta’s daughter and only child, Faustina Maratta Zapi, who was also a miniature painter, might have further influenced her father’s decision to support Carriera as an academica di merito.163 The minutes taken of the academy meeting of 27 September read: Having Signora Rosalba Carriera, Venetian painter and miniaturist, formally requested admission by proof of academic merit and having, to this effect, exhibited a portrait in half figure of a young woman, painted by her hand […] intending that it should remain in her memory in our Academy: whereupon it was immediately and with jubilation and applause received, admired and approved and [she] of being worthy of being an Academic.164

She was recorded as a pittrice e miniatrice (painter and miniaturist).165 No mention whatsoever was made of pastel, the technique for which she became famous in the following years.166 And the special designation chosen for Carriera in this renowned institution underscores her professional status as an artist, and raises her far above her female predecessors167. It was, in fact, an unheard-of situation, given that the rules of the academy did not make provision for such a nomination. The minutes, mentioned above, continue with: Thus by common consent and with no reservation she was declared worthy of our academy even though not instated by secret ballot in conformity with the decrees as this was preferred for this foreign maiden draws applause everywhere and is truly virtuous in reputation and in her virtues.168

Apart from the acceptance in the Accademia di San Luca, a more curious fact further reflects how popular her earliest works became during this initial stage of her career. In a letter to her by Rapparini written on 23 February 1709, he complained that forgeries of her miniatures were already in circulation.169 A patron had told him 163 Johns, 2003, 32. 164 ‘Avendo fatto istanza la signora Rosalba Carriera pittrice e miniatrice veneziana d’essere ammessa per prova accademica di merito ed a tale effetto, havendo esibito un ritratto d’una mezza figura di donzella, fatta di sua mano […] per lasciarlo in sua memoria nella nostra Accademia: onde fu subito con giubilo et applauso ricevuto veduto et approvato et esser meritevole di esser accademica.ʼ Sani, 1985, I, 95, n. 5. 165 Whistler, 2009, 191. As to Ramelli’s importance for Carriera’s career, see also Sani, 2003, 495. Carriera most likely met Cole in 1701 and by 1704 at the latest, they were close friends. Whistler, 2009, 183. Lord Manchester had been working at the time as ambassador in Venice. Sani, 1985, I, 12. 166 ffolliott, 2013, 435. 167 Johns, 2003, 20. 168 ‘Onde di commune consenso e senza alcuna discrepanza fu dichiarata per nostra accademia di merito nonostante non sia corsa la bussola in conformità del decreto e ciò si è preterito per essere questa zitella forastiera applaudita dappertutto e veramente virtuosa per fama e per virtù.’ Sani, 1985, I, 95, n. 5. 169 See Sani, 1985, I, 126.

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that his musician Valeriano Pellegrini had given him some ‘things’ by the Venetian artist, but Rapparini was sceptical about their value, knowing how, as he put it, many people like ‘to baptize copies and other things in her name.’170 Carriera’s response has not survived, but it can be deduced from another letter he wrote to her in July of the same year that she was aware of these unauthorized copies being made of her work; he wrote asking for clarification regarding a certain ‘Signor Ridolfi’. Apparently Carriera had mentioned Ridolfi as being the one responsible for these forgeries. He was an artist Moretti identifies as Ridolfo Manzoni, who was born in Castelfranco Veneto around 1674 and whose name Coronelli mentioned right after Carriera’s in his list of miniature painters.171

A New Reading of Carriera’s World en miniature Another important factor enhanced Carriera’s position as an innovative and highly successful female painter: She was the first artist who popularized miniatures as an independent form of portraiture in Europe.172 Miniatures had been commonly associated with portraiture since the sixteenth century, thus within Carriera’s oeuvre, portraits make up a sizeable percentage of her small-scale images. They are a fascinating reflection of her multifarious international clientele, and once further examined, they tell fascinating stories of love, friendship and political alliance.

Carriera’s Portrait of Philip Wharton (1698–1731) One particularly intriguing miniature is a piece now kept in the Ca’Rezzonico in Venice (Figure 4) that has convincingly been identified as the depiction of Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton and Jacobite Duke of Northumberland.173 While travelling to Switzerland and France in 1716, he met with Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766), the ‘Old Pretender’ and son of James II (1633–1701), the Catholic English king who had been deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution during 1688 and 1689. Together with his loyal courtiers, Prince James had fled to France, protected by his cousin, the French King Louis XIV (1638–1715), who offered him exile in St. Germainen-Laye. In 1717, the Jacobites moved their court to Italy with the support of the 170 See Sani, 1985, I, 126. 171 Moretti, 2011b, p. 310. 172 Within her history of miniature portraits, Henninger-Tavcar allotted a meagre three pages to summarizing the development and the main representatives of miniature painting in Italy compared to the sixteen pages she dedicated to the overview regarding England. See Henninger-Tavcar, 1995. 173 Sani, 2007b, 92; Pasian, in Pavanello, ed., Rosalba Carriera ‘prima pittrice de l’Europa’, 2007b, cat. no. 47, pp. 166–67.

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Figure 4 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Philip, Duke of Wharton 1720–25, tempera on ivory, 8.2 × 5.7cm. Venice, Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico.

papacy. And it was in Italy where the meeting between the Old Pretender and Wharton, the future Duke of Northumberland, took place, with Wharton later eventually turning into a well-known Jacobite himself.174 We do not have any specific information regarding the date of execution or the circumstances of the commission, but as Wharton travelled to Italy in 1719, 1726 and 1728, Sani assumed that Carriera painted his portrait during one of his earlier trips.175 174 See Seccombe, 1899, 410–13. 175 Around 1730, she also made a miniature portrait of the Old Pretender himself which is now kept in the Louvre; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 320, p. 288. Most likely, Carriera copied the pastel of Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Corset (1711–1769), for this miniature because the Old Pretender is shown much younger than he would have been at that time. Unlike Wharton, he is depicted wearing elegant modern dress with a glittering brocade jacket over his white shirt that is adorned with a precious lace collar. The tricorne hat and the black lace veil that covers the back of his head as well as the bautta he is holding with his pinky are a testimony to his stay in Venice. According to the fashion of the time, Carriera portrayed him taking a whiff from a golden snuffbox she was typically known to decorate with fancy miniatures.

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The artist presented the ‘scorn and wonder of our days’, as Alexander Pope (1688– 1744) called the illustrious duke,176 dressed in simple clothes with a decorated brocade robe de chambre over his unbuttoned shirt. His head is covered with a red turban, and a bright blue mantle is thrown over his left shoulder.177 As far as his pose and the overall composition of the piece is concerned, Carriera followed her habitual design, but unlike almost all of her other male clients, she portrayed him without a wig, powdered hair, fancy buttons, or any other form of accessory decoration. As Pointon has admirably shown, the headgear and especially the wig were visible signs of order, and were clearly gendered items of fashionable male apparel; together they represented a symbolic system with multifaceted connotations. It is worthwhile to cite a longer passage of Pointon’s elaboration about this system to gain a better understanding of Wharton’s portrait: The wig possesses a life of its own as a patterning far beyond the bounds of questions of dress and manners. It is invested with a powerful symbolic significance and becomes widespread currency in ways that cannot be summed by the material object of the wig to which, however, this symbolic life always ultimately refers. […] In a discursive practice, the wig signifies across an entire field: the wearing of a wig by a particular individual at a particular time is implicated with the wig as depicted in portraits, just as the portraits are themselves implicated in the fashion for wearing wigs.178

Consequently, once it became an established convention to wear wigs, ‘to appear without one was to expose oneself as eccentric, exceptional or deviant.’179 In pondering why he elected to be depicted with a red turban instead of a wig, it is reasonable to believe that Wharton deftly chose this subversive element as a visual expression of his individuality and of his revolutionary political attitude supporting the Jacobite cause. Without any further documentary proof, it is difficult to draw a more precise picture of the circumstances of this commission, but it is safe to assume that Wharton was aware of the Stuarts’ propagandistic use of portraits as symbols of – and requests for – allegiance and loyalty. After James Stuart II was deposed in 1689, the Stuarts 176 Alexander Pope, Moral Essays, ep. 1, ‘Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men’, line 180, see Eighteenth Century Collections Online, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004780226.0001.000/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext (accessed on 7 August 2018). 177 Carriera’s pastel portrait of Philip Wharton, today part of the Royal Collection in Buckingham Palace in London, was most likely executed at around the same time and shows the duke in a similar way; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 56, pp. 90–91. 178 Pointon, 1993, 112–13. 179 Pointon, 1993, 117. In this context, see also the self-portraits by Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin (1699–1779), Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702–1789), Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788) or Anton Raphael Mengs (1728– 1779), just to name a few, in which the painters showed themselves without a wig.

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attempted to regain the thrones of Scotland and England by launching a series of military campaigns that ended in failure. Eventually they started a propaganda campaign that was not based on the use of weapons but on positioning portraits of themselves all over Europe. Over a period of about sixty years, artists executed around 50 original images during the Stuart exile in France, and another 50 during their stay in Italy; not to mention the more than 200 high-quality prints and engraved images of the Stuarts that were made for the same purpose.180 As Hofstetter put it, the distribution of miniature, oil and pastel portraits of themselves bordered on excess.181 The works were sent to other family members, to foreign courts and to those friends in England and abroad who sympathized with the Stuarts’ cause to recover their crowns from the House of Hannover.182 It does not seem far-fetched to assume that Wharton chose this same medium so that he would carry it around and show it as a visible token of allegiance.183

Carriera’s Daring Eroticism Within the oeuvre of Carriera are a remarkable number of paintings with either eroticizing aspects or truly erotic subject matter, an aspect of her art that has been mentioned only in passing, if ever, by the literature on the Venetian painter. Hardly any of her pieces have been given enough attention to unveil their covert or overt sexual allusions. Even though by the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, art historians have documented the growing market of eager art lovers and collectors seeking to buy sensually and erotically charged images,184 it remains a somewhat puzzling fact that, as a woman artist and respectable lady, Carriera indulged in what was a potentially dangerous theme for her public reputation. Considering the difficulties and obstacles she had to face and overcome in one way or another simply to become a female painter, the care with which she had to move in professional circles and the sly strategies she had to use to succeed, this choice to depict subjects that bore certain risks should by no means be taken lightly, on a private just as much as on a public level. When I discuss her position as an unmarried woman, I will analyse the complications involved in her choice of this kind of life 180 Lloyd, 2013, 20. 181 The author also points out that portraits of the Old Pretender, his wife, Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–1735) and both of their sons can still be found in the collections of many Scottish noble families whose forefathers might have received them over 300 years ago. See Hofstetter, 2008d, 96 and 98. 182 Whistler, 2009, 192. According to a letter written by Caterino Zeno on 3 December 1729, Carriera was invited to travel to England herself but she apparently refused to make the trip because of her fear of water. See Sani, 1985, II, 803. 183 With regard to Carriera’s links to Jacobite clients, the official of the Jacobite marine Lord Tullibardine should also be mentioned; it is most likely he had his portrait done by her in 1710. Whistler, 2009, 184. 184 Vogtherr, 2010, 17.

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more deeply; suffice it to say for now that she had to be extremely careful in how to move, how to act, how to behave. Thus, it is all the more remarkable that Carriera appears to be the first professional female artist of international renown who dared to depict both titillating and ambiguous as well as clearly unambiguous pieces of erotic art. And what is even more surprising is the fact that unless new documentary evidence can be found, we do not have any clear indications of any kind of scandal regarding the eroticism in her works that would have been either stirred up by her contemporaries or hinted at in malicious gossip. This does not mean scandal did not exist, but it is noteworthy that it did not become a well-known point of criticism. It is most likely not a coincidence that her erotic subjects – whether in mythological disguise, tied to Arcadian visions, or veiled behind literary quotations – appear predominantly in her miniatures. The small format of the images predestined the delicate pieces for private vision. They could also be easily hidden which means that those in the general public would not necessarily be confronted with them.

The Young Girl as a Gardener in Munich One example of Carriera’s erotic pieces is a miniature depicting a young gardener. Carriera’s oeuvre of miniatures includes numerous depictions of rural subjects such as shepherdesses, peasants and farm girls in pastoral disguise, all of which were part of a popular subject matter at the time.185 Unlike history paintings, the genre of pastoral painting is almost anti-narrative. As Hyde has pointed out in the context of François Boucher (1703–1770), this genre replaces the epic istoria of famous men and their gestae with ‘the work of signification [that] is performed by the sexual body, by playful visual and linguistic puns and an involved vocabulary of iconographic motifs.’186 And Carriera used the same devices. The composition and the artful pose of her Arcadian subjects vary only in minimal parts, as pointed out above. Her females are typically outfitted in countrified costumes and straw hats, complemented by baskets and fruit or vegetables. Her contemporaries referred to these figures as the contadine, contadinelle or pastorelle.187 A letter by Giorgio Maria Rapparini (1660–1727), the secretary of the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf, shows how closely Carriera’s pieces followed the general pattern. On 23 February 1709, he wrote a letter in which he asked

185 The artist depicted a large number of these miniatures during the first decade of the eighteenth century; see Accrescimbeni, 2009, 54. 186 Hyde, 1996, 32. 187 See for example Sani, 1985, I, 127, 131, 149.

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for a miniature from her hand. Not without irony and referring in a condescending tone to Carriera’s growing fame, he added mockingly: I too like the little female peasants when they are neat and fresh, the little flowers, the little straw hats, the little hands with dimples and long fingers, the little fluttering dresses and clothes and what not, a little shepherd who plays music and philanders with his heavenly looks. Go on, then, just favour me quickly with this last act of gallantry, before you are restored to the heavens of glory and of virtue, from where it will no longer be permitted for anybody like me to obtain your work now worthy only of important Princes and of great collections while you will not, with justice, deign to show me even the tip of your deified paintbrush.188

Even if Rapparini’s main intention seems to have been to tease the artist, his lines reflect his awareness of a by-then typical and conventional way of depicting these figures, and the fact that Carriera was one of the artists who followed this fashion. But it would appear there is more to discover. Following Mary Sheriff’s pioneering research on eroticism in Fragonard’s art, in 1990, I undertake to show in my reading of some of Carriera’s pieces, how it is possible to query further the initial appearance of innocence in her miniatures, which is expressed through the elegant demeanour, the simple clothes, and her contadinelle’s wide-eyed facial expressions. If we look at the example now held by the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich that depicts a Young Girl as a Gardener (Figure 5), we first see only an ostensibly slight narrative: the image of the ordinary healthy, robust-looking full-breasted girl in countrified costume who turns towards the onlooker in a graceful and elegant pose. She is wearing a straw hat decorated with fresh flowers and presents a basket full of apples and grapes she has just picked. Right behind her one discovers another basket overflowing with more ripe and shiny apples. The scene is closed by a wall, behind which a tree alludes to the existence of another prolific garden. The girl looks directly out at the spectator with a hint of a smile playing around her lips while her right hand reaches for the grapes in her basket; her straw hat casts a light shadow over her blue eyes. An overall impression of blooming nature, rich harvest and boundless fertility rules in this piece where the colours of the fruit correspond to the colours of her dress, as if they were one inextricable entity.

188 ‘Anche a me piaccion le contadine quando son linde e fresche, i fioretti, i cappellini di paglia, le manine con le fossette e detti a fuso, i svolazzetti, i pannarini e che so io, un pastorello che suoni, et amoreggi e quelle sue cierine di paradiso. Via, dunque, mi faccia, presto, quest’ultima sua galanteria, prima che sia riposta nel ciel della gloria e della virtù, di dove non sarà più lectio ai pari miei aver sue fatiche, degne solo di gran Prencipi e di gran tesori ed ella allora non si degnerà con giustizia di mostrarmi neanche la punta del suo pennello deificato.’ Sani, 1985, I, 127.

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Figure 5 Rosalba Carriera, Young Girl as a Gardener 1709, watercolour and gouache on ivory, 10 × 7.6 cm. Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, inv. D 620a. © Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich.

If we accept the general notion of fecundity in terms of female sexuality, the girl’s attributes add up to covertly depicted sexual innuendo. Even if the allusions are controlled and hidden in this scene of a young, neat contadinella, as Rapparini would have called her, her accessories can be decoded, as Sheriff put it, as ‘usually thinly disguised metaphors for lovemaking. More often than not, the tumescent objects surrounding the figures operate as erotic symbols and references to sexual organs.’189 Bonnets like straw hats or aprons and baskets can be decoded as allusions to the women’s sex, to the vagina or by extension to the womb that needs to be inseminated.190 189 Sheriff, 1990, 102. 190 See Sheriff, 1990, 105–7.

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The apple is a fruit that in the context of Christian symbolism indicates temptation and consequently the original sin with references to the Latin word malum meaning both apple and evil.191 In antiquity, apples, in preference to other fruits, were tokens of love; suffice it to recall that Aphrodite had plucked the apple that Hippomenes used to beguile Atalanta. Mythology further tells us that it was Bacchus, the god of wine and intoxication, who created the apple and gave it as a gift to Venus, the goddess of love. In reference to Carriera’s miniature, it needs to be underlined that depicting the apple, among various suggestive fruits, as an object of desire to mean not only love but also a clearly erotic charge was a tradition since the Renaissance.192 One of the most famous examples of salaciously depicted apples can be viewed in the fruit garlands by Giovanni da Udine (1470/75–1535) that surround Raphael’s (1483–1520) Cupid and Psyche in the Loggia di Psiche. Numerous apples appear among cucumbers, eggplants or pears implicating pleasure, fertility and love in an exuberant depiction of sexual desire. Apples can also refer to female breasts, as Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) described a satyr complaining in his pastoral play Aminta, ‘Ah me! When I present lovely apples to you, you refuse them, disdainfully, perhaps because your breast bears a lovelier pair.’193 Also grapes have multiple iconographic references; the sexual connotations are particularly explicit in paintings that depict the myth of Dionysus deceiving and seducing Erigone, daughter of a farmer who had learned directly from the god of wine how to grow vines and make the inebriating drink.194 According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book 6), Dionysus transformed himself into bunches of false grapes to possess the young woman. Therefore, it does seem somewhat appropriate to apply these various symbolic meanings to the interpretation of Carriera’s work. Her version of a young gardener can be seen by innocent eyes as an idyllic depiction of a healthy young woman bringing fruit, whereas to an accustomed observer the miniature is ripe with sexual allusions. To borrow again Sheriff’s words, the depiction of this ‘pastoral mode […] collapses into a decorative eroticism expressed by covert symbols and dependent on the notions of dissimulation and disguise.’195 While the young woman reaches for the flagrantly symbolic grapes in the basket, the above-mentioned womb to be inseminated, the apples also remind us of their sexual charge. The wall behind the gardener 191 The difference lies in the letter ‘a’, malum meaning bad, evil, whereas mālum means apple; Czerny, 2013, 444. 192 See for example Czerny, 2013, 453. 193 Tasso, Aminta, act 2, sc. 1, lines 25–30: ‘Ohime, quando io ti porgo i vaghi pomi, / Tu li rifiuti, disdegnosa, forse, / Perche pomi più vaghi hai nel bel seno.’ English translation by Malcolm Hayward (1997). See archive. today, https://archive.vn/20141109114845/http://prod.campuscruiser.com/cruiser/occ/rhayward/Translations/ 17623.html (accessed on 11 April 2020). 194 Sheriff, 1990, 110. See for example Louis Antoine Riesener’s (1808–1878) version of 1885 in the Louvre. 195 Sheriff, 1990, 103.

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shows how one block of the massive stones has already fallen and the rest of the barrier might be collapsing soon, an indication that the woman’s loss of virginity is at stake. It might be also intentional that the flowers on her hat are placed directly above the section of the wall that has collapsed. Flowers are laden with multifaceted symbolism ranging from moral lessons to allusions to sexuality. Especially in combination with young, beautiful women, they can be understood as symbols of vanity, reminding the women depicted as well as the onlookers of the short-lived existence of both, the blossomed flower and the youth and beauty of human beings. In the context of Carriera’s miniature, these flowers are, on the one hand, aesthetically pleasing and they favourably balance the pictorial composition: on the other hand, they symbolically complete the message of the miniature, that their ephemeral beauty will flee and so will the woman’s looks; and even more directly, the flowers will decay when the woman will soon be deflowered. Carriera relied on well-established conventions of erotic depictions to strike a resonant chord with any connoisseur or art lover who enjoyed decoding the hidden meanings in their precious artworks. In this way, the painter managed to depict in an acceptable and decorous way what she could not explicitly show.

Miniature Mythologies One miniature that is part of the series of works with mythological content is a piece depicting Venus and Cupid (Figure 6). It was exhibited for the first time in 1910 by Malamani as part of the collection in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, before it was destroyed during World War II.196 According to Zava Boccazzi, Carriera executed the piece for her French colleague Nicolas Vleughels (1668–1737) sometime between 1707 and 1711. She copied Paolo Veronese’s (1528–1588) painting of Venus at her Toilet,197 a work that was present in the collection of Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga (1652–1708), last Duke of Mantova. Eidelberg and Rowlands have identified it with a painting now in the London Courtauld Institute of Art, where it has been attributed to Giovanni Battista Zelotti (1526–1578) after a composition by Titian (c.1488–1675).198 After the dispersal of Veronese’s atelier, numerous artworks appeared on the market to fulfil 196 Malamani, 1910, 16. Regarding the title, depictions of Venus are mentioned often in Carriera’s correspondence until 1720; it must have been requested frequently – Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 80, p. 106. 197 She also added that the piece could have been brought to Paris by De Prougen (or de Prouyen); see Zava Boccazzi, 1999, 208–9. During Carriera’s stay in Paris, she could have restored the piece and on the same occasion made a copy of it which is possibly the one nowadays part of a private collection in London. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 10, p. 66. 198 See Eidelberg and Rowlands, 1994, 228–29, where it is still listed as Veronese. The Courtauld Institute website files it under ‘The Toilet of Venus – Attributed to Giovanni Battista Zelotti (1526–1578), formerly attributed to Paolo Veronese’. See The Courtauld Institute of Art, A & A, http//:www.artandarchitecture.org. uk/images/gallery/d8cffa18.html (accessed on 3 July 2019).

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Figure 6 Rosalba Carriera, Venus and Cupid 1707–11, oil on ivory, 9 × 7.1 cm. Originally in Dresden, Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, miniature not part of the collection since 1924. © Reproduction: H. Pfauder, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

the huge number of commissions that in fact were the result of what Borean called ‘imitative collaborations’.199 And this mass of stylistically similar paintings has long made it difficult to distinguish a Carriera original from a high-quality workshop piece. Until the twentieth century this canvas in London was believed to be executed by Veronese, but now it is reasonable to believe that Carriera herself was convinced to copy a work by Veronese.200 This miniature is not only an interesting example of her erotically charged works but one that shows how the artist inserted herself into the tradition of Venetian Renaissance painting. By quoting her sixteenth-century colleague, she followed a 199 Boreau, 2016, 90. 200 Within the history of provenance of the painting, one incident is mentioned in which the originality of the pieces was questioned. Alfred de Rothschild (1842–1918) bought the piece in 1875 for 3,500 British pounds, even though he believed it was not worth more than 500. His daughter then sold it in 1918 to Christie’s where it was catalogued again as ‘Veronese’; see Bayliss and Fliege, 2014, 9.

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growing demand in an art market which had become flooded with old master copies and which guaranteed a certain number of commissions from eager art collectors who either could not get hold of or could not afford a real Venetian Renaissance painting.201 Moreover, as miniature artists were not primarily judged on their originality but on their technical finesse, they could openly copy or adapt easel paintings.202 And Veronese was particularly sought after, resulting in the ‘Veronesian phenomenon’ that became particularly cut-throat in the seventeenth century and continued into the eighteenth.203 This general tendency and widespread interest in Veronese is also reflected in the figure painted by Carriera, and her correspondence gives further evidence of the predilection for the eminent Renaissance artist. During the period when Carriera was involved in a lucrative art deal with the court of Düsseldorf, missives mentioned various paintings by Veronese.204 A letter Carriera sent to Rapparini, the intermediary figure between the ruler of Düsseldorf and Italy, is another example of this trend, in which she mentioned she has made ‘a tiny little copy of Paolo’ (picciolissima copia di Paolo).205 Therefore she must have been a particularly flattered to read in 1726 that Mariette placed one of her artworks among some of her most illustrious predecessors, from Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530), to Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), to Poussin (1594–1665), and to her Venetian forerunners Giorgione (1478–1510) and Veronese.206 The fact that Carriera copied Veronese for the miniature under discussion could have been the result of the request of her client, but at the same time, she would have heeded her cultural roots in this process of copying the illustrious old master. Consciously, she inserted herself into the Venetian tradition of idealized and erotically charged paintings of half-length beautiful women, which had been sparked off during the Renaissance by painters like Giovanni Bellini (1437–1516), Giorgione, Titian and Veronese.207 For the following four centuries these fashionable works enjoyed overwhelming success throughout European painting, and with this miniature Carriera produced one of her earliest contributions to her artistic heritage which must have been appreciated as such by the commissioner. By copying the famous Veronese, Carriera put her outstanding artistry on display; and this artistry would have been evident to anybody who wanted to compare her piece with the original. A three-quarter seated figure of Venus turns to the opposite side of her legs in order to look into a mirror held by her son Cupid. Her torso is shown almost frontally while her legs are turned to her right. Her left hand resting on her chest indicates 201 See Sohm, 2010a, 28, and 2010b, 212. 202 Vogtherr, 2010, 18. 203 Boreau, 2016, 89. 204 Sani, 1985, I, 178 and 198. 205 Sani, 1985, I, 207. 206 Sani, 1985, II, 460. 207 Ferino-Pagden, 2010, 190.

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her unveiled right breast, while her right hand delicately holds with two fingers a thin veil hanging from her carefully braided hair. Carriera, like her sixteenth-century colleague before her, alluded to the Venus pudica type who is trying to cover parts of her body.208 Nevertheless, the gesture of her right hand is playfully ambiguous as it is not clear whether she is dressing or undressing herself, and there are also sensual allusions to the white garment that slightly covers her body but that on her left leg is pulled back to reveal parts of her thigh. While Venus admires herself in the mirror which Cupid holds up for her, her son himself seems to be beguiled by his mother’s beauty and sensuality. And the onlooker is like an intruder taking part in a voyeuristic act, observing, scrutinizing in silence the seemingly private scene, and yet also inserting his looks into a triangular and flirtatious play of glances. To include a mirror and a reflected image of Venus allows for the canonical reference to the paragone debate offering the onlooker another angle of vision. Venus becomes more three-dimensional, which supports one of the arguments sculptors have typically used to prove sculpture is higher than painting. Furthermore, as the goddess is placed so close to the picture plane that she seems to protrude into the viewer’s space, whoever stood in front of the painting would have found themselves directly in the room with Venus. This form of inclusion and of intimacy worked for the original but it would have also worked for the miniature, which was an object that an onlooker would have held closely to the eyes, thereby producing a similar effect of physical closeness and titillating intimacy. The possessor of this miniature would have been able to enjoy the juxtaposition of naked flesh with reflective surface and would have manoeuvred the little painting just as Cupid was manoeuvring the mirror within it. And just as the sixteenth-century pictorial model was reflected in the mirror, so also the model’s reflection in the miniature ‘became a means of heightening the appeal of surfaces, its cosmetic functions commenting on the appeal of beauty as well as its transience [but especially, it] added further visual dimensions to delectation’, as Rosand pointed out.209 Another miniature that again bears the title Venus and Cupid (Figure 7) is a piece currently kept in Copenhagen. It shows the seated goddess of love and beauty embracing her son who is standing next to her playing with a bird on a leash. Venus, barely covered, is longingly looking at the bird while she is tickling the nipple of her left breast between the ring finger and pinky of her right hand, a gesture that adds to the depiction’s erotic charge. Cupid, on the other hand, is apparently unaware of his mother’s delight, and follows the flight of his companion with a smile on his face.

208 Regarding the ancient model of a crouching Venus with Cupid who is holding the mirror for her see Santore, 1997, 185. 209 Rosand, 2009, 184.

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Figure 7 Rosalba Carriera, Venus and Cupid Before 1709, watercolour and gouache on ivory, 10.3 × 8.5 cm. Copenhagen, National Gallery of Denmark, inv. KMS4837.

When Holck Holding published the miniature in 1953, he assumed that the Danish King Frederick IV had bought the piece during his second trip to Italy in 1709.210 That date corresponds to a Venus Carriera mentioned the same year in a letter to Baron Frederik de Walter.211 By depicting Venus in the company of Cupid, Carriera followed the general iconography of the goddess of love as it had been known inside and outside of Italy since the Renaissance. What is striking about her miniature is the addition of the rather unusual bird on a string. The goddess of love and her son are often shown with birds, but usually the artists chose to depict doves as the traditional symbols for Venus. The bird in this miniature is definitely not a dove. If we consult Cesare Ripa’s (c.1555–1622) Iconologia (first published in 1593, and then in 1603), we find a different explanation of what this bird may represent. One of the personifications described and illustrated in the Iconologia associates a bird with ‘Lust’ (Lussuria). That figure shows an almost nude woman holding a partridge,212 but 210 Holck Colding, 1953, 129–30; Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 34, p. 78. 211 See Sani, 1985, I, 133. 212 Ripa, 1613, pt. 2, p. 15.

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again, Carriera’s miniature does not show a partridge. If we read, instead, what Ripa says about the figure of ‘Controlled Love’ (Amor Domato), we find the personification represented by a seated Cupid who put his feet on his bow and his quiver while he is holding an hourglass in his right hand, and a thin and emaciated bird on the index finger of the left.213 It is Venus’s son, instead of her, who is in control of love as symbolized by the bird. The reference to Ripa is plausible as it was a book that had ‘a significant impact in artistic circles, serving as a visual encyclopedia and recipe book on how to depict certain images, whether allegorical […] or personifications’.214 Carriera, like her colleagues, was well aware of this publication’s importance, using it in numerous circumstances. Carriera also probably referred to Ripa in this miniature, but even if his Iconologia was not the source of inspiration for her invention, she could have counted on a current general understanding of the bird as a widely used emblem of male sexuality, the phallus and sexual intercourse.215 Even today, its sexual innuendo as a euphemism for the male member is reflected in the use of uccello (bird) in Italian for the penis.216 At this point in my exploration, Carriera’s exceptional combination of Venus, Cupid and the bird on a leash immediately takes on a quite obvious meaning. Considering the pose, the slightly opened mouth and the craving glance of the goddess of love, Venus appears to be truly attracted to what she is looking at. Her yearning and pleasure are further emphasized by the gesture of her right hand caressing and stimulating the nipple of her left breast. It is a conspicuous gesture that we also find in a painting by Paolo Veronese. Around 1585, he had depicted Venus and Adonis in a piece currently housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Figure 8). This piece showed one of many adaptations in art of the ancient tale that after the Renaissance were for the most part based on the numerous illustrated editions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Veronese’s painting the hunter is caressing and stimulating the goddess’s breast in a way strikingly similar to how Venus is touching herself in this miniature.217 If we take a closer look at both of these paintings, we realize that it is not only the gesture but the entire figure of the goddess that Carriera adapted from Veronese, including details such as the shading on her belly, her locks of hair falling over one shoulder, the way the drapery is wrapped around her waist and the lowering of her left arm. Carriera also adapted the main part of Venus’s body in the oil painting to her miniature, turning her head the other way and substituting her right arm with 213 Ripa, 1613, pt. 1, pp. 32–35. 214 De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 73. 215 See Shefer, 1991, 447, who adds that in Dutch, vogel means bird, and vogelen means to make love. Likewise, in German, the verb vögeln is still common slang for having sexual intercourse. See also Sheriff, 1990, 109. 216 Alberti et al., 2014, 201. It is noteworthy that the figure representing voluptuousness (voluttà) in Ripa’s Iconologia is described as a woman who is walking along a street filled with flowers and roses, holding onto a sphere with two wings; Ripa, 1613, 371. 217 For further information regarding the painting in Vienna, see Pignatti and Pedrocco, 1995, II, 389–90.

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Figure 8 Paolo Veronese, Venus and Adonis c.1586, oil on canvas, 68 × 52 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 1527. © KHM-Museumsverband.

the one depicted for Adonis. Also, Cupid, with his stubby nose and blonde curly hair was inspired by Veronese’s sixteenth-century model. Once again, the old master proved to be an important source of inspiration for Carriera, with this painting being a fruitful and structural model for her own compositions; but it is also possible to relate the two versions on a conceptual level. Her miniature can also be read as an allusion to an event that occurred just before Venus fell in love with Adonis; this is the moment when she became infatuated with the hunter after one of Cupid’s arrows had scratched her breast – maybe the breast that

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both Veronese and Carriera emphasized in a titillating way in these two works.218 The result of this ‘accident’ is that Venus disarms Cupid, which has been the subject of numerous paintings since the Renaissance,219 although Carriera does something different. With great artistic freedom, she interpreted the text, inventing a scene for which she had no visual precedent, but which Ovid describes with the following words: For while the boy, Cupid, with quiver on shoulder, was kissing his mother, he innocently scratched her breast with a loose arrow. The injured goddess pushed her son away: but the wound he had given was deeper than it seemed, and deceived her at first. Now captured by mortal beauty, she cares nor more for Cythera’s shores, nor revisits Paphos surrounded by its deep waters, nor Cnidos, the haunt of fish, nor Amathus, rich in minery: she even forgoes the heavens: preferring Adonis to heaven.220

Interpreting and translating the Ovidian description into a comprehensible visual depiction, Carriera expressed Venus’s enthusiasm through physical longing that turned her scene into a painting about erotic delight. The one aspect that both Ovid’s text and the two paintings have in common is the fact that Venus has no control of her emotions or of her desires. The longing goddess in Carriera’s piece is enchanted by what she is craving but it is not in her power to control the flight of the bird. It is her son who is holding on to the leash, just as he keeps the bird on his finger in Ripa’s personification of ‘Controlled Love’. Whereas in numerous Dutch paintings, the containment of sexuality is metaphorically embedded in birds shown in cages, Carriera lets Cupid hold it on a leash.221 The latter could also be read as a version of the ribbon which is a standard symbol of the indomitable power to bind lovers together.222 Fact is that it is he who can permit it to fly or not, just as he can shoot arrows of the type he chooses to or not. In this way, he has the

218 A similar way of adopting and adapting single figures, gestures and glances from oil paintings of her predecessors or contemporary colleagues can be found in a miniature which is part of the Royal Collection and listed as ‘Portrait of Françoise-Marie, Duchesse d’Orléans (1677–1749), as Amphitrite’. The group of three female figures has been adapted from an allegory by a follower of Pierre Mignard (1612–1695) in Versailles. Also, in this case, Carriera used single figures from an oil painting, but she assembled them in such a way that their glances, gestures and movements turned the final product into a highly erotic scene where only women are involved. It is a miniature that still needs to be interpreted and inserted into a wide-ranging discourse of portraiture or allegory, female friendship or sapphism, and eroticism in general. 219 Umbach, 2008, 69. 220 Quoted after Anthony S. Kline’s translation, see The Ovid Collection, A. S. Kline, Ovid´s Metamorphoses, Book 10, https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph10.htm (accessed on 14 March 2019). 221 The fundamental publication on the erotic connotation of birds is still Eddy de Jongh, ‘Erotica in Vogelperspectif’, 1968–69. See also Shefer, 1991. 222 See Georgievska-Shine, 2016, 65.

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capacity to interfere, and it would not be the first time he got involved in his mother’s love affairs, as the above-mentioned myth of Venus and Adonis shows. The fact that Carriera added the charged symbol in a beautiful, decorative way in her miniature, letting the leash flow in elegant curves and filling the space above Venus and her son with the bird, is noteworthy; it was a strategy for rendering a sexually coded image in a more acceptable way for ‘innocent’ eyes. As Sheriff has elsewhere pointed out, the onlooker can take pleasure in the explicit allusion not only for what it represents but for the way it is represented.223 Again on a symbolic level, it surely is not a coincidence, nor is it only a question of the subtle dynamics of a harmonious composition, that the bird is shown flying towards Venus. Careful observation shows it seems to be oriented towards the vase next to the goddess on the miniature’s left-hand side. I wonder if this detail is another proof of the artist’s erudition. Did she include this detail as an intellectual allusion to Agnolo Firenzuola’s (1493–1543) dialogue Of the Beauty of Women (first published in 1548) where he famously compares women with Greek vases? In the first two examples of this sixteenth-century text, the importance and attraction of a thin neck and wide hips are pointed out as factors that underline the grace and slenderness of the neck as well as the breadth of the hips depicted in Carriera’s version of Venus’ body.224 It is also very well possible, especially in the context of this miniature whose sexual innuendo is so obvious, that her version of the vase quite literally and crudely emblematically stands for a vessel, a container ready to be filled. Considering the multiple references included in this depiction of Venus and Cupid, we realize that this artist used allusions drawn from more than one tradition. As is the case with other erotic paintings in the eighteenth century, these works were, what Sheriff called, an eclectic bricolage formed from the many bits and pieces available to artist and audience. Once the basic ideas of double-entendre, metaphoric substitution, and pun, were established, a whole logic of signification operated.225

The educated observer would have enjoyed decoding the visual signifiers, the various levels of the narrative, as well as ‘the tension they produce between a proffered moral message and its witty deconstruction.’226

223 Sheriff, 1990, 112. 224 Firenzuola, 1892, 145–46. 225 Sheriff, 1990, 107. 226 Fort, 2007, 133.

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Carriera and the Sister Arts Another example of Carriera’s miniatures depicts the painter’s artistic inventiveness and freedom of interpretation in an entirely different way. It is a piece which was catalogued by Sani as Venus and Cupid, and is today kept in Chatsworth, Derbyshire, as part of the Devonshire collection (Figure 9).227 Dated according to the same author around 1715, she analyses how Carriera took inspiration for this work from a painting generally attributed to Federico Bencovich that depicts Hercules and Omphale (Figure 10) and is now kept in the Bavarian palace Schleißheim.228 Here is another case in which

Figure 9 Rosalba Carriera, Armida and Rinaldo About 1715, tempera on ivory, height 8 cm. Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, inv. MIN108. © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth.

227 According to Sani, it was possibly part of the twelve miniatures for which Lord Burlington, on 5 March 1715, paid the artist 288 crowns. His collection of these miniatures is not intact anymore. The collection in Chatsworth contains seven pieces that can be connected, at least, to the circle of Carriera; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 80, p. 106. 228 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 80, p. 106.

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Figure 10 Federico Bencovich, Hercules and Omphale Eighteenth century, oil on canvas, 130 × 108 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie in der Residenz Würzburg. © Fotoarchiv, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen.

Carriera copied or reinterpreted an oil painting, this time by a contemporary artist. The fact that she took inspiration and emulated a composition invented by somebody else explains why this miniature’s general compositional scheme diverges from that of the majority of Carriera’s other pieces.229 The two painters were not only linked professionally but were also befriended, therefore it would have been easy for the younger woman artist to gain access to her colleague’s work.230 Mariette confirms, in fact, that Carriera executed some miniatures by copying some of Bencovich’s drawings.231 Taking a closer look at the miniature, its aim does not seem to be to depict the goddess of love and beauty with her mischievous son who is typically shown as a young child. Representations of an adult Cupid usually appear in connection with Psyche, but not with his mother Venus. Rather it looks like a version of the love story 229 See Werner, ed., Miniaturen, 2010, 63; Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 80, p. 106. 230 Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 80, p. 106. 231 See Sani, 1985, I, p. 309, n. 5.

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of Armida and Rinaldo, which turns this piece into a fascinating additional example of how Carriera did not just copy but also reinterpreted works of great masters and her contemporaries in ingenious and witty ways. According to the myth, Hercules had been sold as a slave to Omphale, but she fell in love with him and alleviated his duties by making him her lover, with the consequence that he became effeminate, started spinning and even began wearing women’s clothes. The myth’s subject matter was used in Renaissance and Baroque art to illustrate the idea of male subservience or of women’s dominance over men; in Carriera’s miniature, it found a tantalizing adaptation. In Bencovich’s painting (see Figure 10), Hercules is shown on the left, standing or crouching underneath Omphale, with in one hand the spindle and in the other the distaff, while she is standing on the right wearing his lion skin and leaning with her right arm and her chin on his club. A huge amphora is visible as a kind of further support behind her back. Not only have they exchanged their attributes and clothes, but they are caught by Bencovich exchanging intense looks. While Hercules seems to be completely lost, disempowered and vulnerable, careful to please her and not commit any mistake, she looks down at him with a tender and benevolent glance, yet well aware, it would appear, of her superior position of a woman in charge. The fact that she is standing literally above him and he is bending in front of her underlines their power relationship. Carriera creates a mirror image of Bencovich’s painting, replacing Omphale with Armida and Hercules with Rinaldo, following a popular tradition of illustrating Torquato Tasso’s epic poem of the First Crusade, Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem delivered), first published in 1581. According to the tale, beautiful Armida, a Saracen sorceress, has a mission to stop the Christians in their war against the infidels. A particularly difficult task is to kill Rinaldo, the bravest of the Christian warriors. Instead, she falls in love with the handsome knight, casts a spell on him and keeps him as her enamoured prisoner in her enchanted realm. It is in Armida’s palace where Rinaldo changes into a womanly man, forgetting about the battle and wearing female clothes. Eventually, two of Rinaldo’s friends, Charles and Ubaldo, find him and confront him with his mirror image in a shield to remind him of who he is. Armida pleads with him to stay with her, but his fellow soldiers insist on his returning to his Christian duties and rejoining the war. Throughout the sixteenth and especially the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, numerous composers and painters alike found inspiration in Tasso’s poem. In Italy, it was Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) who started the tradition and who for the first time showed an effeminate Rinaldo.232 232 See Kravitz-Lurie, 2016, 126. The pictorial translation of the episode was carried forward by other Italian artists like Dominichino (1581–1641), Guercino (1591–1666), Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669), or Piazzetta (1682–1754), and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770). Even though the list of painters in Italy that were inspired by Tasso is much longer, on a whole the interest in the poem on the part of the artists seems to have been greater in France. As to famous renderings of the story by French artists, see Knox, 1978, 49–51. It

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Carriera chose to depict the episode recounted in Canto 16 where Rinaldo has entered Armida’s enchanted world on the Fortunate Isles (Isole Felici, 15.35). With the intention of bringing Rinaldo back to his troops, the Christian knights Charles and Ubaldo have managed to find their way to Armida’s palace and her garden where they are confronted with an idyllic and at the same time shocking scene: they discover Armida and the effeminized Rinaldo in an amorous embrace, the latter, enraptured by love to the point that he had forgotten his Christian duties, abandoned in her arms, and Armida who marvels at her own reflection in a mirror. Down by the lovers’ side there pendent was, A crystal mirror, bright, pure, smooth and neat, He rose, and to his mistress held the glass, A noble page, graced with that service great; She, with glad looks, he with inflamed, alas, Beauty and love beheld, both in one seat; Yet them in sundry objects each espies, She in the glass, he saw them in her eyes.233

Unlike the textual source, Carriera shows Armida who is holding the mirror, not her lover. In order to depict her in this different pose, Carriera adopts the gesture of Hercules of the original painting by Bencovich for her female protagonist and, more importantly, the artist turns Armida into the couple’s active partner. It remains in the field of speculation if the artist had access to a copy of Bernardo Castello’s illustrated edition of the poem in 1590 or to any of the following editions or local pictorial renderings, which had already broached this idea;234 the fact is that Carriera had access to multiple possibilities for seeing Armida handling the mirror. Also, she was acquainted with the practice of directing mirrored images in any way she fancied. As far as Rinaldo is concerned, Carriera follows Tasso’s lines closely by giving him a more effeminate appearance, underlined by the soft flesh of his body, the flowers in his hair and his attitude of submission and fascination. Apart from the text as the guideline for such a depiction, this motif of an ‘unmanly’ man was ideal for a is hardly a coincidence that on 4 November 1731, François Boucher (1703–1770) handed in a painting on the same subject for his reception piece for admission to the French Académie de Peinture e Sculpture. Regarding the enormous influence of Tasso’s poem on the cultural world since the end of the sixteenth century, see the exhibition catalogue, Buzzoni, ed., Torquato Tasso tra letteratura, musica, teatro e arti figurative, 1985. 233 Canto 16.20. I use the English translation of J. H. Wiffen in the 1908 publication of The Jerusalem Delivered. The original reads: ‘Dal fianco de l’amante (estranio arnese) / un cristallo pendea lucido e netto. / Sorse, e quel fra le mani a lui sospese, / a i misteri d’Amore ministro eletto. / Con luci ella ridenti, ei con accese, / mirano in vari oggetti un solo oggetto: / ella del vetro a sé fa specchio, ed egli / gli occhi di lei sereni a sé fa spegli.’ 234 For an image of the illustration see Kravitz-Lurie, 2016, 133. Regarding the success of Tasso’s poem in Venice, the various editions published in the lagoon and the numerous paintings that were executed in the same city, see M. Rossi, 1997, 175–84.

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woman artist who was excluded from life-drawing the male nude. Carriera, like many female artists of her day, would not have risked being criticized for her lack of experience and command of male anatomy. And indeed, her oeuvre hardly ever shows men except for the male portraits. Only one example is known in which Carriera ‘dares’ to depict a male figure as the protagonist of a painting which is not a portrait. It is a pastel depicting Apollo that she made as a pendant piece to a Diana, that will be discussed later in the text, and again she chose to depict a male figure with an effeminate body.235 Furthermore, in adapting this miniature from the textual source of in Tasso’s Canto 16, Carriera depicts Rinaldo finding love and beauty not reflected in a mirror but mirrored in Armida’s eyes, which the artist shows by moving Rinaldo’s face very close to Armida’s – in contrast to Bencovich’s painting, she has visibly reduced the distance between the two heads – so that he scrutinizes his lover’s eyes with a begging, pleading expression. At the same time, Armida grasps a sense of her own beauty in the mirror’s reflection of Rinaldo’s inflamed figure: Her to command; to serve, it pleased the knight, He proud of bondage, of her empire, she; ‘My dear’, he said, ‘that blessest with thy sight Even blessed angels, turn in thine eyes to me, For painted in my heart and portrayed right, Thy worth, thy beauties and perfections be, Of which the form; the shape and fashion best, Not in this glass is seen, but in my breast’.236

By making Armida hold the mirror at an angle that allows her to both see herself and her lover, it seems that Carriera consciously translated Rinaldo’s words in the place where he tells his beloved to see his beauty and the love in his breast. In fact, the mirror in the miniature is held exactly at the height of Rinaldo’s heart. At the same time, Carriera adds some titillating details not mentioned by Tasso which, if we ignored the textual source, moves her variation of the theme to yet another level. We see an Armida whose right breast is unveiled and who holds a mirror in her right hand delighting her eyes with the reflection of her companion’s outstanding beauty or, simultaneously, the reflection of herself as she seems in the act of revealing even the other breast by slowly pulling back the piece of cloth hanging over 235 I will discuss the pastel of Apollo later in this book in connection with its pendant piece Diana, both nowadays kept in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. 236 Canto 16.21: ‘L’uno di servitù, l’altra d’impero si gloria, elle in se stessa ed egli in lei. “Volgi”, dicea, “deh volgi” il cavaliero, “a me quegli occhi onde beata bèi, ché son, se tu no’l sai, ritratto vero de le bellezze tue gli incendi miei; la forma lor, la meraviglia a pieno più che il cristallo tuo mostra il mio seno.”’

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her shoulder. She seems to enjoy the vision of her body and its increasing availability. It is Armida who is in control of what the image in the mirror shows; the onlooker of the miniature gets a different point of view where he/she discovers that Armida’s left leg is only slightly covered around the hips with a red loose cloth and at the bottom with a blue mantle, a mantle that is hanging on Rinaldo’s shoulders while he is leaning on her right leg, looking deeply into her eyes. With her depicted as moving the mirror, Armida can also be seen as witnessing her lover’s reaction as soon as he realizes what she is doing in front of him. It is not clear at what moment Armida shifts from enjoying herself watching her own body being slowly uncovered to seeing her companion’s excitement once he becomes aware of her erotically charged action of undressing. The scene leaves space for different fantasies and readings. The same is true for single elements of the depiction. The mirror in Armida’s hand, for example, is not only part of the story but in Carriera’s miniature turns into the central object that highlights the central element, with its bright red colour and its position right above her slightly open legs, and more precisely above her pubic area. This work can be further read as a typical symbol of vanity, an indication of ephemeral beauty and fleeting love. These insinuations are wittily embedded in an intriguing play of seduction and passion. The onlooker is free to choose between putting his/herself on the memento-mori side of the miniature or the more playful, voyeuristic, eroticized aspects of looking and enjoying, of covering and uncovering, the spectator always being included as the third participant. The spectator is in the same voyeuristic position of Charles and Ubaldo in Tasso’s text. Unlike the numerous paintings that include the two knights as what Kravitz-Lurie called ‘focalizers’237 in the pictorial rendering of the scene, Carriera chose to put the onlooker in their role and position. In this sense, again the mirror is a fundamental part of an intriguing game of gazes the beholder is involved in as well. In a very clever way, the artist played with the inherent theme of reflection and repetition: thanks to the reappearance of what the observer sees as a close-up but on a smaller scale in the image that Armida finds in her mirror – the spectator has the so-to-speak bigger picture of the scene – the onlooker repeats simultaneously Armida’s gesture. He/she holds a miniature of the same shape as Armida’s mirror. While the fictive woman in the text handles the mirror to improve her vision, the beholder handles the miniature to get a better glance at the scene depicted. In this way, he/she has the same tactile experience as Armida has – the immersion and identification with the fictive figure is raised to an even higher and intensified level.

237 Kravitz-Lurie, 2016, 128.

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In this way, Carriera mingled in a brilliant way different realities and different narratives. One is rooted in the Italian literary and pictorial tradition, one more moralizing and another one eroticizing. She managed to excite pleasure on behalf of the beholder not only in the sense of aesthetic satisfaction but in that of tactile gratification. She succeeded in blending the onlooker’s reality with the fictive one in a deliberately confusing way. At this point in the analysis of Carriera’s miniature, another question needs to be raised: Why, when starting out with Bencovich’s oil painting, did the artist change the subject of the Hercules myth at all? And what could have been her reason for adapting the ancient myth with an episode from Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered? The obvious analogy between the two stories lies in the fact that in both the myth and the Renaissance tale a female holds a male imprisoned but ends up falling in love with him; and in both accounts, the male starts changing, adopting a more feminine appearance and behaviour. It therefore can hardly be considered a coincidence that Carriera chose this specific story to stand in the place of the ancient myth. Yet, it would appear that she took Tasso’s text even more literally and in a truly ingenious way as a cross-reference between the myth depicted by Bencovich and the episode depicted by herself. The educated onlooker could have discovered the following fascinating allusion: Carriera used Tasso not only for the specific scene but for the fact that in the epic poem, Rinaldo was warned against entering Armida’s palace through an ekphrastic description of a relief engraved on the palace gate, which told how the enslaved Hercules lost his masculinity and strength and turned instead into a maiden. Here midst Maeonian girls the Grecian Mars Sits, telling fond romantic tales; and he Who stormed black Orcus, and upheld the stars, Now twirls the spindle with a maiden’s glee; Young Love looks on and laughs; whilst Iole In her unwarlike hands is seen to bear His murderous arms with proud mock-majesty, And on her back the lion’s hide to wear, Too rough a vest for limbs so finely turned and fair!238

Therefore, Bencovich’s painting served not only as a source of inspiration for her composition but more interestingly as an educated allusion to Tasso who had used the same myth to indicate what is about to happen to his hero, and what the onlooker 238 Canto 16.3: ‘Mirasi qui fra le meonie ancelle favoleggiar con le conocchia Alcide. Se l’inferno espugnò, resse le stelle, or torce il fuso; Amor se ’l guarda, e ride. Mirasi Iole con la destra imbelle per ischerno trattar l’armi omicide; e indosso ha il cuoio del leon, che sembra ruvido troppo a sì tenere membra.’

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of Carriera’s piece can observe in the miniature.239 The artist steps into Tasso’s shoes, using her knowledge of antiquity to create her piece of art as the poet had used the ancient myth for the creation of his poem. At the same time, she demonstrated that she was not only familiar with classical but just as well with Renaissance literature, using both for the witty invention of her miniature as the result of an ingenious overlay of cross-references between painting and literature. As we will also see in the chapter on her stay in Paris and in the discussion of some of her pastel paintings, Carriera was well-aware of the sister-arts discussion and the rivalry between the visual arts and poetry that defined her personal role as a female painter; this is the first piece where we witness how she opted to model her profession partly on literary authorship, but not without emphasizing clearly the supremacy of the visual arts.240 Carriera used the miniature as a wonderful occasion to put on display her high level of erudition and her intellectual capacities, thereby deliberately presenting herself as a worthy history painter. Since the Renaissance and the advent of fifteenth-century art theory, history painting was considered to be the loftiest, most elevated genre, considered to be above portraiture, landscape, still-life and scenes of everyday life because it represented noble, heroic human actions that embodied moralizing or instructive themes from scripture, ancient and modern history, literature, or mythology through narratives or allegorical representations.241

And women were generally believed to be incapable of creating history paintings, owing to their lack of education and professional training in perspective or life drawing. Carriera instead proved that she could entertain her public with paintings depicting, as in this case, mythological pieces that conveyed an oscillating ambiguity, an aspect which was both inherent to the miniature’s meanings as well as to its use. Holding the tiny piece, showing it to close friends or connoisseurs and sharing the pleasure of decoding the different layers of meaning were all part of an extraordinary inventiveness. So also were the two artworks’ capacities to conjure countless associations, as well as to allude to a variety of sources. An elite public would have been delighted by the wit of this artist, at the same time surely enjoying the artist’s effort to engage this public’s own dexterity and erudition.242 239 It is interesting to note that Annibale Carracci had done something similar. As Kravitz-Lurie showed, he depicted his fresco of Hercules and Iole for the Farnese Gallery in Rome (1597–1601) with Tasso’s story of Armida and Rinaldo in his mind; see Kravitz-Lurie, 2016. 240 See also Brylowe, 2019, 4, in her introduction to her exploration of the cultural world and the sister-arts debate in England from 1760 to 1820. 241 Wassyng Roworth, 2003, 189. 242 See also Knox, 1996, 40–41, who stated in the context of Tiepolo’s paintings, ‘The eighteenth century […] valued quotation, preferably from the classics, but any source that would reflect on the taste and erudition of the user would suffice. Likewise, the connoisseur was a man who could derive pleasure from an obscure reference, since it became a sort of gracious compliment to his own taste and erudition.’

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Carriera’s Lady Putting Flowers in her Hair A particularly beautiful miniature by Carriera at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Plate 1), which is one of a smaller group of Carriera’s oeuvre depicting genre scenes, again adapts an image characteristic of the Venetian Renaissance, which is the Lady (or Venus) at her Toilet. Sani dates it in the first decade of the eighteenth century suggesting a possible link with a letter that Rapparini wrote to Carriera on 27 July, 1706, in which he transcribed the invitation of the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm to the artist to come to work in Germany at his court in Düsseldorf. At the end of the missive Rapparini asked Carriera to make a copy for him of ‘that beautiful pettinatrice made by your sister’.243 In the Cleveland piece the painter departed from the usual format of a vertically oval shape. It drew on the iconographic tradition in Venice of a woman performing her toilet that was destined to become particularly popular again in eighteenth-century Europe, starting with Renaissance artists like Giovanni Bellini and continuing with numerous examples by Titian, Paris Bordon (c.1500–1570/1571) and Veronese, all of them depicting variations on the theme.244 Carriera shows a beautiful young lady at her fancy dressing table, looking into an elegant mirror seen only from behind that is carefully propped up on the table in front of her. Spread over the table in artful disarray is the paraphernalia of an elegant lady’s toilette: fashionable accessories like pieces of jewellery, hair needles, a perfume bottle, a handkerchief underneath which an unidentified object, maybe a tortoise shell is visible, as well as a small nécessaire. A basket with flowers, what seem to be two sheets of paper, possibly a letter, and what looks like a magnifying glass are also among the objects put on display.245 With a hint of a smile on her face, the young lady has raised her left hand in which she delicately holds a flower between the index finger and thumb in order to, apparently, decorate her hair with yet another flower. She is shown in her white diaphanous chemise with lace-trimmed sleeves and a low-cut décolleté, over which a bright-blue dress is hanging as if it might slip off her body except that the young woman has inserted her left arm into the sleeve. Her marble-white skin, the literality of which is underlined by the marble table of the same colour underneath her arm, highlights the elegance of her demeanour. 243 ‘di quella bella Pettinatrice fatta dalla Signora sua sorella’. Sani, 1985, I, 103. Pettinare is the Italian verb meaning ‘to comb’; the noun pettinatrice describes a female combing her hair. Sani’s date is convincing but it is not clear if the letter refers to the Cleveland miniature or to another of her depictions of a woman combing or cutting her hair. See for example a letter from Bötticher dated 16 May 1707, Sani, 1985, I, 117, or the versions included in Sani’s catalogue in which a woman is combing, fixing or cutting her hair. Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 19, p. 71; cat. no. 20, p. 72; cat. no. 140, pp. 146–48. 244 See Santore, 1997. 245 I want to thank Cory Korkow from the Cleveland Museum who was extremely helpful in identifying the objects on the table. The fact that in her pastel representing Prudence, nowadays kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Carriera had already painted a magnifying glass resembling the one in the miniature (see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 191d, p. 193) seems to confirm the identification of the object on the right side of the Cleveland miniature.

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Carriera’s depiction of the young lady’s distinct beauty, of her clothes and of the elegant table with its array of refined objects raises questions of gender, of making up a class and aristocratic identity, but Carriera draws the spectator into another narrative. In scrutinizing the painting more carefully, a rather erotic innuendo becomes evident thanks to the combination of the woman’s gear, her gesture and the table’s display of erotically coded objects. Despite the title of the piece, which indicates that the woman is finishing her toilet, it is not at all clear if she is in the act of dressing or undressing herself. Did she just take off half of the blue mantle? Or is she not finished putting it on? Is she adding another flower to her hair, or is she slowly taking the flowers out of her hair, one by one? And what about the symbolism of the various objects placed around her? Carriera plays on the local tradition of the above-mentioned Renaissance paintings depicting a woman or the goddess Venus who is concentrating on her hair,246 but in her miniature she stresses the flowers in a noteworthy way. Even though it was fashionable in the eighteenth century to decorate hair with flowers, to depict the act of doing so was rare in a painting, which suggests Carriera added in a symbolic subtext. The symbolic meaning of flowers ranges from moral indications of vanity – its association with an image of a beautiful young woman in front of a mirror is undeniable – to overt sexual allusions. If the flower in the lady’s left hand is what it resembles, that is, a little stalk of columbine, the painting’s message shifts from a judgement upon vanity to one having to do with an erotic charge. With the stalk’s tripartite leaves alluding to Christianity’s Holy Trinity, the columbine flower is associated with the game of seduction, love and sexuality. Already in antiquity it was a plant linked to phalli but also considered to be a flower of Venus. The red version of the columbine was associated with passion.247 Furthermore, the deshabillé of a woman’s boudoir, its désordre or negligence, ‘that delicate indecency disguised as disattention’,248 is a typical allusion to sexual desire. And if what seems to be paper on the right of the miniature really represents a letter, could it announce the arrival of the lady’s lover as it does in so many other paintings with a similar message? Is the miniature to be understood as a potential image of the same addressee? If we look again at the scene we realize that it is made up of a woman in contemporary clothes whose setting is a space familiar to any spectator in the eighteenth century: a boudoir, filled with everyday objects. At first it seems to depict a simple genre scene. But within its pictorial invention is an encoded erotic charge. Sheriff has shown that this charge depended on the obvious fiction that what was being seen was not sexual in content […] Part of the pleasure taken in erotic symbol was the pleasure of deception; 246 Interestingly enough, the drawing by Watteau of Carriera at the dressing table in Amsterdam again shows a woman devoted to her hair; see Sani, 2007b, 16. 247 Kandeler and Ullrich, 2009. 248 Sheriff, 1990, 192.

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the beholders who decoded these images were pleased and amused because they could clearly perceive the sexual discourse hidden from innocent eyes.249

The room announces itself as a theatre of an upcoming joyful amorous tryst. The table is cut in such a way that its corner, emphasized by the handkerchief on top, seems to peek out of the miniature to keep the onlooker at a distance. Having to remain physically outside the frame is at the same time counteracted by its implicit invitation (also thanks to the format and the handling of a miniature) to have a closer look, to scrutinize her face, her body and her movement. While the girl is immersed in her own narcissistic observation of her looks in the mirror that is turned away from the spectator, the onlooker performs the same intense act of looking that she is indulging in but from a slightly different angle. The mirror on the right, which is only visible from behind, stands out as an old emblem of vanity that, similar to the memento-mori aspects of flowers, is used here with an erotic twist hinting at the theme of physical examination. She observes herself as the spectator does, both from close up. The miniature calls for the spectator’s participation and anticipation to complete what Sheriff has called a ‘viewer-created narrative’250 that plays upon a rhetoric of interaction and voyeurism. Only the fantasy of the onlooker can complete the girl’s action, and in an act of complete immersion he/she can ponder the outcome. And one more time I borrow Sheriff’s words that she used in the context of Fragonard: This part-by-part reading of the image increases pleasure because at each encounter the viewer can focus on some previously overlooked aspect of the work, skipping those that seem routine and familiar. Or, the spectator can linger over a single symbol, endlessly spinning out its associations.251

The deft depiction of a beautiful woman of the virginal type whose sexual appeal is evident inside her boudoir where possibly an erotic encounter is being staged, with all facets blended together creates a titillating combination of innocence and naivety but also availability. To use Fort’s observation of the Greuze girl, Carriera offers an ‘ambivalent image of nascent femininity […], as naive and erotic, pristine and prone to seduction […] primarily designed to function as agent of seduction for the viewer.’252 Also Carriera’s miniature was intended not only to seduce the onlookers, but also made for connoisseurs to enjoy decoding visual signifiers, as well as the tension they produce between a proffered moral message and its witty deconstruction.253 249 Sheriff, 1990, 107. 250 Sheriff, 1990, 92. 251 Sheriff, 1990, 112. 252 Fort, 2007, 131. 253 Fort, 2007, 133.

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Placing the young lady close to the picture plane, Carriera offers the spectator physical proximity to the woman and she enhances this closeness thanks to the possibility of holding the miniature as closely as possible to the eye. The physicality of touch and the sensuality alluded to in the piece is further underlined by the silky softness of her elegant garment, the fluffiness of the handkerchief with refined, crispy lace casually placed on the edge of her dressing table, also the tactility of the flowers all seem to exhale pure sensuality. It is noteworthy that, in contrast to her pastels, Carriera resorted more often to titillating subjects in her miniatures. This tendency was not only the result of specific requests by her clients but was also a clever tactical move on her part as a female painter. This assumption of mine is supported by the fact that in numerous cases, her commissioners did not even specify the themes for their ordered pieces. In choosing to depict erotic subject matters in these small-scale objects, objects that were not intended for public display, she reduced the risk of being slandered. In Vogtherr’s explorations of the history and significance of miniatures in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he does not take into consideration the precarious situation of a woman artist where he points out that, from a distance of more than two centuries, clear distinctions between acceptable eroticizing images and pornography are hazy and are hard to determine. However, he argues, in any case, miniatures offered a considerable advantage compared with paintings of a bigger scale. He also points out that they were of highly private, intimate character and they could easily be hidden. Moreover, their small format encouraged controlled private viewing. Together with books and prints they constituted a major medium for piquant and arousing art.254 And Carriera was an artist who, despite being a woman, used this potential all the way.

Carriera’s Clients of Erotic Art It is worthwhile repeating the interesting fact that to date no specific criticisms, interpretations not even any direct comments, can be found regarding Carriera’s titillating paintings. Not by any official art critic or connoisseur and not by any self-acclaimed one. Instead, it is only within the artist’s personal correspondence that we find references to her erotic works. On the very few occasions when the artist’s sex is expressly mentioned in connection with commissions that could represent potentially controversial subjects or situations, the client’s reactions more often describe the thrill looking at her art without any inhibitions. Only a few clients’ letters reflect a certain restraint or caution in their request for a suggestive subject matter, while a considerable number of their 254 Vogtherr, 2010, 17.

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missives reveal that her clients both applauded these works and in doing so seemed to lack any filter or moderation. What they have in common is how they follow the tradition of praising an artwork as such a perfect and convincing copy of nature that its fictional aspects are treated like reality. With euphoric expressions of admiration, they celebrated Carriera’s capacity to recreate a delightfully real person – to present an enchanting figure of desire. In rare cases, the recipients of Carriera’s works even admitted and described in a surprisingly direct, unconcealed ways not only the emotional, but also the physical, pleasure they felt while impatiently waiting for their ordered piece to arrive, and also after finally taking a look at their final product of delight. These letters are particularly interesting as they also show to what extent the particular manual care heightened the pleasure and was fundamental to the excitement. The thrilling act of opening and seeing inside the box of a miniature, the curiosity of discovering what is hidden, the moment right before the long-awaited visual consumption of their piece, especially in the context of erotically charged pieces, is inextricably linked with those small-scale images. The more restrained approach of Carriera’s clients to her eroticizing paintings shows the complications involved when a woman artist depicted the same suggestive subjects that male artists did, even when painting the goddess of love. On 22 September 1704 Christian Cole wrote from Rome asking Carriera, in the name of some unknown clients, to buy one of the biggest pieces of ivory that she could find in order to use it for the depiction of a Venus asleep in a garden, decorated with flowers etc., but they would like this Venus as naked as your conscience will allow you: showing at least her bosom, her hands and her legs. If you can and want to do this, within three or at most four weeks, I will be endlessly grateful.255

In the name of his clients, Cole did request nudity, specifying even the parts that should be unveiled, but only in as far as the artist felt comfortable painting it. While it is true that Cole’s reference to Carriera’s conscience reads as a mere formality or a social convention that with his education and his status he would express – he was also following a rule of etiquette that required that a lady not even be asked to depict

255 See also West, 1999b, 59. The original reads: ‘una Venere che dorme in un giardino, ornato di fiori etc., ma vorrebbero la Venere tanto nuda che la sua cosciensa la può permetter: all meno il seno, le mani et le gambe nude. Se Ella può e vuol fare questo, che sia fatto in tre o all più longo quattro settimane, m´obligerà infinitamente.’ Sani, 1985, I, 84.

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this kind of theme – it clearly shows that it was by no means to be taken for granted that a woman would indulge in this kind of subject. A client in Milan found a different way to work around any controversial and potentially embarrassing or risky situation with regards to his own or the artist’s reputation. On 18 September 1715 Francesco Stiparoli sent a letter in which he thanked Carriera for a miniature that depicted the ‘Three Graces’, completely nude (del tutto nude) as he specified. But, he added, in the way that Carriera had painted them, ‘enriched with her unique paintbrush’ (arricchite dal singular suo pennello), their nudity was nothing dangerous, nothing threatening, nothing to be afraid of. It remains unclear if he was trying to assure Carriera or himself of the innocuous quality of the painting when he repeated that the artist’s virtuous touch, her discreetness (discretezza) combined with ‘ancient sentiment’ (antico sentimento) had rendered the figures harmless.256 Carriera, he tried to point out, was able, thanks to her ‘magic’ touch, to almost miraculously transform any subject into an innocent piece of art: the epitome of virtue can only produce virtuous paintings. Stiparoli’s mention of this aspect of supernatural power reflects a typical attitude towards unmarried female artists whose impeccable morals and outstanding capacities often merged with the image of a virginal, miracle-making saint. At the same time, there were clients who did not feel at all uncomfortable talking about an erotic piece of art she made, nor did they when describing the effect it had on them. Stiparoli was not alone in this idea of referring to Carriera using religious metaphors, as will be shown below in the chapter, ‘The Single Woman, the Spinster’. Another captivating piece of evidence of how Carriera’s clients reacted to her art can be found in a letter that Gerhard Michael Jabach (1681–1751) sent to Carriera from Cologne. On 29 May 1723, the German merchant and collector pleaded with the artist to send his commissioned miniature that he simply called la belle.257 Even though Jabach had not yet seen the final version, he already seemed to be in love with the woman of his fantasy. Simply imagining the miniature made him dream and talk about this female figure depicted as if she were a real human being, a living companion: She is always beautiful, always full of wit, always lovable, and she will never know how to be otherwise, she will often be my pastime, talking to me in her sweet language, [and] her eyes that express often more than words can say. She will make my tobacco pretty and my tabattière will become illustrious and precious [thanks to her] and will draw to this oaf the praise attributed to good taste.258 256 Sani, 1985, I, 296. 257 Sani, 1985, I, 439. 258 ‘Elle est toujours jolie, toujours spirituelle, toujours aimable et elle ne scaura jamais estre autrement, elle sera souvent mon amusette, en me parlant le doux language des yeux qui exprime souvent plus que la parole scauroit enoncer. Elle rendera mon tabac joli et ma tabattière en deviendra illustre et prétieuse et attirera à un lourdeau la louange d’attribu de bon goût.’ Sani, 1985, I, 439.

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Not only did he claim that this woman, object of desire, would be integrated into his daily life, but that his tabattière – which by extension also implied himself as the owner – would gain great renown. In a similar vein, another of her admirers, Ferdinando Maria Nicoli, wrote in a euphoric tone from Bologna on 26 June 1703, that simply by looking at his miniature he was led to compare the artist hyperbolically to God in her capacity as an omnipotent creator, as an epitome of absolute creativity that produced ‘real’ human beings and was able to confer immortality. And while looking at it, I confess the truth, I was overwhelmed and astonished when I saw in how many ways my expectations were betrayed. I was longing for a painting, that is to say a fruit of your virtue and you sent me the virtue itself. I desired a painted figure and you sent me a living woman: although, so as not to disturb my economy, or flatter my frailty, you have spared by half the less noble and more dangerous. Signora Rosalba, I greatly fear that your excellent art will lead you one day before the Inquisition on a charge of which no heretic has ever been found guilty. You display omnipotence, which is God’s least shared merit, for by feigning to imitate men, you create them. That you should, with earthly colours create true likenesses, I conceive as possible, because this was done once by God with Adam. But that you should with earthly colours paint even the spiritual and insensible soul, this is an extravagant heresy.259

Nicoli’s hunger for the fictive woman and his desire to possess this one piece and also other pieces by Carriera can be inferred from these comparisons, which he took from the previously mentioned sphere of religious metaphors. But what needs to be underlined here is the outstanding fact that Nicoli compares her to God. Since the Renaissance artists were understood as second creators, free to recreate anything they see around themselves. This particular creative glance, this godlike capacity, though, was gendered masculine;260 to use the same metaphor for a female painter was unusual indeed.

259 ‘Ed in rimirarlo, confesso il vero, che restai sopraffatto ed attonito per vedere in più modi tradita la mia aspettazione. Io bramava una pittura, cioè un frutto della vostra virtù e voi m’inviate la virtù istessa. Desiderava una figura dipinta e voi mi mandate una donzella vivente: benché, per non incomodar la mia economia, o lusingar la mia fragilità, ne havete risparmiata la metà men nobile e più pericolosa. Signora Rosalba, io temo assai che la vostr’arte eccelsa vi conduca un giorno all’Inquisizione per un’accusa di cui niun eresiarca è mai stato incolpato. Voi vi assumete l’onnipotenza, che è il più riserbato pregio di Dio ed in vece d’imitar gli uomini, li create. Ma che Voi co’ colori di terra formiate volti al naturale, l’intendo possibile, perché così fu fatto una volta da Dio con Adamo. Ma che co’ terreni colori dipingiate anche l’anima spirituale ed insensibile, questa è un’eresia stravagante.’ Sani, 1985, I, 67–68. 260 See for example Rosenthal, 1996, 129.

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In this case he positioned his comparison within the realm of heresy and inquisition. In enacting his own body, he described himself as the one who would like to save her art in the face of serious, dangerous accusations, and consequently, he would like to take all of her works, possess them and hide them close to him. The tangible physicality of this act is underlined as his desire to own her art, which he explained was a way of saving real human beings with souls. These figures and, especially their creator, needed to be rescued from the terrible fate of being judged by the Inquisition. With the canonical reference to her modesty, he emphasized that for a female artist this virtue was obligatory, which shows he was aware of the fact that she would be so humble as not to understand his fears. In this context, Nicoli’s comment that her paintings had some dangerous power reveals an erotic undertone; it was as if Nicoli really meant the onlooker was at risk of being seduced, one onlooker being himself. For that reason, he begged her to send him at least a companion to the unknown lady (la vaga Forastiera) in order to give her the possibility of ‘speaking’ to somebody and more importantly, of how another female figure would make her appearance less morally threatening and an onlooker’s encounter less tricky, safer.261 Rapparini also described his relationship with one of Carriera’s miniatures along passionate lines. On 7 July 1709 he described the satisfaction he felt simply by imagining la mia Contadina (my peasant woman) that he had commissioned. Even though, like Nicoli, he had not yet seen the piece, he was already in love with her. Rapparini went so far as to say that thanks to the extraordinary beauty he would receive, he would be unable to look at any other woman again, ‘even if it were an illustrious lady’. In noting that Carriera was not working on a simple peasant woman but on a knitting woman from the countryside he joined in the tradition of treating fictive figures in a painting as if they were alive. With an ironic undertone he explained that he wanted to adopt the woman she was depicting into his family; he hoped that his other three females would not get angry with the knitting girl and claim she represented a bad example to the rest of his family members.262 His impatience to receive the painting is also reflected in how he mentioned the same massarina (little housewife) over and over in succeeding letters. Only a week later he informed Carriera that a simple enclosure would be enough for his massarina, whatever would be necessary to safeguard the crystal glass. He himself then would take care of ordering the kind of frame that he used for his other miniatures.263 But as soon as he had notice of his massarina being on her way, his expectations again reached a peak before having seen the final product. He wrote that he would receive a woman so beautiful that she would tempt even the most disaffected men (i più ribelli del sesso).264 On the first of September, Rapparini confirmed that the 261 Sani, 1985, I, 68. 262 Sani, 1985, I, 140. 263 Sani, 1985, I, 141. 264 Sani, 1985, I, 142.

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massaretta had safely arrived in Düsseldorf, but he added with a note of irony that the figure must have pierced the protective glass with her knitting needle as it was broken when he opened the package.265 It would seem that Carriera’s fictive woman entered the spectator’s physical world only as a result of Rapparini’s Pygmalionesque desires. About a year later, on 20 October 1710, Rapparini sent another thank-you note to Carriera after having received a beautiful nymph by her hand. His letter represents an excellent example of how collectors and lovers of miniatures enjoyed every second while literally handling their beloved minuscule paintings. He convincingly described the joy of unlocking the box containing the nymph, so as to assure Carriera that he liked what was inside even before lifting the lid. In a crescendo, he then stressed how much greater his excitement was when he finally looked at the bella ninfa. The utmost contentment, though, was to share this pleasure, to have somebody to proudly show what he now possessed: according to his letter, a crowd of connoisseurs and art lovers immediately gathered around him to admire what he now called his favourite piece.266 Another fascinating example of a buyer’s intense reaction to Carriera’s art is found in a letter that French art collector Louis Vatin wrote on 10 September 1701, in which he mingled personal physical longing with references to ancient mythology. He wrote to the artist to remind her to consign a miniature depicting a figure of Venus to Antonio Balestra, who would personally deliver the piece to Vatin. To express his admiration for Carriera and her expertise, he included a poem that read as if from an enamoured Pygmalion, in front of a voiceless but irresistible piece, literally an ‘amateur, in whose imagination the work of art comes alive.’267 The ancient sculptor whose myth had become so popular in the eighteenth century comes to life in Vatin’s lines as one of two amateurs, the mythic artist and the French art collector, who both enhance their desire by the touch of their beloved piece. Both awaken this lifeless piece of art to turn her into a living creature. This letter also takes notice of the common debate since the Renaissance regarding the relationship between nature and art; in stating that the painted Venus surpasses la belle nature, Vatin begins with a minute description of the goddess’s face, using metaphors and vocabulary to emphasize the exciting sensuality that Venus emanates, only to collapse into a confession of his strong reactions, which can be read on both an emotional as well as a physical level. The climax of the poem states that the epitome of the author’s fantasy and desire, which he promises will extinguish any other craving and need, is to literally possess her on his presumed return to Paris.268 At the same time Vatin makes sure that his praise of the goddess corresponds in intensity to his praise of the artist, for it was she, virtuous lady, who made Venus after herself, a perfect work of art. 265 Sani, 1985, I, 144. 266 See Sani, 1985, I, 169. 267 Rosenthal, 2004b, 564. 268 See Sani, 1985, I, 58.

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I feel again the violence of a curious desire, my charming mute with coral lips, on the shore of a stream, of a liquid crystal, your divine attractions I will enjoy and, even if you can neither see nor hear me, Venus, oh beautiful Venus, from the bottom of my heart I tell you, she who formed you, being a woman of virtue, a perfect masterpiece, she made you after her wish and mine, and when upon my return, I can possess you, I could never, oh beauty, ever desire else.269

Apart from the canonical comparison between art and nature, which presumed that the epitome of artistry was to surpass nature, and apart from the equally topical, even if indirect and personalized reference to the Pygmalion myth, Vatin’s lines, written from a man to a woman, are striking for two other reasons: first of all, because he gives a female artist a godlike role as creator, a role generally reserved to men; and second, because Vatin expresses a surprisingly direct and personal accolade. His comments, like the others quoted above, confirm what Elston states about miniature portraits, an observation that nevertheless can be extended to miniatures depicting eroticized scenes. A key aspect of the use of portrait miniatures in enacting desire was in their possession. The power of ownership of miniatures is well articulated in records from the period, which highlights their material intimacy as well as a miniature’s ability to reflect on the status of the owner […]. […] through the function of the miniature as a love token to be possessed, the miniature becomes an object of contemplative desire in place of a physical reality.270

Descriptions like those of Vatin’s reveal a fundamental corporeality of imaginative or real visual experiences, an aspect that I discuss again in the context of Carriera’s oeuvre of pastel painting.271

269 ‘Je resens la violence d’un désir curieux, mais charmante muette, aux lèvres de coraille, sur le bord d’un ruiseau, d’un liquide cristalle, de tes divins atrais j’yray m’entretenir et, quoyqye te ne puisse, ny me voir, ny me ouir, du fond du coeur je te dire Venus, belle Venus, celle qui t’a formé, estant de la vertue, un chef d’ouevre parfait, Elle t’a fait selon elle et selon mon souhait, et sy à mon retour, je puis te posséder, je ne pouray, o belle, jamais rien désirer.’ Sani, 1985, I, 58. 270 Elston, 2018, 31–32. 271 About the visceral aspects of producing and consuming art, see Rosenthal, 2004b.

2

Carriera’s Discovery of Pastel Painting

The beginning of the eighteenth century represents not only the first high point in Carriera’s professional life as an independent artist, with her recognition by the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, but also the period in her life in which she concentrated more and more on a new technique: it was the discovery of the fascination and singularity of pastel painting that proved to be the next milestone in her career. It turned out to be the medium she would show a clear preference for, and she was destined to become the foremost ambassador of this technique. No other artist, let alone female artist, had ever before achieved similar success.

A Short History of Pastel Painting The English word pastel probably derives from the Italian pastello, a diminutive of the Latin word pasta or paste, and it refers to a form of dry painting.1 It involves applying pigments to a working surface, usually grainy blue-grey paper, which was originally associated with Venice where it was called ‘Turkish paper’ (carta turchina).2 Parchment, card or canvas were other forms of support. The artists used either the pure pigments or, as is normally the case, pastel crayons or sticks.3 These are fabricated from coloured pigments and a white mineral or pigment, the so-called filler or base to add physical substance. Generally, white chalk of various types was added, or gypsum, starch, plaster of Paris or tobacco-pipe clay and a binder, usually gum Arabic.4 Shelley describes the process of making crayons as follows: In the eighteenth century, to create crayons of a uniform and soft consistency the pigment and filler had to be levigated to remove gritty particles, reduced to a fine powder, combined with a binder, ground to a paste with a muller in water of spirits of wine, tempered with a knife, drained on a chalk stone or set on a glass plate to maintain the correct amount of moisture, rolled into cylindrical sticks, and dried.5 1 For the etymology of ‘pastel’ see Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www. Pastellists.com/misc/prolegomena.pdf, p. 7 (accessed on 10 May 2016). About the difficulty of distinguishing between chalk and pastel in early drawings, see Burns, 2002a, 13–15. 2 On blue paper or coloured paper in general, see Burns, 2007, 102–6. 3 See Monnier, 1984, 16. 4 McCullagh, 2006, 4–75, and Sauvage, 2015, 126. 5 Burns, 2007, pp. xvii–xix; more extensively on the production of crayon sticks, see Hauptmann, 2015, 23–24.

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_ch02

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The paper was dampened and glued to a fine canvas before the pigments were applied to the rough surface, a characteristic of the paper necessary in order for the pigments to adhere. The artists, including Carriera, often used this blue Turkish paper, which was commonly available in smaller dimensions, 37.5 by 46.5 or 41.9 by 52 centimetres.6 The pigments are applied in layers of innumerable hues – it has been estimated that more than 1,650 different shades can be created with pastels7 – which means that each pastel artist has to have a box of numerous crayons ready before the beginning of the painting process.8 The various pastels are blended on the surface, either by the artist’s finger or using special brushes, ‘making the pigments luminous or velvety, or given a soft and silky matness of grain’.9 With their subtle distinctions and delicate shades,10 and their friable, powdery nature consisting of soft and loosely layered pigments, pastel paintings remain susceptible to damage even when an artist uses a fixative.11 For this reason, most are kept behind protective glass.12 Burns points out that Carriera took other measures for the protection of these delicate pieces. In order to prevent the entry of dust, for example, paper strips were used to seal the glazing fully to the frame.13 Generally, the medium is regarded as having had its heyday in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it was primarily used for portraits. Its popularity grew especially in France with artists like Robert Nanteuil (1623–1678), Joseph Vivien (1657–1735) or later on Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788). The earliest works of art executed in pastel in Italy are believed to have been made by Benedetto Luti, an artist particularly appreciated by the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III (1642–1723). It was probably at the end of the seventeenth century that Carriera discovered this delicate technique. If Luti did have any influence on her apprenticeship, as mentioned above as a possibility, he could have introduced her to the technique before he left for Rome in 1691. However, an anonymous biographer of 1755 informs us that instead, it was Carriera’s English friend Christian Cole who introduced the artist to 6 For the seven standard sizes of white paper available in Europe until about 1800, see Burns, 2007, 72. As far as her sources of blue paper are concerned and the standardization of Carriera’s pastel sizes, see Burns, 2007, 105–11. 7 Monnier, 1996, 241. 8 For example, landgravine Caroline Louise of Hessen-Darmstadt (1723–1783), a student of Jean-Étienne Liotard, who built her own art collection and was a dilettante artist herself, received a sample box with 89 crayons in August 1746 from Bernard Augustin Stoupan in Lausanne, one of the most famous pastel stick makers. In 1753, she bought a box of 202 crayons in Paris from a certain Moule; Reuter, 2015, 115. Regarding Carriera’s interest in pastels, see Börsch-Supan, 1967, 96–97. In France, a certain Boursin offered boxes of 130 colours, whereas in Dresden, Daniel Caffé, advertised as many as 300; Shelley, 2011, 20. 9 Monnier, 1984, 6. Carriera used a mixed technique combining dry and wet methods, applying the colours directly with the pastel crayon or using her fingers. Sani, 1991, 81. 10 Monnier estimates that more than 1,650 different shades can be created with pastels. Monnier, 1996, 241. 11 Regarding the fragility and problems of conservation of pastels, see Burns, 2016, 19–21. 12 Hauptmann, 2015, 25. 13 Burns, 2007, 80–81.

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the technique, a hypothesis for which, to date, there is no documentary proof.14 We only know that, from the beginning of the eighteenth-century, Cole repeatedly sent pastel sticks to his friend in Venice. In a letter dated 9 September 1704 by Cole, he mentioned that he was going to send her crayons from Rome, which means that at least by that date, Carriera had started painting with those sticks.15 In addition, we know that after 1704 (at the latest) the artist was in touch with English customers who were not only interested in her miniatures but, more and more, also in what they called her ‘crayon paintings’.16 Carriera’s achievement in promoting pastel in an unprecedented way is an extraordinary fact in itself considering that when she started using it, the medium was not in particularly high esteem. If we take the Salon exhibitions in Paris as an indicator of the general artistic taste of the time and the evolution of pastel painting in general, we can trace the initial moment of the medium’s public presentation and official recognition of the medium back to 1673. Among the 114 paintings put on display by the Salon that year, a now unknown pastel work by Jean Garnier appeared for the first time on its list as Portrait of Mademoiselle Ragné. The same artist, about whom hardly any records have survived, presented another pastel portrait in the Salon exhibition in 1699, which for the first time was held in the Louvre. It was the only work executed in pastel among the 234 paintings then on show.17 The following Salon, held in 1704, can be considered a turning point regarding the success of the pastel medium; it exhibited 24 full-size portraits by Joseph Vivien as rivals to the show’s likenesses in oil by Vivien’s contemporaries Jean-François de Troy, Nicolas de Largillière and Hyacinthe Rigaud. This event marks the official and public entry of the medium into the academic world.18 Three years earlier Vivien had been accepted into the Académie Royale de Peinture et des Sculpture as a painter of portraits in pastel, following Nicolas Dumonstier, the first artist ever to become a member of the Parisian academy as a pastel painter in 1663.19 By 1725, the Salon exhibitions showed that pastels had become as common as oil paintings. The organizers even paid special attention to how they hung the fragile pieces, often placing them at eye-level and thus reserving a privileged positioning for them.20 In 1745, a critic ranked a piece executed in pastel even higher than an oil painting. Already in 1715, the Swedish painter Georg Schröder (1684–1750) had praised a pastel self-portrait by Vivien as highly as ‘if it had been made in oil’.21 14 See Moücke, 1762, 241; Sani, 1985, I, 12; Zava, 2007, 16–17. This idea is repeated by Torti, 1977, 14. Levey instead suggests that Felice Ramelli might have influenced her in her choice to take up pastel portraiture. Levey, 1959, 140. 15 Sani, 1985, II, 79. 16 Whistler, 2009, 197. 17 Adamczak, 2014, 174. 18 Adamczak, 2014, 175–76. 19 As to Vivien’s role in the history of pastel painting, see Burns, 2007, 61–76. 20 Adamczak, 2014, 181. 21 Sani, 1985, I, 294.

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Adamczak quotes a phrase from the Jugemens sur quelques ouvrages nouveaux referring to a pastel painting presented by Jean-Marc Nattier (1685–1776) at the Salon of 1745, in which the author claimed that it surpassed anything Nattier had ever done in oil.22 Between the years 1673 and 1793, around 500 pastels found their way into the 38 Salon exhibitions. Outside this influential institution, the public had to wait until the second half of the eighteenth-century to see pastel works regularly put on display. This was the period in which the success of pastels reached its peak.23 In Paris almost 2,500 artists and amateurs were said to be working in pastel, documentation for which can be seen in a review of the Salon paintings on display in the Louvre. The art critic Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne (1688–1771) wrote in August 1746 in his Reflexions sur quelques causes de l’état present de la peinture en France: ‘Pastel has become excessively fashionable […]. Everyone has a crayon in his hand – as with all that is fashionable, the public has embraced it with a frenzy.’24 Despite its late public success, artists and critics had been debating the pastel’s status since the first half of the seventeenth century. Generally, it was appreciated for the strength of colour, the lightness and brightness, the refined variations of hues, the matte, opaque surface, the dazzling naturalism and the diffuse light and brilliant, scintillating reflections it evoked.25 Material and practical factors also contributed to its growing acclaim. At least from a practical point of view, the dry medium had undisputed advantages. Compared to oil painting, the use of crayons was considered simpler. The sticks could be used without any further preparation, and their quality and characteristics did not change during the painting process. No drying phase was required, the work could be interrupted at any given moment, and the paintings could be executed with relative speed, which resulted in shorter sittings; this advantage spared the models hours of boredom and allowed the painter to produce more portraits. Moreover, pastel did not stain clothes like oil paint, nor did it dirty the hands.26 In addition, no varnish was necessary, and no chemicals with strong and unpleasant odours. Further, contrary to widespread opinion, the pastel’s colour intensity has always topped that of oil paintings. As Jeffares noted, ‘with pastels, a “pigment volume concentration” of up to ninety percent can be achieved, while oil painting typically produces less than half this level’.27 The portability of the medium represented another advantage as it suited 22 Adamczak, 2014, 178. 23 Adamczak, 2014, 186. 24 ‘Je viens aux Pastels, espèce de Peinture excessivement á la mode […]. Tout le monde a mis ces craïons de couleur à la main: il en est de même chez nous de tout e qui est de mode, la Public l’adopte avec fureur.’ La Font de Saint-Yenne, 1747, 118–19. See also Shelley, 2005, 105. 25 Shelley, 2011, 5. 26 Burns, 2007, 39. 27 Jeffares, 2015, 31.

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the more cosmopolitan itinerant lifestyle of many artists, collectors and art lovers. It was thus a technique recommended for use by beginners or amateurs.28 The increased availability of ready-made friable drawing sticks since the 1660s, an efficient reaction to the art market’s demands, was perhaps the most important material factor that accounted for the pastel painting’s increasing popularity.29 Even though commercial production of these specific tools was limited, trade in them by the early eighteenth century was flourishing. Specialist pastel makers like Bernard Augustin Stoupan (1701–1775) in Lausanne offered a continuously growing palette of crayons. They also established themselves in cities all over Europe. Stoupan produced crayons whose quality was internationally renowned and set the standard for excellence.30 Improvements in the production of glass during the eighteenth century also helped enhance the success and popularity of the medium. While in the past, the dimensions of the hand-blown glass sheets had been limited to rather small sizes – they rarely went beyond 73.5 by 43 centimetres, new technology yielded sheets of clear plate glass measuring more than 152 by 100 centimetres.31

Successful Ambassador of a Neglected Technique The increasing popularity of the medium, together with Carriera’s outstanding handling of the technique, resulted in an unprecedented success for the Venetian artist, who herself went on to propagate it as a popular fashion. Her correspondence reveals, furthermore, that she was keen on perfecting her technique and so was constantly looking for the best pastel sticks she could find, the so-called rocchetti di pastello.32 Her countless friends and acquaintances in Italy and abroad often brought rocchetti with them when they came to see Carriera, or they offered to buy them for her.33 From Rome, for example, she regularly received the pastel sticks that Felice Ramelli kept sending her (as documented in earlier letters sent by Christian Cole).34 And her friend Mariette continued to send French crayons, her favourite ones, from Paris – a fact we know of from only the single passage of her correspondence where we find any mention of the materials she used.35 The context is a letter sent to the artist by 28 McCullagh, 2006, 75. 29 See for example Reuter, 2015, 114. 30 See for example Sauvage, 2015, 127. As to the announcements in newspapers, gazettes and other media in terms of availability of crayons from commercial suppliers in Paris and elsewhere, see Burns, 2007, 20–21. 31 Hauptmann, 2015, 25. 32 Mehler, 2006, 19–20. 33 See for example Cole’s letters from 9 September 1704, 1 November 1704, 10 January 1705 and 31 January 1705; Sani, 1985, I, 79, 82, 86 and 87. 34 See for example the letters sent on 9 September 1704, 1 November, the same year, and on 10 and 31 January 1705; Sani, 1985, I, 78, 82, 86–87. 35 Brusatin, 2005, 92–92.

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Abbot Giovambattista Casotti (1669–1737) from Florence and dated 29 March 1718. In it, he explained that an unnamed cavalliere, an acquaintance of his and dilettante pastellist, had asked him for information from the person he considered to be the greatest expert regarding pastel sticks. Casotti wanted to know which ones she found either too soft or too hard; however, he assured Carriera that he would keep her secrets and not tell anybody about her exclusive knowledge.36 In her response, dated 26 April 1718, the artist explained that as she was missing some hues she considered most important, she continued to produce some herself without adding anything like Arabic gum or any other binder, and even if they tended to break easily, they still worked well for her.37 Besides, she continued, she would have a lot to discuss and say about pastel painting as she was convinced that what was more important than the quality of the sticks was the quality of the paper or any other support that an artist would use.38 And paper was one of the articles that her friends and acquaintances would provide her with from the various parts of Europe. On 16 October 1743, a gentleman from Brussels, Maximilian de Hase (d.1787), wrote a letter in which he informed the artist that he had sent her 125 sheets of the previously mentioned Turkish paper, ‘the most beautiful ones I could find.’39 As to her favourite crayons, she told him, she preferred the French pastel sticks to the ones made in Flanders or in Rome, and she made sure she had entire assortments sent to Venice. In fact, Carriera was a well-informed expert in the making of colours. The state archive in Venice houses a manuscript by Carriera that is the only technically valid manual on painting and colours in eighteenth-century Venice. It is entitled Maniere diverse per formare i colori nella pitttura tratta dalle memorie manoscritte della pitttrice Rosalba Carriera.40 Considering the fact that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a startling number of treatises on painting and on pastels appeared on the market – Jeffares lists, in his collection of treatises or short texts regarding the genre, over sixty examples of this kind41 – the meticulousness of Carriera’s instructions and the range of arguments she included in her notes remain surprising to this day. The sections on 36 See Sani, 1985, I, 325–27. Regarding the life and career of Casotti see Sani, 1985, I, 327, n. 1. 37 Sani, 1985, I, 329. 38 Apart from Christian Cole and Felice Ramelli who both offered to send paper from Rome, one of her colleagues also sent paper to Venice. It was the collector and artist Theodor Hartsoeker from Utrecht, as can be seen in a letter sent to Carriera on 30 December, 1729; see Sani, 1985, II, 507. See also Burns, 2007, 106. On the importance of paper the way it acted as a file abrading the pigment particles from the stick, see Burns, 2016, 18–19. 39 ‘Le più belle che ho potuto trovare’. Sani, 1985, II, 687. 40 Brusatin, 2005, 91. 41 The range of their authors includes professional artists, amateurs and official institutions like art societies or academies. See Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, ‘Treatises and Other Historical Texts related to Pastels & Pastellists’, www. pastellists.com/Misc/Treatises.pdf (accessed on 15. May 2017).

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how to make colours (including various types of ink, colours for miniatures, colours for painting on silk, water colours, dies for paper, fur, straw, horsehair, and recipes for different types of varnish) provide readers with the entire list of the tools necessary, indicate perfectly the weights and ratios of the respective ingredients, and offer a step-by-step explanation of the process, underlining, where necessary, specific difficulties. Fascinating are the paragraphs in which she explained the best ways to use certain colours and which hues and tones to adapt for certain parts of a portrait such as blue or brown eyes, blonde, brown, white or powdered hair, white, blue, violet, green, grey, gold, silver, pink or yellow drapery, or even specific subjects not necessarily linked to portrait painting.42 She includes advice on which pigments should ideally be used for the depictions of blue or white grapes, trees, leaves, hedges, tree trunks, sky, the horizon, clouds, and mountains in the distance, architecture, stones, straw and stubble, wood, still or agitated water, shingle, and even steel or copper.43 Next to the advantages discussed above for Carriera of concentrating on miniature paintings – which also apply for pastel painting – another came of indulging in the newly discovered technique: the fact that sitters could pose for a considerably shorter time than was necessary for oil paintings, meaning that she kept her costs low and offered finished works at lower prices.44 Johann Georg Kreysler (1702–1753) described in a letter from Vienna, dated 6 September 1730, that a sitting for Carriera lasted no more than about five hours total over seven days in order to receive the finished piece;45 Burns even mentions ones that took only one to three hours.46 Besides the profound interest and expertise Carriera developed during her life, various external factors helped her to become an internationally celebrated pastellist: Venice attracted an immense number of travellers from all over the world. Travellers passing through Venice, where cultural tourism was already flourishing in the first half of the eighteenth century, were thus able to commission a portrait on the spot and on departure take the easily transportable work of art home with them.47 Carriera’s work could even be obtained from her by mail order.48 We have documentation of the impressive monetary values of her pastels and the payments she received which were often made very rapidly, sometimes within only a week, probably depending on her visitors’ itineraries.

42 Carriera, Maniere diverse, 2005, 11–24. 43 Carriera, Maniere diverse, 2005, 24–28. 44 Henning and Marx, 2007, 19–20. 45 Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/ articles/Carriera.pdf (accessed on 18 May 2017). 46 Burns, 2007, 115. 47 West, 1999b, 50. 48 See for example Princess Trivulzi’s letter dated 13 March 1741, who ordered a portrait of herself after another likeness she had sent to Carriera; Sani, 1985, II, 666–67.

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To avoid the risks of becoming financially dependent or of losing her artistic independence, which at any European court could easily have been her fate, Carriera did not submit herself to being supported by a fixed patron in Venice or abroad.49 She, like Piazzetta but unlike Pietro Bellotti (1625–1700), Pellegrini or Tiepolo for example, refused to leave her home city to take up lucrative offers from foreign rulers.50 The market ‘in miniature’ and in pastel that she had conquered furnished her with a large degree of autonomy, both at home and abroad.51 Eventually, she managed to create for herself the singular position of not being forced to find her clients. Her customers found her on the free market; indeed, they competed amongst themselves for her favour. And this was quite a privilege she was reluctant to give up. And her contemporaries were well aware of it: on 6 March 1706, Felice Ramelli informed the artist in a letter quoted before that she would receive an invitation from Düsseldorf to work for the local court, knowing that she would have to abandon a city where she was celebrated like a queen.52 Besides the heavy workload with which this extremely successful woman coped, she also displayed considerable administrative expertise and perseverance. Corresponding with clients or their agents, and with friends and family, required great diplomatic skill, a keen entrepreneurial spirit, and a great deal of time and concentration. She succeeded in securing for herself a growing circle of customers, even though it was virtually impossible for her as a female artist to promote and advertise herself, which for women of her time was seen as unfeminine and indecorous.53 Her network proved to be enormously efficient and productive, even to the point where Abbot Pietro dall’Agata, in a letter to Carriera, said she was omnipotent in Venice.54 If instead her clients commissioned art work from Carriera while abroad, the pastels or miniatures could be sent by post or courier service, though admittedly with a certain amount of risk.55 The numerous ambassadors with whom the Carriera family kept in touch were extremely helpful in this context: their diplomatic suitcases could guarantee her paintings safer and cheaper journeys.56 Also Rapparini preferred sending miniatures through a courier or a diplomat, being afraid that the tiny formats would easily get lost.57 49 ‘However, her travels were only differentiated from those of her male contemporaries by the fact that she remained free of the ties of a court annuity, receiving commissions for individual works, or groups of works rather than accepting a pension or any of the obligations that went with it.’ West, 1999b, 47–48. 50 Regarding the art market in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venice and artists who looked for a better income outside the Republic, see Sohm, 2010b, 216–21. 51 Del Negro, 2009, 73. 52 Sani, 1985, I, 97. 53 Borzello, 2000, 74; 2001, 27. 54 Sani, 1985, II, 456; Del Negro, 2009, 51. 55 West, 1999b, 50. 56 Del Negro, 2009, 50. 57 See Sani, 1985, I, 163.

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The degree of her success is further apparent on a monetary level; her accounts show she managed to sell her work for a considerable price, most of her collectors eventually accepting prices for her paintings that were almost astronomical.58 Carriera was able to obtain on average payments for her miniatures almost twice those she later received for her pastel paintings.59 Haskell quotes prices of 50 zecchini for a miniature, while her customers had to pay on average around 20–30 zecchini for a pastel painting, at least after 1725 and depending on whether one or two hands were included.60 Del Negro specifies that in the first years of her production of pastels, half of her works were sold for 8 to 12 zecchini. Between 1723 and 1725 the medium price for one of her pastels started to rise: in 1723 it was 12 zecchini; in 1724 her customers would pay an average of 18; in 1725, about 21; in 1726 the price reached an average of 34 zecchini, while in 1727 it went back to 24. In 1728 it went up to 28 and, from 1730 on, the price of a Carriera pastel settled at 30 zecchini. For her popular Four Seasons sets she even charged the princely sum of 240 zecchini.61 This increase corresponds to the general development of the Venetian art market in those years. Sohm has shown that in the 1720s, the average prices for paintings jumped up 85 per cent, exceeded in the 1730s by a stunning 121 per cent. This phenomenon went hand in hand, he observed, with a self-proclaimed renaissance led by Sebastiano Ricci, Carriera’s brother-inlaw Pellegrini, Piazzetta and Giambattista Tiepolo.62 Carriera managed to continue working frenetically until the 1740s before her eye problems forced her to slow down and eventually stop, but her works continued to be requested. After the death of Giovanni Battista Recanati in 1734, his collection of pastels by Carriera was put up for sale. August III in Dresden was keen to purchase the collection, and in 1750, his agent, Giovanni Pietro Minelli, was able to reduce the originally suggested price per pastel from 120 to 60 zecchini. His proposal was only accepted because he added one of the famous and highly appreciated Meissen porcelain services to the deal, which was not an unusual bargaining practice in eighteenth-century Italy’s international art market.63 If Charles de Brosses (1709–1777) had been better informed about the 58 Regarding the development of prices for artworks in Venice during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Sohm has established that there were long periods of stability punctuated by sudden increases, raising prices to new and ever higher plateaus after 1720; see Sohm, 2010b, 208–10. 59 Mehler, 2006, 19. Moücke had already pointed out that Carriera managed to request an unprecedented price for her miniatures; Moücke, 1762, 241. 60 Haskell, 1980, 262. Sani points out that only relatively few examples of Carriera’s art exist in which she actually included two hands; Sani, 2007b, 185. See also Canaletto’s commission of two pairs of paintings for Stefano Conti in 1725 for which he received 90 zecchini; Baetjer and Links,1989, 87. The 1983 exhibition catalogue Piazzetta published the following data on different units of currency in eighteenth-century Venice, with some equivalent values in silver dollars and the English gold guinea: 1 zecchino = 3 ducats = 2 silver dollars = ½ guinea; see Knox, 1983, 17. 61 Del Negro, 2009, 80, and Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/articles/Carriera.pdf (accessed on 18 May 2017). 62 See Sohm, 2010b, 210. 63 Moücke, 1762, 244. See also Spenlé, 2005, 251.

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value Carriera’s paintings had reached after 1730, he might have reacted in a different way when he had the idea of having his portrait done in pastel. The letter he wrote on 26 August 1739 to his friend Monsieur de Quintin is one of the very few records to show that not all customers were willing to pay the sum requested by Carriera: when he heard that he would have to pay 30 zecchini for his portrait and calculating the time he would have to wait for it, he wrote ‘he already had lost any fancy’. And when instead he committed, what he thought was a folly, by offering 25 gold louis for a miniature, ‘the size of a hand’, depicting a Mary Magdalene after Correggio, the artist ‘fortunately’ refused.64 De Brosses had lost an opportunity without realizing it. Taking into consideration that the minimum annual amount needed for life’s necessities in Venice is estimated to have been around 15 zecchini, also the fact that Giovanni Battista Piazzetta earned an average of about 150 zecchini per annum, or that Canaletto’s price of 120 zecchini for a painting was seen as exorbitant, one forms a clearer impression of the generous income Carriera earned from her miniatures and later from her pastels.65 Carriera certainly lived in Venetian society as a fairly wealthy woman, and for an artist her earnings were surprisingly high.66 And producing her own art was not her only income. Another possibility for earning money for painters was to copy old masters, which was the consequence of a changing art market and a changing appreciation of private collections. In the seventeenth century collecting art had become a way for ambitious citizens to legitimate their social status emulating the patriciate and the ruling nobility. Following the taste of older families and thus creating an even more pronounced trend to search for 500 paintings, it became increasingly more difficult to find those scarce pieces which led to commissions of old master copies, a market that was booming since the seventeenth century.67 And Carriera, too, benefited from this opportunity, as can be seen in various letters in which her clients asked for a copy of Veronese, for example. Another source of income for artists was offering their services as appraisers collecting fees for their expertise, a job that was paid well and brought with it considerable social cachet, as Ago points out.68 Carriera’s correspondence proves that she as well acted as ‘painter-consultant’, as Goldthwaite called this figure in the art market.69 More than once she was asked to lend her expert eye in order to assure a valuable acquisition. A letter Giorgio Rapparini sent from Germany on 31 May 1711 reveals that she had been engaged by the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm in Düsseldorf to buy paintings stemming from the highly estimated Gonzaga collection in Mantua for

64 65 66 67 68 69

See the respective paragraph of the letter quoted by Mazza Boccazzi, 2009, 163. Knox, 1983, 18, Haskell, 1980, 262. Del Negro, 2009, p. 81. Concerning Carriera’s income ratios see Del Negro, 2009, 80–81. See Sohm, 2010b, 210, and Goldthwaite, 2010, 286. Ago, 2010, 267. See also Sohm, 2010b, 218–19. Goldthwaite, 2010, 293.

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his own collection.70 A receipt written by a certain de Prougen proves that she had indeed bought two paintings for 3,200 lire to ship to Germany, one of which was a Flight into Egypt by Paolo Veronese.71 Occasionally she was also hired as an expert to restore paintings, even if they were painted in oil.72 Diversifying her sources of earnings was one way of protecting herself while working in a relatively uncertain profession, as well as safeguarding her situation from unpredictable oscillations in the economy.73 Only lately Heiner Krellig has discovered a series of fascinating documents in the state archive in Venice that illuminate Carriera’s outstanding capacities for supervising and organizing her finances. In 1705–6, the artist began investing part of her money, depositing 3,000 ducats with the Arte de Testori di Panna da Seta (the Venetian silk weavers’ guild), thereby acquiring a percentage of the guild house.74 Occasionally, Carriera also made private loans to important, apparently trustworthy people in Venice,75 and at least since 1718, we have documents that prove that the artist invested in local charitable institutions such as the Scuola Grande di San Rocco or the Ospedale degli Incurabili (Hospital for the incurables).76 She invested in the Arte dei Luganegheri (The guild for cold cuts predominantly made from pork) and the Zecca (the mint). In addition, she placed a substantial amount of money in the Banco Giro di Rialto. Altogether, Krellig estimates that in the years between 1720 and 1728 these investments yielded her an annual income of at least 233 ducats. In 1741, she earned at least 690 ducats, and shortly before she died, she lived on 918 ducats, a sum twelve times the amount of rent she had to pay each year. Considering that state notaries in Venice in the seventeenth century were paid around 200 ducats a year,77 Carriera’s income takes on yet another dimension. Moreover, this calculation of investment income does not include the interests she earned from a private loan to her brother-in-law Antonio Pellegrini (which in 1741 amounted 70 The payment for her expertise was of 3,200 ducats. See Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Articles/Carriera.pdf, 1 (accessed on 25 May 2017). The Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm would have loved to get more pieces, especially one by Giulio Romano (1499–1546), but unfortunately the best paintings were apparently already sold. See Sani, 1985, I, 14 and 187. Another time when she was asked to do an appraisal the request came from Monsieur Chuberé, an art lover and friend of Zanetti; see his letter dated 19 July 1729, in Sani, 1985, II, 500. 71 See Sani, 1985, I, 198. These paintings appeared on the Venetian art market after most of the magnificent collection of the English King Charles I (1600–1649) was sold. He had bought the entire collection of the Gonzaga dukes who, because of the dire financial situation, had been obliged in the late 1620s to sell one of the most important art collections in Italy. 72 See Sani, 1985, I, 221. As far as Carriera’s ability in oil painting is concerned, see her portrait of Frederik Augustus of Saxony in Vienna. See also the request by Giovambattista Casotti to restore a Medici portrait; Sani, 1985, I, 355. 73 See also Ago, 2010, 268. 74 See Krellig, 2017, 97. 75 See the example of a private loan to Countess Maria Hiarca; Krellig, 2017, 97–98. 76 Krellig, 2017, 98. 77 Sohm, 2010a, 23.

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to 1,000 ducats),78 and also does not take into account the money she made by selling her art. The post-mortem inventory, which is kept in the state archive in Venice and was published in 2011 by Moretti, indicates that at the time of her death, she owned a total of 24,556 ducats.79 Krellig compares this sum to the amount of money other Venetian artists left behind at their deaths, which helps us to get a better understanding of how wealthy Carriera had become as an artist: Antonio Canaletto left 2,588 ducats when he died; Sebastiano Ricci, 7,196; and Antonio Pellegrini, 18,967. Only Johann Carl Loth (1632–1698), who seems to have been by far the richest painter working in Venice during the seventeenth century, accumulated 32,000 ducats.80

Carriera in the Art World of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Venice Thanks to the authors of the groundbreaking publication Painting for Profit (2010),81 who for the first time explore the economics of the production, marketing and sale of art in five major Italian cities, including Venice, from the painter’s point of view and who produce an unprecedented amount of fundamental data, we have the opportunity to place Carriera’s position in her home city as an independent woman artist in a bigger context and analyse her career more in depth. The following thoughts are primarily based on Sohm’s contribution in the above-mentioned inquiry. The beginning of Carriera’s career in the seventeenth century corresponds to a period in which Venice recovered from a crisis marked by the plague in 1630–31, the financial requirements tied to the war of Candia (1643–1669) and a population decline that led among other things to what economic historians describe as an era of ‘slow growth or even economic stagnation characterized by a reduction in the profit margins of capital.’82 As far as the art scene is concerned, historians and critics since the late sixteenth century also widely perceived the same period as a one of artistic decay and impoverishment. The glorious Renaissance, the golden age of Venetian painting was over and the splendours of the local Rococo were not yet in sight. It was a century that was felt as being the ‘heart of a dark age wedged between two golden ages’, as Sohm has called it.83 When the historian Giovanni Battista Leoni (1542?–1613) wrote the following, under the impression that after Titian was deceased in 1576 and Veronese in 1588, the anticipated death of Tintoretto (1518–1594) would mark the end of Venetian painting, he was not alone: ‘And, may they forgive me, and may all the 78 Krellig, 2017, 98–99. 79 Moretti, 2011b, 308. 80 Krellig, 2017, 101. As to the economics of women artists during the Renaissance up until the Baroque, see Murphy, 2007, 23–30. 81 Spear and Sohm, 2010. 82 Ago, 2010, 255. 83 Sohm, 2010b, 206.

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others forgive me, but it seems to me that the refinement and the lofty technique could be dead with these worthy men.’84 Federico Zuccari joined in when he asked the figure of Painting in his poem Lamento della pittura sul l’onde venete, printed in Mantua in 1605: ‘What happened to you and your glorious tradition?’85 Also, the Arte de’Depentori (painters’guild) in 1679 presented the senate with the following discouraging and nostalgic description of the state of the arts: The profession of painting, noble in original and miraculous in effects, always flourished in this serene and happy land. In dignified times, painting maintained a position of high esteem, envied by other countries and admired by posterity, but these first expert artists were struck over the head by a contagious plague and hence languished and declined for a while and became involved with the abuses of the age, involving certain vulgar and low-class trades. Today we find painting incumbered in the same tombs either because it is neglected or because of the poverty of our masters.86

In the same year the Arte de’Depentori started a campaign and made a formal request to separate from the larger community of artisans and form a new institution, the Collegio de’Pittori (College of painters), which was officially founded on 31 December 1682. The idea was to follow the model of the more organized art academies where specialized faculty could teach following a specific curriculum and improve in this way the quality of painting and subsequently the conditions of the artists in the city. There was no mention of an academy but the ‘College’ was a professional union that replaced the numerous private academies that had started to work from individual painters’ houses.87 But the general situation of the local artists did not seem to recover. Responsibility for the dismal state of the art scene in Venice was attributed not only to the plague of 1631, but more especially to the impossibility of making a living as an artist, which forced the local painters to work for patrons abroad, and the presence of many foreigners in the lagoon who took over a threatening number of commissions.88 The seventeenth century was indeed a period in which more foreigners made Venice their home or stayed in the city for some time, turning the city – much more than in the Renaissance – into a truly cosmopolitan centre of artistic exchange.89

84 85 86 87 88 89

Quoted in Sohm, 2010b, 206. Sohm, 2010b, 207. Translation in Sohm, 2010b, 207. Nepi Sciré, 1994, 60. Sohm, 2010b, 206. Sohm, 2010b, 231.

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In 1724, the Collegio de’Pittori expressed its concerns in the following words: Many people practice the profession today but of these, only a few make a good living; the others who want to do so are always moving from place to place, either forever or from time to time. They go with their happy brushes to toil in foreign lands, abandoning their homeland where they are debtors. Other painters, and these are the majority in the Collegio, debase themselves to commerce and produce work of little merit. They find it difficult to live and even to pay their dues, which are going up all the time because the best painters are no longer in Venice contributing fees.90

As Sohm has observed, by the 1730s Venetians generally agreed with this vision of a decayed and impoverished world of painting in their home city even though the development of the prices for artworks in Venice, as mentioned above, and the careers of painters like Pietro Bellotti (1625–1700), Pellegrini, Sebastiano Ricci, Giambattista Tiepolo, Piazzetta and especially the miniaturist Carriera seemed to prove the opposite. At the same time it is true that in the seventeenth and still at the beginning of the eighteenth century a painter who aimed to have a secure guaranteed income was obliged or was thought to be obliged to travel, creating a talent drain in the city.91 And indeed, unlike many of her illustrious male colleagues, except for Piazzetta, who went to work abroad, Carriera managed to stay and work most of her life in the lagoon city making much more than just a living. Especially for the years between 1712 and 1730 Sohm talks about a period in which Venice was ‘haemorrhaging artists to foreign lands’.92 Consequently, the rhetoric of decline endured and produced a real culture of complaint that continued still into the second half of the eighteenth century. Francesco Tron, president of the Milizia da Mar stated in 1757: The reasons why we have so few excellent painters are not hard to plumb since there is really little profit to be made. The Venetian school has always been held in esteem, but today all civilized nations have their own style that they love, and except for a few great gentlemen and experts, they do not go searching for other good paintings. There are few excellent painters today, and if they want to make a living, they usually travel abroad.93

It was Anton Maria Zanetti who finally found himself in the position of again stressing the regained quality of contemporary Venetian art, but he opened the fifth book 90 91 92 93

Translation in Sohm, 2010, 208. Sohm, 2010b, 220. See Sohm, 2010b, 215. Sohm, 2010b, 206.

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of his Descrizione della pittura veneziana e delle opere pubbliche de’veneziani maestri (1771) underlining the difficulty of writing a history of Venetian painting from the end of the seventeenth until the first half of the eighteenth century. Because of the foreign schools that had moved into his home city, the works of art of that period were too different from each other, there was too much variety to summarize it easily in one chapter, and, he repeated, many local artists left Venice: they brought their studies and their knowledge into other Italian schools of painting.94 Luigi Lanzi (1732–1810) still made reference to the, by then, canonical argument: After these years, especially 1630 and 1631 when so many painters died, the relics of the good Venetian school were being lost, and most of the paintings in the mid-seventeenth century took on a different character. Signor Zanetti points out that around this time some foreign painters established themselves in this city and subsequently the realm of painting was in their hands.95

The frequently invoked decline was, according to some experts of the time, also reflected in the despicable way in which art had succumbed to commerce on the lowest level: painters had started to sell their art in shops. This kind of merchandising Marco Boschini (1602–1681), for example, judged to be dangerous, a risk in regard to the social status of artists he did not like to see mixing with the representatives of the lowest ranks. In his La carta del navegar pittoresco which was published in 1660 in Mantua, he wrote: One finds modern frauds who produce painting in workshops as if they were little bunches of ribbons reckoning on enriching themselves. They display, with commercial malice, these rare little works in little boxes, and claim: these beautiful works come from far away; this is fine painting and subtle work. [...] Oh poor Painting, so diminished in the hands of shopkeeper, workers, Jews, plebeians.96

The concern about money corrupting art was age-old,97 but the formulation of the painter’s guild in 1679, discussed above, reveals that these ideas were vividly in focus 94 ‘Non è agevol cosa il formare una compendiosa idea universale della Pittura Veneziana verso la fine del passato secolo, e nel principio di questo fino a’nostri giorni; poiché troppo varia si vide esser ella nelle opere degli artefici di que’tempi. Cagione di ciò fu che non solamente parte di essi seguirono le scuole de’forestieri accasati in Venezia, e parte assecondando la libertà del genio uno stile proprio si formarono; ma via che chi uscendo di Patria, e portandosi a fare i maggiori suoi studii nella altre scuole d’Italia, ne riportò con le apprese dottrine, le immagini che vedute avea, e costantemente seguille; onde per tutto ciò si può conchiudere, che si videro allora in Venezia tante maniere quanti erano quelli che dipingevano.’ A. Zanetti, vol. 5, 1771, 395–96. 95 Quoted in Sohm, 2010b, 207–8. 96 Translation in Sohm, 2010, 212. See Boschini, 1660, 153. 97 Regarding the main positions within the debate about monetary motivation for artists since the sixteenth century and their ancient Greek models, see Sohm, 2010a, 4–7.

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and led not only to the foundation of the Collegio de’Pittori but also to a clear and official distinction between painters who were considered part of the liberal arts and those considered mere craftsmen. In 1680, the Giustizia Vecchia (the senate) approved the separation of the Arte de’Depentori that represented the liberal arts from those others in the mechanical arts. Those other artisans included ‘gilders (doratori), decorative and house painters (dipintori), painters of musical instruments (cimbanari), stationers (cartolari), miniaturists (miniatori), leather painters (coridori), painters of wax fruit, and still life painters (naranzeri, fruttarioli).’98 Carriera was thus not even considered to be worthy of being called a painter, and consequently not faced with the problem of membership and the fees and commitments entangled with it. She was part of a socially (and artistically) lower group of the craftsmen, the artisans. Considering the fact that guilds and academies which themselves were under the influence of local politics, that these institutions regulated and sometimes intervened as far as pricing and the commercial conduct of their members was concerned,99 not being recognized by them was demeaning for Carriera and presented her with another objective difficulty: officially recognized painters (pittori) earned far more per capita, as Sohm has pointed out, than other craftsmen. In view of all the concerns and the rhetoric of bad times, and the actual difficulties and real problems that artists had to face during the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century, it is even more astonishing that Carriera became the internationally most famous Venetian painter in her lifetime. How was such an unprecedented success for any woman in the arts possible? Among the various factors that fostered her career was the discovery of two artistic niches, miniature and pastel painting, which left her enormous personal, artistic and commercial liberties. Not only was the lack of rivals an advantage, as mentioned above, but in an ironic way, also the fact of not being officially considered part of the pittori. By being denied the status of an official painter, she automatically achieved what many of the ‘real’ artists only gained by deliberately remaining outside of their associations, that is, she avoided taxes and fees but more importantly, she escaped their jurisdictional control.100 This way, she could work and pursue her profession with more freedom in her home. The fact that Carriera in this situation even managed to keep her prices up to a level comparable to those of the officially recognized local painters is truly unique. In combination with her extremely refined artistry and her shrewd tactics in publicizing herself and her art which will be analysed later in this study, she became a real attraction not so much for the Venetians but for the foreigners who poured into 98 Sohm, 2010b, 214. For the same trend in other cities such as Florence, Rome and Bologna, where painters also wanted to distance themselves from the old trade guilds, see Ago, 2010, 262–63. 99 Sohm, 2010a, 11. 100 For a general discussion of professional associations in Italy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, see Ago, 2010, 262–63.

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Venice. And this clientele, especially the French and the English, were not only more interested in miniatures but also showed a more profound appreciation of portraits in miniature and in pastel than the Venetians did. It would appear that Carriera really capitalized on that potential more or at least in a more fruitful way than any of her contemporary colleagues. She knew how to profit from their presence in the city, cultivating special relationships with intellectuals and artists, aristocrats and rich rulers and their agents, just like Marco Boschini had done and suggested doing. He was a painter, printmaker and miniaturist himself, but he had understood that much more money could be made by restoring, appraising and selling art. Realizing what an opportunity the transient foreigners offered for the merchandising and production of art, he exploited it, specializing as an art dealer who guided his clients around the city showing them old master pieces or contemporary artworks on sale.101 And in 1660 in his La carta del navegar pittorico he exclaimed what Carriera might have read with great interest: Oh poor Venetian painters who had such great judgment in painting but knew nothing about this great fortune [ventura, hence with a sense of future speculation], a great fortune (fortuna) for foreigners who come to this city with thousands in gold and who now multiply it tenfold. More than painting itself, this is a pretty trade.102

And this trade became hers.

101 See Sohm, 2010b, 211. 102 Quoted in Sohm, 2010b, 211–12.

3 Carriera’s International Network In building her career, Carriera found it essential to rely on a widespread social network of long-lasting relationships with highly influential commissioners all over Europe. Often she became involved with intermediary figures, usually agents and couriers who helped her gain access to the international art market. These individuals worked for various courts throughout Europe. They corresponded regularly with Carriera and paid her visits. One has only to remember the pivotal role that Christian Cole played in helping her become a member of the Accademia di San Luca. Over the years while she worked in Venice as an independent artist, she cultivated many indispensable relationships. When it came to doing business with European aristocrats and intellectuals, for instance, Carriera was able to fall back on her friendship with her godfather, the notary Carlo Gabrieli, who took care of her business transactions in Venice with foreigners, making sure they followed the correct procedures and did not trick his godchild.1

Attacked by the British As early as the end of the seventeenth century, Carriera attracted English clients interested in her miniatures. They also commissioned what they called her crayon paintings. Over time, her relationships with the English aristocracy grew more extensive; their stops in the lagoon city became a standard feature in the grand tour that young European noblemen were expected to take.2 Visiting the artist’s studio on the Grand Canal soon became an obligatory part of their stays in Venice. Upper-class Englishmen either asked for their portraits to be painted directly by Carriera, or they ordered one of her paintings, to be picked up or sent on from Venice at a later date. Also in England, Carriera enjoyed huge fame, and the enormous popularity of her works grew to the point that amateur pastellists copied her likenesses that her clients brought back from Italy. In deference to unique artistry, these English works came to be presented as the work of ‘Roselby’, one example of how her promoters misspelled 1 Del Negro, 2007, 37–38. Gabrieli was also the friend who took care of the Carriera household during her stay in Paris (Sani, 2007b, 150), and also the one to inventory and notarize John Law’s effects after his death in 1729 (Edwards, 2001, 62). For more detail on Carriera’s British contacts see Whistler, 2009. 2 According to Pier Caterino Zeno (1666–1732) she even received an invitation to work in England which she refused; see his letter for Francesco Marmi, written on 3 December 1729; Sani, 1985, II, 802.

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_ch03

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her name.3 Considered overall, Carriera exercised a more direct influence on her British contemporaries than any other eighteenth-century Italian painter.4 Her correspondence illustrates further how much her art was appreciated in England. The first letter conserved in Carriera’s collection of letters, which was written on 26 July 1704, was with a British client who signed his name as ‘G. Montagu’; he was most likely the diplomat Charles Montagu, future Duke of Manchester (1660–1722). He stayed in Venice on diplomatic missions between 1697 and 1698 and between 1707 and 1708, and would later become a major commissioner of, not only Carriera, but other Venetian artists such as Luca Carlevarijs (1663–1730), father of Marianna, an apprentice of Carriera, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini and Marco Ricci (1676–1730). Montagu wrote from Berlin thanking the artist for the long desired portrait he had received and underlining that the first Prussian queen, Sophie Charlotte of Hannover (1668–1705), herself an important art lover and patron, came to admire and praise the beauty of the painting as well as Carriera’s artistic capacities.5 Among other English clients and acquaintances were Charles Sackville (1711–1769), 2nd Duke of Dorset and Earl of Middlesex from 1711 to 1720, and Owen McSwiney (1676–1754).6 McSwiney, who had failed as impresario of the Queen’s Theatre and fled London after having taken money from the box office along with paper assets, came to live in Venice in 1713. For twenty years he acted as a middleman between English art collectors and local artists such as Carriera and Canaletto.7 Thanks also to the help of Joseph Smith (c.1674–1770), who according to Haskell was ‘the most important link in Venice between the city and the outside world’,8 McSwiney managed not only to make a living but to gain some sort of acceptable reputation in Venice. And Smith himself, who became British consul in Venice in 1744, was another of Carriera’s acquaintances.9 Smith had arrived at the lagoon at the beginning of the eighteenth century, starting out as a businessman and merchant. During the 1720s he began buying a large number of paintings, drawings and prints, which he circulated in order to gain renown throughout Europe.10 He was also interested in books, especially Greek 3 Levey, 1959, 144. 4 Russell, 1994, 57. 5 Sani, 1985, I, 77. 6 Concerning Sackville’s portraits, see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 321 and 322, pp. 288–91. In 1730 he might have bought an allegory of music from Carriera; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 286, p. 263. As to Owen McSwiny, Sani, 2007b, 54. 7 Llewellyn, 2015, 179. Sani also considers the possibility that Canaletto and Carriera could have easily met, as both worked for the same patrons. Sani, 1985, I, 31. 8 Haskell, 1963, 299. 9 See Frances Vivian, Il console Smith mercante e collezionista (1971), and La collezione del console Smith (1990). Interestingly, Smith was a member of the same Masonic lodge as Giacomo Casanova who, indeed, mentioned Smith in his memoirs. 10 Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/ articles/Carriera.pdf.Rosalba Carriera, 1 (accessed on 13 September 2017). See also Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 56, p. 91; cat. no. 130, p. 137; cat. no. 179, p. 180; and cat. no. 376, p. 331.

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and Latin manuscripts and various treatises on art, which he bought for his superb library. At the same time he acted as agent for Sebastiano and his nephew Marco Ricci, Piazzetta and especially Canaletto. He collected paintings by masters working during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, also coins, gems, and medals. Generally speaking, he became Venice’s most important facilitator of art sales to British aristocrats visiting the city on their grand tours.11 Having met Smith in 1721, Carriera began working for him already in 1723, which marks her as one of the first painters he employed. Apart from acting as an agent who sent her pastels to clients in England, Smith also collected a substantial number Carriera’s paintings, thirty-eight of which King George III (1738–1820) eventually purchased. Smith’s list comprises the best-known group of her works remaining from that time in Venice. Another famed client was Richard Boyle, the Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), who was called by his countrymen an ‘Apollo of the Arts’. He bought twelve miniatures by Carriera to add to his purchases of a marble table and some porphyry vases, which he took back to England after his eight-day stay there in 1715 during his first grand tour.12 The Walpole family, Sir Robert (1676–1745) and his sons Horace Robert (1700– 1751), Edward (1706–1751) and Horace (1717–1797), were also in regular contact with Carriera about the paintings they commissioned from her.13 Their portraits, done by the Venetian artist, were hung in the picture gallery of their salon in Downing street together with paintings by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610–1662) and Jacob Jordaens (1693–1778).14 Horace Walpole and Henry Fiennes Clinton, Count of Lincoln (1720–1794), spent some time in Venice with John Chute (1701–1776), Francis Whithed (1719–1751) and Joseph Spence (1699–1768), the author, scholar and bear-leader to Lord Lincoln.15 Among Carriera’s other clients were members of the House of Stuart and their supporters. Between 1718 and 1720 she painted a portrait of Jacobite Philip Wharton, discussed above, one of only a very few in English history to be made peer while still a minor. Among other Jacobite clients even Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788) himself 11 Visitors to Venice can still see the Palazzo Smith Mangilli Valmarana on the Grand Canal which he bought and restored from 1740 onwards; Razzall, 2017a. See also Cust, 1913, 151. 12 Whistler, 2009, 185. The art lover and collector returned to England with 878 pieces of luggage, according to Hibbert, 1987, 193. A short summary describing Lord Burlington’s impact on the cultural scene in eighteenthcentury England is given in the exhibition catalogue, Wilton-Ely, ed., Apollo of the Arts: Lord Burlington and his Circle, 1973. Regarding a miniature that may have been one of the twelve pieces Lord Burlington bought in 1715, see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 80, p. 106. 13 Regarding the respective portraits see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 103 and 104, p. 117; cat. no. 300, p. 272; cat. no. 303, p. 275; cat. no 304, p. 276; and cat. no. 410, pp. 355–56. See also Lucchese, 2005, 130–35, who discusses their relationship and some drawings Carriera made of Edward Walpole and friends. 14 Whistler, 2009, 201. 15 Regarding his portrait see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 392, pp. 342–44. Also Alan Brodrick Middleton (1702–1747), a passionate art collector, his friend Gustav Hamilton, future Lord Boyne (1710–1746), and Edward Walpole visited Venice in 1730 and met with Carriera for their portraits. Whistler, 2009, 186.

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is listed. Known as the Young Pretender or as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, he was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. He had strong ties to Italy, having spent his childhood in Rome and Bologna, and in 1737 he had his portrait done by Carriera after he arrived in Venice, a city that openly maintained the family’s cause.16 Carriera’s interest in music led to relationship with many Venetian musicians who gave further impetus to her vivid cultural exchanges with the British aristocracy. Her portraits of her acquaintance Faustina Bordoni for example were often requested by British commissioners.17 In addition, clients of hers such as Charles Lennox (1701– 1750), 2nd Duke of Richmond, and Lord Burlington, not only showed their profound appreciation of her art but also their passionate patronage of the Venetian musicians they met through her, thereby giving evidence of their appreciation of Carriera’s other capacities and interests.18 One of the last letters in the artist’s correspondence that has come down to us was sent in May 1756 by a young colleague of hers who was one of the most famous eighteenth-century female portrait painters in Britain, the Scotswoman Katherine Read. She wrote of how, in copying Carriera’s pastels, she learned which works she could admire in Cardinal Alessandro Albani’s (1692–1779) collection in Rome. When travelling back from Rome to London in 1753, she visited Carriera in Venice, who was by then blind. As the number of requests by the English to Carriera to produce miniatures and pastels grew, so did her reputation as an artist whom this nation particularly loved and appreciated. Her fame there rose to the point that Carriera herself began using her continuous English commissions as excuses for falling behind in her work.19 In 1721, she told her French colleague Nicolas Vleughels that she had been ‘attacked’ by the English, leaving her hardly any time to finish other commissions.20

16 The painting is kept in a private collection in England; Whistler, 2009, 192. 17 For example, Alan Brodrick Middleton is known to have brought her portrait back to England; Whistler, 2009, 186. 18 Lord Burlington sent Bononcini to London, and George Friedrich Handel stayed at the Burlington House for three years after his arrival in London in 1711. At that time, Antonio Pellegrini was engaged in painting large canvases for the entry hall and staircase. See Whistler, 2009, 195. 19 See for example Sani, 1985, I, 93; II, 467. 20 ‘I have been attacked by the English, I need to do their portraits and for this reason, I am not able to send other things.’ The original quote reads: ‘J’ai été attaqué par des Angles: il faut faire leur portrets et cela a fait que je n’ai peu envoier autre chose.’ Sani, 1985, I, 390, n. 1. As to the impact that British and German art patronage had on the Italian and specifically the Venetian art scene, see Haskell’s article ‘Market for Italian Art in the 17th Century’, 1959.

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Carriera and the French Of particular interest also are the relationships the artist cultivated in France where she had gained fame at the latest by the end of the 1600s, evidence of which can be found in a letter sent from Paris on 30 June 1700 by the art dealer and collector Louis Vatin. He wrote to Carriera in order to express his impatience for the receipt of a miniature depicting Cupid (Amore), a woman sealing a letter and another twelve fondelle the artist had promised to send.21 One of the most fruitful connections Carriera managed to build in France was the acquaintance of Pierre Crozat (1661–1740) in 1715, the French banker, art connoisseur and collector who the year before had become the esteemed adviser in subject art and official agent – a cultural consort – to the regent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674–1723).22 Crozat visited Venice during the course of his travels through Italy, and Carriera executed various portraits for him, of both the connoisseur himself and his family.23 Crozat’s art collection ultimately comprised some 500 paintings, including a substantial number of Italian and Flemish works, as well as nearly 20,000 sketches.24 His opinion of Carriera’s exceptional skills, which he shared with her shortly after meeting her, could hardly have been more positive: only one artist in France, he claimed, was worthy of being compared to her – none other than Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721).25 Together with Zanetti, Crozat and Carriera were referred to as a ‘harmonious trio’, and after the three met for the first time in Venice in 1715, they continued to write each other until the death of Crozat in 1740. It is a correspondence filled with discussions of a vast array of themes and arguments that reflect their ample and far-reaching interests.26 Their friendship can be considered just one of the many illustrious examples of the lively and intense international cultural transfers that occurred during the eighteenth century. And it was primarily due to him that the artist eventually decided to go and work in Paris. Nicolaus Vleughels who has been mentioned above had travelled from France to Italy around 1703, and he stayed in Rome until 1707, the year he also visited Venice and met Carriera. He was guest of M. Rousseau, a merchant who had his business affairs followed by the notary and godfather of Carriera, Carlo Gabrieli, thanks to whom Vleughels and his female colleague and Zanetti had a chance to get to know 21 Sani, 1985, I, 40. 22 In 1721 alone, Crozat bought 259 oil paintings for Philippe II in Rome; see B. Marx, 2010, 14. 23 See Sani, 2007b, 153. 24 Guichard, 2008, 150. See also Cordelia Hattori’s doctoral thesis on Crozat, ‘Pierre Crozat (1665–1740), un financier collectionneur et mécène’ (1998). Regarding collectors and art lovers in France during the eighteenth century see also Pomian, 1987, 185–222. Concerning the figure of Pierre Crozat see Leclair, 1996. 25 Sani, 2007b, 53. With respect to Carriera’s portraits of her French colleague see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 143, 150, and cat. no. 160–61, pp. 165–167. 26 See Barcham’s article on the relationship between the three; Barcham, 2009, 147–56.

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each other. The relationship between the two artists, which would become more intense during Carriera’s stay in Paris, lasted until his death in 1737. Among the French connoisseurs and collectors who travelled to Venice was also Pierre-Jean Mariette, who met Carriera during his tour through Italy in 1718. He was not only well-known for being an art lover of distinction, but also for his collection of prints and his achievements as a publisher. Mariette and Carriera forged a close friendship, which is reflected in their extensive, intense and highly personal correspondence that lasted until a few days before the death of the Venetian painter.27

German Travellers on the Grand Tour By the end of the seventeenth century, Carriera was also in contact with German rulers and the German aristocracy. The most important and rewarding connections she entertained across the Alps were the ones to the court in Dresden. Augustus II, called ‘the Strong’ (1670–1733) – whose role as art patron coincided with those he played in international and internal politics – initiated Dresden’s extensive and world-famous collection of the extraordinary Venetian artist’s pastel paintings.28 While artistic taste in Dresden was at first most influenced by French painting and fashion, royal collections in the city at the beginning of the eighteenth century clearly shifted in orientation towards the Italian market. This change in the politics of art acquisitions was an unavoidable consequence of Dresden’s far-reaching geopolitical and dynastic efforts to fortify the position of Augustus and his court within the whole of Europe. The king had decided to Catholicize Dresden: he himself had already converted in 1697, and he was preparing his only legitimate son, Frederick Augustus II (1696–1763) – who was the young Elector of Saxony and later to become king of Poland as Augustus III as well as grand duke of Lithuania – to convert to Catholicism as well. It was Augustus the Strong’s hope that he would gain papal support in his plan to link his family through marriage to the imperial Habsburg court in Vienna. To that end, the Elector of Saxony was sent on an obligatory grand tour during which, in 1712, he converted to Catholicism in Bologna. By September 1719, his father’s dynastic ambitions, along with his diplomatic and political skills, had reached the pinnacle of success: the ‘transconfessional apotheosis of his dynasty’29 was crowned by the marriage between 27 As an example, see the letters exchanged between Carriera and Mariette in which they discuss the precarious health of the painter and her increasing blindness; Sani, 1985, II, 719–25. Concerning her stay in Paris, see also Henning and Marx, 2007, 29–34. On art experts and collectors in Paris during the eighteenth century, see Guichard’s publication of 2008. 28 Members of the court in Saxony also posed Carriera, among them the mistress of Augustus the Strong, Princess Ursula Katharina Lubomirska (1680–1743); Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 355, p. 315. Regarding the possibility that the same pastel represents Isabella Correr Pisani, see Sani, 2010, 207. In relation to the artistic links between Dresden and Venice see B. Marx, 2010, 10–67, and West, 2015, 211–223. 29 B. Marx, 2010, 17.

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Frederick Augustus and the Archduchess of Austria, Maria Josepha (1699–1757), the first daughter of the Habsburg emperor Joseph I (1678–1711) and Wilhelmine Amalie von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1673–1742). Presumably by 1712, on the occasion of his grand tour, the then crown prince Frederick Augustus was also in contact with Carriera.30 Apart from his first trip to Venice where he arrived on 2 February, he repeatedly visited her during the following seven years, having not only his own portrait painted by her hand, but also likenesses of various court or family members including that of his wife.31 Increasingly, he became a genuine enthusiast of Carriera’s art, adding to his father’s collection of her works with acquisitions of her pastels that are the nucleus of the Dresden gallery. His hunger for Italian art seemed to be endless, so also his means to invest: in the course of one single year, the king acquired 7,125 paintings and numerous graphic works for the royal collection.32 Frederick August’s son, Prince Frederick Christian of Saxony (1722–1763), continued the family tradition by acquiring even more of Carriera’s pieces, also making the royal collection in Dresden the largest museum of her pastels in all Europe.33 Travelling incognito from 1738 to 1740 under the pseudonym Comte de Lusace, Frederick Christian decided to spend several months in Venice on his way back from a trip to Naples, where his sister Maria Amalia (1724–1763) had married Charles III of Spain, king of both Sicilies (1716–1788). During this trip he too had had his portrait painted by the celebrated artist (Plate 2) – indication to insert plate here?.34

30 The first documented encounter between the Saxon ruler and Carrriera is provided by a letter that the artist’s sister Angela wrote from Düsseldorf on 27 August 1713. 31 Regarding his portrait, see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 64, 65 and 66, pp. 98–99. As to the pastel depicting his wife, see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 298, pp. 270–71. The Carriera paintings in Dresden include a portrait of Anna Karolina from Holstein, Countess Orzelska (1707–1769), who was the illegitimate daughter of Augustus the Strong with Henriette Rénard (d.1721 or 1722), one of his numerous mistresses; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 366, p. 323. Among the court members who accompanied Frederick Augustus was also Ulrich Friedrich Löwendal (1700–1755), who continued to write to Carriera for the next twenty years. See Sani, 2010, 203. 32 See Becker et al., 1994, 50. 33 A curious fact links Carriera’s pastels to the Dresden court in the form of some eighteenth-century editions of Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz’s (1692–1775) scandalous memoirs of the Saxon ruler, The Amorous Adventures of Augustus the Strong, that were illustrated with engravings of Carriera’s pastel portraits; see West, 2015, 215. 34 Henning and Marx, 2007, 84–87. Still a teenager, he toured Italy as Comte de Lusace. As far as the portrait of the ruler is concerned, see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 378–79 and 380, pp 334–36. Two diary accounts exist by his hand (dated 5 and 11 April 1740) in which he mentioned sitting for Carriera and going to look at his portrait not even a week later, see WordPress.com, https://comtedelusace.wordpress.com/1740/04/16/comte-de-lusaceapril-1-16-1740-venice/ (accessed on 10 January 2018). The Dresden collection houses another portrait of Prince Frederick Christian, a version in oil on canvas, allegedly by Carriera. If this attribution is correct it could be one of the few examples of the artist’s activity as an oil painter. See Burns, 2007, 120. See also Liebusch, in H. Marx, ed., Sehnsucht und Wirklichkeit, 2009, 157–59. In terms of the time a client had to calculate to get their portrait done by Carriera, see also the account of the German traveller Johann Georg Kreyßler who recorded that it would take a week’s time with a total of five sittings. See Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastel.com/Articles/Carriera.pdf, p. 1 (accessed on 15 September 2017).

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Carriera created an official, representative court portrait of the prince who, at that point, was seventeen years old. He is shown with a white wig, bound together at the back with a ribbon leaving a tail the falls down to the shoulders – the full-bottomed periwig had gone out of fashion – and he is dressed in armour over which he wears an elegant brocade mantle and the obligatory ermine cloak. The blue ribbon across his chest is part of the Order of the White Eagle which had been instituted in 1705 by his grandfather Augustus the Strong. If we consider that Frederick Christian was suffering from scoliosis which made walking difficult and standing freely without any support impossible, we might understand more easily why Carriera depicted the prince with snow-white skin that is even lighter than other examples of her faces, and a distanced, introverted look. The fact that his right eye is slightly more closed than his left and that his mouth does not show the hint of smile we encounter in many of Carriera’s other pastels are further subtle but noticeable hints at the young aristocrat’s precarious health. The gesture of his left hand that seems to invite the onlooker to get closer or to participate in the scene is, in its artificiality and awkwardness, not fully convincing, especially when we contrast it with the prince’s tangible weakness to be seen in the pastel’s upper part.35 It reflects Carriera’s capacity both to convey the physiognomy of her models and to charge her portraits with the more intimate characteristics or specific aspects of her sitter’s personal lives or situations, which becomes even more obvious when we contrast this work with Anton Raphael Mengs’ (1728–1779) pastel of the same person executed some ten years later (Figure 11). Here Frederick Christian is ceremonially rendered from a lower angle, according to the traditional formula for official courtly portraits. On the occasion of this trip to Venice, the crown prince bought from Carriera every single work of art to be found in her studio – the entire ‘job lot’, so to speak. Together with the pieces that arrived in Dresden through agents like Andreas Philipp Kindermann or Count Francesco Algarotti (1712–1764) and Giovan Pietro Minelli (died 1772), or the ones that were taken to Germany by friends and courtiers, and the works that were donated as diplomatic gifts, eventually more than 150 of her pastel paintings adorned the walls of the palace’s so-called Kabinett der Rosalba (Rosalba gallery).36

35 Walther, 1972–75, 81. 36 The amount of Italian art Kindermann bought for the Dresden court represents the very first important acquisition of paintings on the Italian and especially Venetian market, B. Marx 2010, 21. Between 1744 and 1746 Algarotti bought one of the popular Seasons series for Dresden. Regarding Algarotti’s role as an agent for Dresden, see Pavanello and Mariuz, 2000–1, 65–175, and Liebsch, 2010, 217–37. Algarotti’s epistolary work has been reanalysed by Mazza Boccazzi, 2010. The first catalogue of the gallery, which was inaugurated in 1747, mentions 157 pastels, of which 22 portraits were listed, with the name of the respective sitter, as well as 16 religious and 17 profane subjects. Henning and Marx, 2007, 20.

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Figure 11 Anton Raphael Mengs, Portrait of Frederick Christian Saxony 1750–52, pastel on paper, 55.5 × 44.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 174. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Judging from a description within the Elogio Storico di Anton Raffaele Mengs, published in 1780 by Augustus III’s private doctor, Giovanni Lodovico Bianconi, this gallery must have been considered a true jewel among the collections of the European aristocracy: Rosalba’s gallery is a large hall, full of light, with green wallpaper on the walls, which looks out upon a large and beautiful square. The long wall facing the windows is covered from top to bottom with the most beautiful pastels ever to have been executed by the hands of this worthy painter, and they may number above 100. Overshadowing the rest around it, as if at the centre of its court, one finds the portrait this immortal Venetian made of herself. On the ends, where the two great gilded doors through which one enters face one another, hang pastels all made by Mengs, Liotard, and Monsieur de la Tour, and by a few others, all the most excellent pastel artists of our century. The fourth side, the long one facing Rosalba’s portrait,

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has windows all of large crystal and, between these, decorated wood panels and very large French mirrors rising from floor to ceiling which enchant the viewer by redoubling such flattering objects. The pastels are all of the same size, just as their gilded frames and polished crystal glass covers are all identical. The floor is an inlay of unusual kinds of wood, the ceiling vault is white but with gilded arabesques. Rosalba’s pastels are very beautiful and joyous.37

When the traveller Jonas Hanway (1712–1786) reached Dresden during his tour in Germany in 1750, he noted: But the greatest delight which his Polish majesty takes, is in a small gallery, all of portraits en crayons; the greatest part of persons with whom the king was acquainted in his travels, particularly in Italy. Most of those pieces are performed by Signora Rosalba, and are certainly very beautiful.38

Today, the largest number of Carriera’s works are still to be found in Dresden.

The Italianate Climate in Düsseldorf Carriera’s success in Northern Europe is further reflected by an invitation she received in 1710 to join a group of artists, musicians and authors at the court in Düsseldorf. The Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, who made a second marriage to the last Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667–1743), had called together this international party of talents.39 His impressive list of foreigners working for him included Carriera’s 37 ‘Il Gabinetto della Rosalba è una grande e luminosissima camera tappezzata di verde, che guarda sopra una larga e bella piazza. La lunga facciata, che è dirimpetto alla finestra, è coperta dalla cima al fondo dai più bei pastelli, che sieno mai usciti dalle mani di questa valorosa pittrice, e forse saranno più di 100. In mezzo a loro come nella sua reggia si vede primeggiare il ritratto di questa immortal Veneziana fatto da se stessa. Nelle due facciate laterali, ove sono l’una in faccia dell’altra le due gran porte dorate per le quali s’entra, sono collocati i pastelli tutti di Mengs, Liotard, e di Mr. de la Tour, e di pochi altri ma tutti eccellentissimi pastellisti del nostro secolo. La quarta, e lunga facciata dirimpetto a quella della Rosalba non ha che finestre di larghi cristalli, e negl’interfenestri o sieno trumeaux vi sono dalla cima al pavimento grandissimi specchi di Francia, che raddopiando oggetti tanto lusinghieri incantano lo spettatore. I pastelli sono tutti d’egual grandezza, come eguali tutte sono le cornici coperte d’oro, ed i lucidi cristalli, che li ricoprono. Il pavimento è un intarsio di legni peregrini, e la volta è bianca ma ad arabeschi dorati. I pastelli di Rosalba sono bellissimi e ridono’. Bianconi, 1780, 12–13. Sani republished it in 1985, I, 38–39. Regarding the importance of this elogio in context of the idea of educating people’s taste and the artistic formation of Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779), see Sani, 2010, 209–12. Another, less detailed description of the room was published in 1775 by the English musicologist Charles Burney (1726–1814); see Burney, 1773, II, 41. See also West, 2015, 212, who underlined the fact that he first eulogized Carriera’s works and then mentioned Raphael’s (1483–1520) Sistine Madonna. 38 Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/ articles/ Carriera.pdf (accessed on 15 September 2017). 39 As far as the works that Carriera sent to Düsseldorf are concerned, see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 17, pp. 52 and 70; cat. no. 26, pp. 75–76; cat. no. 27, p. 76; cat. nos. 59 and 60, p. 92; and cat. no. 61, p. 94. Apparently, she also made a portrait of Maria Luisa, as can be deduced from a letter written by Giovanni Francesco Zamboni,

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countrymen like the artists Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652–1725), Antonio Bellucci (1654–1726) and her brother-in-law Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, as well as the aforementioned castrato singer Valeriano Pellegrini as well as the composer Carlo Luigi Grua and the opera librettist Stefano Benedetto Pallavicini (1672–1742). Moreover, Carriera would have had the chance to meet the celebrated Dutch flower painter Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), who was working at that court from 1708 to 1716. The negotiations between the ruler and the Italians were left to his secretary Giorgio Maria Rapparini, who would become a regular correspondent with Carriera. For fostering this Italianized climate in Düsseldorf, the prince enjoyed an excellent reputation in Italy, which led Padre Felice Ramelli to write to Carriera and encourage her to leave Venice: ‘He is truly spoken of as the most accomplished Prince in the world and the one most able to do you justice.’40 However, he admitted that, while in Düsseldorf she might be well honoured and a court lady, in Venice she was a queen where people from all over the world came to pay homage to her.41 In fact, Carriera turned down the offer of moving to Germany, preferring her role as an independent artist in Venice. She was able to do so, moreover, without damaging her relationship with the glamorous court because of the nature of her refusal, proof of which is the fact that she continued to receive commissions from Düsseldorf.42 Another noteworthy relationship existed between the artist and Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who considered his own art collection (Kunstkabinett) one of the most distinguished in Germany. He maintained with Carriera a business, but also a personal, relationship, as is evident in their assiduous correspondence which the duke conducted with the assistance of his secretary Hans Bötticher. A fair number of her painted snuffboxes and pastel paintings were purchased for the ducal collection.43 Christian Ludwig II also drew great pleasure from participating in the Carriera family’s musical evenings during his trips to Venice, where he played the violin while the painter performed on the harpsichord, and he also sang together with one or both of her sisters.44

the Elector Palatine’s personal physician, in which he thanked Carriera for her portrait of his Clementissima Signora (most merciful lady). Sani, 1985, I, 350. 40 ‘l’on dit vrayement le Prince le plus acomply du monde et le plus capable à vous fair justice’. These are the words that Felice Ramelli uses in a letter to the paintress, dated 6 March 1706; see Sani, 1985, I, 97. 41 ‘Il ont beau dire si par asard vous metent aux yeux que vous serez la plus honorée et, peut estre, dame de court, mais contez d’estre la reine chez vous dans une ville où tout le monde vien vous y honorer’; see Sani, 1985, I, 97. 42 More than once, the documents discuss the portraits that Carriera was asked to paint for the court, which included likenesses of the rulers themselves. Sani, 2007b, 53. Pellgrini and her sister would arrive in 1713 to work for the German ruler which offered another opportunity to remain in touch with the court. 43 Sani, 1985, I, 15, 124 and 147; 2007b, 52 44 See Moücke, 1762, 242.

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When the Danish King Frederick IV (1671–1730) travelled to Venice in 1708–9, he too did not miss the opportunity of having Carriera paint his portrait.45 To underline the importance of this visit, the journalist and editor Tommaso Locatelli (1799–1868) referred to the conventional art history trope that embodies the nobility and power of painting and the idea of the ‘artist friend and coequal to princes’. This kind of account first appears in a famous legend told by Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) in his Natural History: after the ancient Greek painter Apelles (fourth century bce) is commissioned by Alexander the Great (356–323 bce) to paint a portrait of his favourite concubine, Campaspe, Alexander presents the concubine herself to the artist as a reward for the painting. Locatelli, in an official speech and eulogy given in honour of Carriera in 1838, instead, drew on the second famous example of this trope, when Titian (1480/90–1576) met Emperor Charles V (1500–1558): When Frederick IV came to Venice […] the king insisted the amiable artist remain by his side the entire time. For the most refined and dignified companion for a monarch […] is genius. Frederick IV was frequently seen to cross the threshold of Rosalba Carriera’s humble abode. Just as Emperor Charles V is said to have watched Titian at work, so King Frederick of Denmark loved to spend time in Rosalba’s studio, his attentive gaze following every movement of her skilled hand.46

By comparing Carrier to Titian, Locatelli indirectly also put her on the same level as Apelles, whom ancient writers considered to be the greatest artist of their time.47

The House of Wittelsbach Another of Carriera’s important contacts from beyond the Alps was Clemens August of Bavaria (1700–1761; Figure 12), Archbishop of Cologne and son of Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria (1662–1726) and Theresa Kunigunde Sobieska (1676–1730). One of the most prominent clerical imperial princes of his day, he also proved to be a generous art patron.48 Many artists found employment at his court, which was modelled on Versailles and was celebrated as one of the most magnificent in all of 45 In a letter written by the king’s secretary Frederick Meyberg and sent to Carriera in 1711, her portrait of the ruler is celebrated as the most beautiful likeness of him in the entire royal palace, which is particularly flattering considering the exceptionally vast number of portraits the king had commissioned of himself. Hoerschelmann, 1908, 81. It is conserved today in Hillerød, Denmark. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 36, p. 78. 46 Hoerschelmann, 1908, 71–72. The series of beautiful Venetian ladies for the king has already been pointed out. 47 The popular theme of a ruler deferring to genius was also used in the context of Albrecht Dürer (1481– 1527) and Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), and in reference to the relationship between Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543) and King Henry VIII (1491–1547); see A. Reynolds, 2016, 211–12. 48 Henning and Marx, 2007, 65.

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Figure 12 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Clemens August of Bavaria 1727, pastel on paper, 57 × 45 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 21. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Germany. Apart from being a highly knowledgeable music lover, Clemens August developed a great taste for painting in general, but increasingly he focused his interest on miniatures, porcelain and other valuable objets d’art.49 Under his orders, a number of palaces and castles were built in his territory, including Augustusburg, Falkenlust in Brühl and Herzogsfreude near Bonn. When the imperial prince travelled to Rome to be consecrated as Bishop of Viterbo by Pope Benedict XII (1649–1730) in 1727, he stopped off in Venice, and, as his mother had done roughly ten years before, commissioned his portrait to be painted by Carriera.50

49 Riepe, 2006, 152. 50 Henning and Marx, 2007, 65. Regarding the painting see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 222, pp. 218–19, and cat. no. 223, p. 220.

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Clemens August is depicted with both worldly and ecclesiastic insignia. He wears a red archbishop’s mantle trimmed with broad ermine on top of which rests an ornate crystal cross, the pectorale. The intense red colour contrasts beautifully with the white fur and light grey wig, while his intelligent dark brown eyes look benevolently at the beholder. The contrasts of shades and colour counteract, but do not annul, the unique physique of the famed ruler with a long nose and slightly protruding chin. Carriera made a splendid official ruler portrait where the archbishop appears as a distinguished, elegant but also a kind, sympathetic man. One of Clemens August’s eight brothers was Charles Albrecht von Wittelsbach, Charles I of Bavaria (1697–1745), who, from 1742 to 1745, served as Emperor Charles VII, the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire not to stem from the Habsburg line. During Charles Albrecht’s journey through Italy in 1722, which he undertook with his brother Ferdinand Maria Innocenz of Bavaria (1699–1738), he too stopped in Venice to have his portrait painted by Carriera.51 In that same year, he married Maria Amalia from Austria (1701–1756), second daughter of Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalie.52

The Importance of ‘Owning a Carriera’ Exploring the extant correspondence between Carriera and her vast European clientele one aspect, apart from the countless compliments and accolades that are constantly repeated, is particularly striking and worth being underlined. Her name eventually became so renowned throughout Europe that it not only gave rise to a new fashion in the art world but even introduced new aesthetic conventions: ownership of a work of art by Carriera became more important than either the subject of the piece, or the medium she used. The ambition to possess one of her paintings came to be shared by a considerable number of specialized connoisseurs as well as simple admirers: documentation of her wide reception helps to explain the exceptional significance of the collections of her paintings, such as the one owned by Augustus III of Dresden. To exhibit an art collection comprised solely of pastel paintings by Rosalba Carriera was paramount to putting oneself at the very pinnacle of the aesthetic discussions about the artist conducted in Rococo galleries throughout Europe. It also meant setting new standards for representation.53 51 Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 169, p. 174. 52 A curious fact is that one of their daughters was the Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (1724–1780), a composer and singer who studied with, among others, Johann Adolph Hasse, the husband of Faustina Bordoni. She also worked as a painter and became a member of various academies such as the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. See De Girolamo Cheney et al. 2009, 107. 53 Henning and Marx, 2007, 2.

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The urge to own one of her paintings grew to the point where customers would most of the time take whatever they could get. When Hans Böttcher ordered a miniature for Schwerin on 2 December 1709, he only asked for an entire figure, including the feet, either sitting or standing, which was an unusual commission for the painter for whom we hardly know any full-size figures. But nothing more specific was added as to who or what the figure was supposed to represent.54 As early as in 1711, Frederik von Weiberg (1670– 1720), the secretary of the Danish King Frederick IV, wrote from Copenhagen about the success of some miniatures he owned by her hand. Allegedly, he would show them to many people as he would take them with him on his journeys, and the fact that she had executed them seemed to the pinnacle of pleasure: ‘One does not admire so much the beauty of the women you paint as your work itself.’ On 24 April 1712, Rapparini, while setting up his own art gallery, wished to own another splendid pastel by the virtuosissima Carriera. His request, as far as the subject is concerned, remained rather vague: ‘some beautiful Nymph, or Bacchante, or little farmer woman, I mean a Head with a bit of bust, like I saw at your place, when I passed by to see you in your house’.55 In May 1715 Carriera received a letter from Francesco Stiparoli in which he ordered two miniatures for a friend. He simply wanted something ‘historiated a capriccio according to her most perfect taste and as she prefers’.56 About four months later the same Stiparoli repeated the request, underlining that she could take her time and choose the subject according to her personal taste, as he just wanted to own a piece made by her, whatever it represented.57 Ulrik Frederik Løvendal (1700–1755), an officer in service of the Danish king and since 1717 of the rulers in Saxony, wrote a letter to Carriera on 13 April 1716 in which he asked for a piece of her own invention, nothing else was specified.58 On 30 May 1717, Nicolas Hartzoeker wrote from Düsseldorf thanking the artist for a portrait that his son had brought him. He emphasized that he appreciated it primarily because it was made by herself, ‘and that says it all’ (ce qui est tout dire).59 The art lover and collector Gerhard Michael Jabach, on the other hand, explained why he did not make his request more precise: he liked anything coming from her as the result could only be admirable and precious.60 54 See Sani, 1985, I, 147. 55 ‘alcuna bella Ninfa o Baccante o Pastorella, intendo Testa con un poco di busto, quale io vidi costà, nel mio passaggio in casa sua’. Sani, 1985, I, 201. According to Sani, this letter could refer to a pastel with a baccante in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich; see Sani, 1985, I, 202, n. 1. 56 ‘istoriati a capriccio del di lei perfettissimo gusto e come a lei più piace.’ Sani, 1985, I, 292. 57 See Sani, 1985, I, 295. 58 Sani, 1985, I, 311. 59 Sani, 1985, I, 318. 60 ‘Et quand au sujet tout me plaira ce que deviendra seulement de vous, ne pouvant estre que estimable et précieux.’ Sani, 1985, II, 446.

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And the list could go on with clients who were more eager to own something, anything made by Carriera than choose a particular theme. Cardinal Allessandro Albani (1692–1779) was one of her clients who had asked various times for two paintings from her hands, but apparently she had refused, as can be deduced from a letter the cardinal’s agent Giulio Monti in Rome wrote on 19 August 1740. As she had apparently been too busy for years (per anni) as he emphasized, Albani was now wondering if he could just buy two portraits from her which were already finished, even if they were of lower quality: a pair of those ‘that do not correspond to the highest taste’ (che non sono impegnati del miglior gusto), they would already satisfy that Porporato (cardinal) as it was made by such a ‘virtuous and famous woman who he estimated so highly’ (virtuosa sì celebre and tanto stimata da lui). To be able to present a real Carriera had become the main goal for him. It was crucial to own one of her pieces; not only did the subject not count anymore, but not even necessarily the quality. Even a less brilliant painting would satisfy the client knowing that she had made it.61 Also Mariette joined in when he wrote in 1745, recurring to the, by now, tropical comparison of the artist to Correggio: I have actually the head of a brunette, I have that of a young blond girl, if you could resolve to paint a good-looking boy, with naïve graces that only you and Correggio have produced, that will make what seems to me a perfect group. But if you prefer to paint the pretty head of a child or that of a woman, it will be all the same to me, because all things that come from your hands are miracles.62

To have reached this kind of appreciation is nothing to be underestimated, especially for a female painter; and it is an aspect that will play an important role as well in the discussion of Carriera’s female portraits in Chapter 5 of this study. What nonetheless did concern Carriera’s clients profoundly was that their ordered pieces arrived unharmed. The packaging and the delivery were fundamental issues. Numerous letters of her correspondence reflect how much time and care was put into the advice or choice of how to pack the fragile miniatures or pastels, with or without glass, what type of glass to use, in what kind of box to place the painting or paintings, if more than one piece was sent, whether to send them separately or together, and which way the works should be transported, with whom or by which road, which ship to choose to get it safely to the customer, etc. 61 At least in two other occasions, the cardinal himself personally contacted the painter for further commissions, assuring her that she could choose whatever she wanted to do, any figure, either a portrait, an ideal head, or anything she would enjoy painting. See Sani, 1985, II, 694, 700. 62 Translation by Burns, 2007, 82. The original reads: ‘J’ay actuellement la teste d’une brune, j’ay celle d’une jeune fille blonde, si vous pouviez vous resoudre à peindre quelque beau garçon, avec ces grâces naïves qui n’ont été connues que de vous e du Corrège, cela me feroit ce me semble un assortiment parfait. Mais si vous aimez mieux peindre une belle teste d’enfant ou celle d’une femme, tout me sera égale, puisque tout ce qui sort de vos mains sont autant de miracles.’ Sani, 1985, II, 703.

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Hans Bötticher, for example, requested that the portrait pastels Carriera had to send to Schwerin be put each in a separate box in order to avoid their touching each other.63 The miniatures she made for the same court in Schwerin had to be, on the request of the ruler himself, covered with crystal glass in order to protect the tiny paintings.64 The artist’s brother-in-law, Pellegrini, sent a letter from Düsseldorf on 30 July 1713 in which he described the enthusiasm with which the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm was looking forward to receiving a pastel made by her. The packaging for the piece, according to Pellegrini, had to be prepared the following way. First, she was to put it in its frame with its glass on top, then wrap it well with two layers of thick paper, then some waxed paper. She was to have a wide box made, put the painting in the middle and further fill the box with semolina.65 In addition to packing the works carefully, Rosalba and Giovanna often attached talisman notes to the parcels depicting the three magi, which they sometimes supplemented with supplicatory prayers. Thus, in a letter dated 3 December 1729, Pier Caterino Zeno (1666–1732) wrote to Anton Francesco Marmi in Florence, introducing him to the artist: She is particularly observant […] and distinctly devoted to the thee Kings. […] Once she entrusted me with a certain painting to send to my brother in Vienna; and she gave me a cartouche with these three adoring Kings; and she said that they ensured the successful journey of this portrait; adding that every time she had accompanied her painting with such little images, they had always reached their destination safely.66

The inscription on one these Epiphany notes reads: Three Kings, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Pray for us now and in the hour of our death. The Most Holy Kings of Cologne by the grace of God preserve travelers from ills of travel, headaches, misfortunes, fevers, witchcraft, and from any sort of spell, and from sudden death.67 63 See his letter dated 1 October 1706, Sani, 1985, I, 148. 64 See Sani, 1985, I, 148. 65 ‘Metetela in cornice col suo vetro, poi incassatela bene con carta sugara doppia, poi la sua bella incerata e poi fate fare una casetta largetta, porette il quado nel mezo e poi impitela di semola ben fissa e destramente calcato’. Sani, 1985, I, 238. 66 ‘È particolarmente divota […] e a divozione distinta ai tre santi Magi […]. Una volta mi raccomandò certo ritratto da spedire a mio fratello a Vienna; e diedemi una cartuccia de’ tre suddetti Magi adoratori; e disse che a quelli raccomanda l’andata felice di quel ritratto; soggiugnendo, che ogni qualvolta aveva con tali immaginette accompagnate le sue pitture, sempr’erano giunte a salvamento.’ Sani 1985, II, 804–5. 67 ‘Sancti Tres Reges Gaspar, Melchior, Et Baldassar. Orate pro nobis nunc & in hora mortis nostrae. Li SS. Ré Maggi di Colonia per la gratia d’IDDIO preservano i Viandanti dalle mal’ore de’cammini, mal di Testa, mal Caduto, Febre, da Stregarie, e da ogni sorte di Malefici, e Morte subitanea.’ Token on back of pastel depicting

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Nevertheless and no matter how carefully the transport was prepared, more than once accidents happened during the journey. On 1 September 1709 Rapparini wrote Carriera that the crystal glass on top of a miniature he had received was broken when he opened the package, fortunately without damaging the painting.68 In a letter Crozat sent to Carriera on 20 January 1720 he told her that he had received a painting of a female half-figure that had been put underneath crystal glass which had broken in a hundred pieces. Unfortunately, the painting had suffered enormously from the accident but, he did not neglect to immediately assure the artist that it was still very beautiful.69 The other pastel heads in the same box were ‘thank God, perfectly well-conserved’, and he would have the great pleasure of showing them to the king.70 It might have been this disappointing experience that led the same Crozat in August the year after to give the artist precise instructions on how to send her reception piece to the art academy in Paris. You must put the pastel in a packing case without glass; [the box] must be made of a very solid wood and [the pastel must be] attached in the space in this box. It must also be marked on the address that it must be moved carefully, as if it was glass. It would not be bad to also wrap the said case in cloth and straw: […] It is also necessary to mark the top of the box with where it must be opened.71

On a different occasion Mariette informed Carriera of the arrival of her pastel depicting a young woman with her blonde hair tied together with a red ribbon that fortunately had survived without being scratched, even though the glass had broken during the journey.72 Faustina Bordoni in the Gemäldegalerie Dresden, P. 118, see fig. 22. Regarding the tradition of these prints and some examples see Henning and Marx, 2007, 56–57. Another of these lucky tokens was recently found hidden behind the frame of Carriera’s pastel, A Personification of Winter, by the Royal Collection Trust’s conservators in London. Only 4.2 × 3.3 cm in size, it is a small print which is part of the so-called santini (little saints), tiny images that were kept in prayer books or clothing as devotional objects, or as in this case, used for protection during a journey. See the Royal Collection Trust’s press release in May 2017: https://www.rct.uk/about/pressoffice/press-releases/lucky-token-hidden-by-venetian-artist-rosalba-carriera-discovered#/ (accessed on 13 April 2019). 68 Sani, 1985, I, 144. 69 Sani, 1985, I, 363. She would restore the painting later, as shown by a letter Crozat sent on 3 February, the same year; Sani, 1985, I, 365. 70 ‘Dieu mercy, parfaitement bien conservées.’ Sani, 1985, I. 363. 71 Translation by Burns, 2007, 138. The original reads: ‘J’estime que vous devés mestre votre pastel dans ma caisse sans glace, il faut que la caisse soit d’un bois bien solide, et attachée pour ainsy dire en l’air dans la susdite caisse. Il faut aussi marquer sur l’adresse que vous m’en ferés de la remouer tout doucement tout comme si s’estoit une glace. Il n’y auroit pas du mal aussi de faire emballer de toielle et de paille la dite caisse. […] Il faudra aussi marquer le dessus de la caisse par òu il faudra l’ouvrir.’ Sani, 1985, I, 401. 72 See Sani, 1985, I, 433.

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At the end of the day, the safest way to send her works was having them transported personally by somebody she knew who was willing to take care of the package during the trip. The numerous ambassadors, art collectors and painters the artist knew, who travelled constantly, proved to be extremely helpful in this respect.

4 Carriera’s Stay in Paris Within the wide-ranging international network Carriera managed to build, there were only a few connections that led her to leave Venice, and only for a relatively short period of time. Her trip to France proved to be the most important and influential one in her entire career. As mentioned above, it really was owing to Crozat; through his perseverance and regular letters he eventually convinced the artist to come to Paris. In March 1720 Carriera departed, together with her mother and both of her sisters. The first documentation of Crozat’s attempts to lure her to his home is a missive he wrote to the artist on 6 January 1719. He laid out every detail of the journey for her, showing that he had already thought of absolutely everything, from the choice of the best time of the year to make such a trip, the road to take, all the way to where to stay. He let her know that she could move into his place, the hôtel or mansion on rue de Richelieu, one of the most magnificent private mansions in the city where he regularly housed artists, friends and acquaintances. It was also the place where he kept his illustrious collection of old master paintings. In his hôtel, he added, she would meet the widow of the famous painter Charles de la Fosse (1636–1716) and his greatniece Mademoiselle d’Argenon (c.1685–1747). She was a lady who, like herself, loved music, and she was a gifted singer; Crozat suggested Carriera could bring some sheets of music for her.1 He even offered the means to move around the city independently. You will find, at my place, a small apartment and carriages so that you may easily move about Paris and its environs, which will cost you nothing, for I will consider myself well compensated by the pleasure of having you as my guest, and although I am a lad, you will not tire of the company in my home of Madame De la Fosse, the widow of a very famous and illustrious painter and Mademoiselle Dargenon, her niece, who is a very amiable young lady and who knows music and sings like an angel.2 1 Also during her visit to Paris, Crozat continuously asked for music; see Sani, 1985, I, 345, 349, 353, 354, 361, 364. 2 ‘Vous trouverez chez moy un petit apartement et des voytures pour vous bien promener dans Paris et dans les environs, qui ne vous coûtera rien, car je me troveray bien payé d’avoir le plaisir de vous avoir chez moy, quoy que je sois garçon, vous ne lasserez pas de trouver dans ma maison Mad.me De la Fosse, veuve d’un très fammeux et illustre peintre et Mad.le Dargenon sa nièce, qui est une damoiselle fort aimable et qui pocède la musique e chante come un ange.’ Sani, 1985, I, 345. Charles de La Fosse was one of his latest guests who had finished the decoration of the gallery in Crozat’s palace in 1707, and died in the same place nine years later, while the widow continued to live there. The ‘niece’ was Charles de La Fosse’s great-niece, adoptive daughter and his légataire universelle; see Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists. com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 1, n. 2 (accessed on 2 August 2018).

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_ch04

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He reminded Carriera that from Paris she could easily travel to England, the country where she had become immensely famous and where he underlined, people loved portraits. Unlike her home city and even more than in France, England was a country where portraiture, including portrait miniatures, had played a dominant role since the Renaissance, offering an enormous market for artists specialized in the genre. Paris itself, Crozat was also eager to emphasize, had in store great opportunities for an artist like Carriera. As proof for his promise, he told her about an English lady who was in the city at that moment who executed miniature portraits for nobles including the king, which made her gain quite an astonishing amount of money. Carriera, he was sure, would earn more in one year than in ten years at home.3 This cleverly composed and impressive list of seductive arguments seemed not to be enough. Apparently, Carriera was not quite ready for the journey – yet. About four months later, Crozat started another attempt to persuade the artist, adding another aspect to convince her to come to Paris: there were, he reassured her, a lot of people who appreciated her work, they especially wanted to buy miniatures for their snuffboxes. He let her know that they had already even asked for her prices.4 Not only was there a theoretical possibility of finding clients, he made her understand, but her works were already requested in advance, which meant that there would neither a financial risk involved nor the possibility of a professional and by extension a personal failure. Not only among Crozat and Carriera’s potential clientele but also among the Parisian painters, the artist was the subject of discussion and debate. A letter by Nicolas Vleughels proves this, dated on 20 September 1719.5 Vleughels, whom she had met in Venice before, lived at Crozat’s hôtel together with ‘an excellent man called M. Vateau’,6 as he informed Carriera. He added, Watteau was only one of the artists with whom he had conversations about her. Like his host, Vleughels was sincerely interested in convincing the Venetian artist to come to France. Travelling for a single woman was risky not only for herself, her body, but also for her reputation. In fact, Carriera was well aware of the hazards of moving around by herself, without any protective male figure next to her. She had used the same argument before for not being willing to leave Venice. At the time she most likely borrowed it as a handy excuse not to follow an earlier invitation to travel to Paris that she had received from a certain M. de Charmont. In an undated letter she expressed her regret not to be able to accept his offer, as she did not have anybody to accompany her. There was no brother who could safeguard the trip and her father, according to Carriera, was not able.7 3 4 5 6 7

See Sani, 1985, I, 345. See Sani, 1985, I, 354. Sani, 1985, I, 259. Sani, 1985, I, 359. ‘Vous savez je n’ay aucun fraire pour me conduire a que j’ay un père inabile à cela.’ Sani, 1985, I, 83, n. 2.

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The fact that Crozat also resolved this problem must have been very encouraging. On 22 December 1719, he told her that their close friend Zanetti had assured him personally that he would accompany her to Paris.8 Whether it was his vigorous efforts to lure her to Paris, his determination, the promising perspective regarding her career, or the death of her father in the spring of 17199 – we shall never know the real reasons that were behind Carriera’s decision; by the end of the same year, she sent a letter to Crozat announcing that she might indeed come in the spring of 1720.10 In February 1720, after the Accademia Clementina in Bologna had voted to welcome the Venetian painter into its ranks,11 the journey was confirmed and Crozat repeated that she could stay at his hôtel on rue de Richelieu. He would also be sure to get a violin in order to give her the opportunity to participate in his house concerts,12 and as promised, Zanetti accompanied her and her family on the trip. In the eighteenth century, Paris was the second largest city in Europe after London. The death of Louis XIV (1643–1715) in 1715 marked the beginning of the reign of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, himself a member of the royal family (he was the nephew of Louis XIV) who served as regent of the French kingdom from 1715 to 1723.13 He administered the state for the great-grandson of the deceased ‘Sun King’, the future Louis XV (1710–1774). The court was transferred back from Versailles to Paris and Philippe ruled the city from the palais royal. Glittering opulence and pomp, as well as amusements and entertainments, were revived in Paris during his reign. The tone was set during this Regency period (1715–23) ‘for an era of moral liberty – some might say debauchery – that was certainly urbane and sophisticated.’14 Its prosperity and relative stability led to a gradual social change from a somewhat austere life under the autocratic Sun King to an easier, more comfortable existence. A resurgence of cultural activities, like opera and theatre, became the hallmark of the Regency. This was also the time when the name of John Law (1671–1729) was on everyone’s lips.15 The banker Law, a Scotsman by birth who later was called a notorious adventurer or a clever manipulator of money, had suggested radical steps to the Duke of Orléans as to how to deal with a most pressing problem: the huge mountain of debt which the Sun King had bequeathed to France on his death, and which threatened to 8 Sani, 1985, I, 362. 9 According to Sani, Carriera could hardly have left earlier, as his conditions obliged her to stay in Venice; Sani, 1985, I, 26. 10 She would be travelling together with her sister Angela as can be deduced from Crozat’s reply, in which he expressed his great joy regarding the news. See Sani, 1985, I, 363. 11 Sama, 2009, 128. See also Graziosi, 2009, 103–24. 12 Sani, 1985, I, 365. 13 Regarding his portrait see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 163, pp. 168–69. 14 De Girolami Cheneyet al., 2009, 97. 15 Born in Scotland, Law founded the bank under the name Banque Générale in 1716, which gave loans on a paper-money basis, and which was two years later bought by the French government and renamed Banque Royale.

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bankrupt France completely. The financial-system reforms proposed by Law marked the climax of his career. Initially, the reforms encompassed a merger between the Banque Royale, of which he was managing director, and the Compagnie d’Occident or Mississippi Company, which he had also founded. This merger took place in the same year that Law was promoted to treasury secretary of France, and coincided with Carriera’s visit to Paris. The Compagnie d’Occident was a trading company initially interested in developing French estates in Mississippi, and which then progressed to securing trading rights for the colonies in India, Africa and China. During Carriera’s stay in Paris, extensive speculations and sanctions occurred. Undertaken with the aid of the French crown, these led to the banning of precious metals as the official currency and its replacement with paper money, a policy that ultimately led to a collapse of the stock market. Law fled to Venice where he died eight years later in poverty, leaving behind him numerous creditors – including Carriera’s brotherin-law Antonio Pellegrini16 whom Law had commissioned to paint the ceiling of the so-called Mississippi Hall in the Banque Royale. Carriera herself became acquainted with Law – and later an intimate of him and his family. Not only did they share an interest in art and music, but they met repeatedly in the salon of Crozat’s home, and Angela and Antonio Pellegrini stayed as his guests in an apartment of the Banque Royale.17 Carriera also had a business relationship with Law: according to an entry in her diary on 14 November 1720, she painted a portrait of the bank director and of several of his family members.18 The fact that Carriera and her family could stay in Crozat’s hôtel was not an exception as their host was known for making his palace and servants available to colleagues, artists and friends. Among the painters who moved into Crozat’s orbit, and who had been generously invited to stay with him before were Charles de La Fosse (1636–1716), who had resided there with his family for a decade, Jean-Antoine 16 Kaul, 2013, 81–86. Law had commissioned Pellegrini to paint an allegorical painting on the ‘ceiling in the Mississippi Room of the Bank of France […], depicting an apotheosis of capital enterprise’. The painting, which was destroyed in 1722, was of enormous size. The price agreed upon was 10,000 Venetian ducats, but Law never paid Pellegrini for his work. Edwards, 2001, 62–63. Concerning the relationship between Carriera, Law and his family, see also Sani, 1985, II, 762, 765–77. Antoine Watteau was also among the numerous debtors, but thanks to the intervention of his friend, the art collector Jean de Julienne (1686–1766), he managed to save 6,000 livres of his money; Edwards, 2001, 6. 17 They spent time together with Bononcini; a noteworthy fact was that Law owned the entire score of Handel’s successful opera Agrippina as well as a fair number of musical instruments, among which were harpsichords and some precious Amati violins and a cello. Edwards, 2001, 59, and Whistler, 2009, 195. See also Crozat’s letter written on 3 February 1720 in which he announced that Pellegrini and his wife would be Law’s guests; Sani, 1985, I, 365. 18 ‘Went to dine with Milady Law and finished the portrait of her spouse: went to the theatre, and refused to make duplicates of the portraits of the said family.’ ‘Andata a desinare da M.a Law e finito il ritratto del suo consorte: andata alla commedia, e rifiutato di far duplicati li ritratti di detta Famiglia.’ Sani, 1985, II, 770. It has been suggested that the pastel made by Carriera, which is now kept in the Louvre and which depicts a young lady with a monkey, could be a portrait of Law’s daughter; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 127, pp.133–34. Regarding his portrait see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 163, pp. 168–69.

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Watteau, as we saw above, who had lived in the hôtel in 1712 and again sometime during 1718 or 1719, and Carriera’s friend Sebastiano Ricci who had been guest for a short period in 1716.19 ‘Each of these prominent artists attracted his or her own coterie and following’,20 and also the Carrieras regularly participated in Crozat’s famous soirées of social, intellectual and cultural exchange. In his own salon at his residence, he entertained people who met for formal debates during which individual works of art were discussed, and who also performed at regularly scheduled home concerts, called les concerts des payants (subscription concerts).21 Once the Carrieras arrived in April, Rosalba and her sisters were actively involved in these musical performances, playing for Crozat’s guests. The painter herself played the harpsichord, and her violin performances drew enthusiastic applause from the audience.22 It is no surprise that in the prestigious hôtel of her host, Carriera met most of the distinguished personalities of Paris, including the régent himself and his wife Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677–1749) as well as other members of the court.23 Madame Lavriellière, the Marchioness of Alincourt (1688–1742), should be mentioned among members of the reigning House of Bourbon who frequented the French court.24 During her stay in Paris, Carriera also met Antoine-Joseph Dézallier d’Argenville, who held the position of secretary and counsellor to King Louis XV and who studied art drawing and engraving. He would eventually be more interested in collecting art than producing his own pieces,25 and he wrote an early biography of Carriera, the above-mentioned Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres (Brief lives of the most famous painters), in which he claimed to have met her in Crozat’s mansion.26 19 Plax, 2007, 50. 20 Ziskin, 2012, 70. 21 According to Crozat himself, he owed his knowledge of art ‘to the great masters we examined there and equally to the conversation of the noble persons who made up the company’. Regarding the concerts organized at Crozat’s house, see McLellan, 1994, 38. 22 Hoerschelmann, 1908, 15 and 163. 23 A miniature of the Duchesse as Amphitrite by Carriera exists in the Royal Collection, see Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/420360/francoise-marie-duchesse-dorleans-1677 (accessed on 28 June 2018). Regarding the acquaintances she made in Paris, see also the letter Elisabetta Capitani wrote to Carriera in Paris, in which she thanked the artist for the most amiable company in her house; Sani, 1985, I, 387. 24 A private collection in Milan houses a portrait by Carriera of Louis-Armand de Bourbon II, Prince of Conti (1695–1727), and governor of Poitous, who was nominated Prince of Orange by Louis XIV. From 1717, he was part of the régence council as well as a member of the council of war. Regarding his likeness, see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 144, pp. 150–53. Louis-Armand de Bourbon II’s eldest sister, Duchess Marie Anne de Bourbon, Princess of Condé (1697–1741), was one of Carriera’s female clients in Paris, as was Louise Anne de Bourbon (1695–1758). See Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 134 and 135, pp. 142–43. She was a cousin of the aforementioned Louis-Armand II and younger sister of Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (1693–1775), known as Mademoiselle de Bourbon. 25 Dabbs, 2009, 337. 26 Unlike his French predecessor in the artists’ biographies, Roger de Piles (1635–1709), his provides an expanded discussion of styles and the various mediums used by the artists. It was published in three volumes between 1742 and 1745 and includes 182 artists from the High Renaissance to the eighteenth century. An expanded edition was published in 1762, which is the one used in this text. Among the artists considered in his book, only four female painters are mentioned: Marietta Tintoretto (1560–1590), Elisabeth-Sophie Chéron (1648–1711), Rosalba Carriera and Maria Sybilla Merian (1647–1717). See Dabbs, 2009, 337–38.

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Among Carriera’s French acquaintances and customers were other well-known figures at court and beyond, such as Madame de Brissac and Marie Madeleine, Duchess of Parabère, called Madame de Parabère (1693–1755), who was one of the licentious regent’s many mistresses, as well as her slightly younger rival Jeanne Agnès Berthelot de Pléneuf, called Madame de Prie (1698–1727).27 Carriera’s clients and acquaintances in Paris included other famous collectors and critics, such as Pierre-Jean Mariette and Count Anne-Claude-Philippe de Caylus (1692–1765).28 Mariette, who was also a friend of Caylus, was well-known in Paris as a connoisseur, renowned art lover and publisher. His expertise was internationally respected, which led him to serve as art agent for Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736) and to organize the collections of both the prince and Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) from 1717 to 1718. It was, in fact, thanks to Mariette that the Habsburg court became increasingly involved with the Venetian art trade.29At the same time, he had thought to write a dictionary of artists, and had made notes on collections, biographies and art criticism, but it was never realized during his lifetime. Only in 1851, Chennevières and Montaiglon published his notes as a five-volume book, the Abecédario.30 Conte de Caylus was one of the foremost exponents of the literature- and art-loving French nobility. He wrote essays on ancient art and made copperplate engravings, before turning his interest to his own collection of antiques and paintings, which became one of the most remarkable collections in France. Another intellectual and famous art collector who Carriera met in Paris was Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661–1742). He served as a French diplomat and assembled a renowned collection of pastels by Carriera, as well as marble statues.31 Even after her stay in Paris, the cardinal remained in contact with the painter and visited her in Venice on his way back to France after his last diplomatic mission to Rome.32 Carriera’s arrival in Paris coincided with a period of high demand for painting, which was undoubtedly connected to the Duke of Orléans’ personal tastes. An amateur artist, himself, he was in turn copied by the nobility and bourgeoisie alike.33 John Law was one of these collectors, and he also showed a preference for Italian, 27 None of her portraits seem to have survived. 28 Sani, 2007, 9. 29 See Becker et al., 1994, 47. 30 The full title is: Abecedario de P.-J. Mariette, et autres notes inédites de cet amatrue sur les arts et les artistes. Also Carriera is mentioned among the artists discussed; see Mariette, 1851–60, I (1851), 329–33. 31 After his death, the collection of marble statues was bought by Frederick the Great (1712–1786). Carriera’s portrait of the cardinal is now in the Accademia in Venice; Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 329, pp. 296–97. Regarding some of the works he received from Carriera see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 266, p. 250; cat. no. 373, p. 328; and cat. no. 374, p. 331. 32 Hoerschelmann, 1908, 157 and 198. 33 Hagen and Hagen, 2003, 272. When crown prince Frederick Augustus, later King Augustus III, stayed in Paris between September 1714 and June 1715, he frequented Philippe II and was deeply impressed by his collection to the point that once he started sending out his agents to buy art, he would regularly name the Duke of Orléans as a great example to follow; see B. Marx, 2010, 15.

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especially Venetian, paintings.34 Carriera’s work in particular seems to have suited the taste of the Regency court and appears to have filled a vacuum in French art that occurred during that period.35 At the same time, the art collectors in the city who had started to concentrate on Italian sixteenth- and seventeenth-century paintings and drawings also discovered contemporary artists like Carriera.36 This period of her life is particularly well documented thanks to the fact that she kept a diary during her stay in Paris. Almost every day she briefly recorded both business and pleasure, and her entries give an idea of just how occupied she was during this time:37 walks, invitations, dinners, visits to the theatre, opera or royal ballet, plus trips to the Louvre, Versailles or Montmorency, where Crozat had his country house, and visits to churches and scientific institutes were all part of her routine.38 Each of these places exposed her to a variety of collections to admire and study, including the art of the Académie Royale de Peinture e Sculpture and the paintings owned by the regent himself.39 As well, these expeditions offered further opportunities to mingle with Parisian society. It is tempting to imagine that Nicolas Lancret’s (1690–1743) painting, which is dated between 1720 and 1724 and depicts a concert in the oval salon at Crozat’s chateau, shows the Carrieras themselves performing in front of their host and his guests. Even if the painting does not record one of their musical performances, it does give an idea of how the Venetian women spent part of their free time.40 The first event that marked without any doubt the pinnacle of her experience in Paris and that must have made her immediately even more interesting for the local high society than before was the request made by Regent Philippe II to paint a portrait of King Louis XV (Plate 3), who was still a minor at the time.41 Carriera repeatedly wrote in her diary of her visits to the French court where she met with the ten-year-old boy who was to become the king of France. On 12 June 1720, she recorded: ‘Saw the King dine.’42 Just two days later, she noted that she had immediately started work on his portrait.43 On the twentieth of the same 34 The documents show that his collection consisted of 481 works; see Edwards, 2001, 59. 35 Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/ articles/Carriera.pdf (accessed on 13 July 2017). 36 See Sani, 1985, I, 21. 37 The first translation of her diary in English has been published by Jeffares on his Internet dictionary, which I use in my text, Carriera (2006), Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf. 38 Her host Crozat owned a country house there; see Hoerschelmann, 1908, 96. 39 Henning and Marx, 2007, 33. 40 See Concert in the Oval Salon of Pierre Crozat’s Chateau at Montmorency, 1719–20, by Nicolas Lancret (1690– 1743) on the Dallas Museum of Art website, https://collections.dma.org/artwork/5325708 (accessed on 26 July 2018). 41 Sani, 1988, 23. Regarding the portraits of the boy see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 132 and 133, pp. 139–41. Sani included another portrait of the king in her catalogue; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 164, p. 169. 42 ‘Veduto il Re a desinare.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 16 (accessed on 2 October 2017). 43 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 16 (accessed on 2 October 2017).

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month, she was back at court to commence work on a further portrait,44 and the following day she wrote in her diary: I went to the King’s with a great headache; then went to the table of the Duke Governor, who took me by the hand and said: ‘you must have been nice for the King to be so patient […]’.45

Over the course of the next four days, she visited the king at least twice more, and on the first of August she wrote that she was commissioned to complete a portrait of the ruler, also for the Duchess of Vandatour, the king’s gouvernante while the artist had started already to work on yet another version.46 More than a dozen entries can be found in her diary regarding the various copies in different formats that Carriera had to make of the king. Her work on the sovereign’s portraits was completed by the end of 1720, and Carriera was invited to join in the decision on where to hang her works:47 Sunday. I was introduced to the King’s cabinet, so that I might see where one could hang the portrait in pastels of the same King which had been brought to the Palace in its great frame, previously hanging in the hall where the King plays.48

Compared with Hyacinthe Rigaud’s portrait d’apparat of Louis XV as a child in Versailles (Figure 13), Carriera’s version of this king, which is to be seen today in Dresden (Plate 3), illustrates beautifully, as Walther has shown, the drastic change in the eighteenth century from the traditional Baroque ruler’s portrait to the more restricted and intimate depictions in pastel by our female Venetian painter.49 Rigaud portrayed the future king of France in full size, seated on a throne with a brown full-bottomed wig on his head and clad in an exceedingly voluminous, shiny blue velvet mantle strewn with fleurs-de-lis and lined with ermine that seems to flow out of the painting towards the spectator. Next to the throne is the crown and the sceptre with the 44 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 16 (accessed on 2 October 2017). 45 ‘Andata dal Re con gran male di testa; poi andata alla tavola del Duca Governatore, che mi prese per mano e disse: il me devoit savoir bon grai che le Roi se donat tant de pacience.’ Sani, 1985, II, 763. 46 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 16 (accessed on 2 October 2017). 47 The exact number of portraits that the artist completed in Paris during the reign of Louis XV cannot be clearly established. 48 ‘Domenica. Stata introdotta nel gabinetto del Re per che vedessi dove si potea attaccar il ritratto di pastelle dello stesso Re, che fu portato sol qual giorno con gran soaza, ed esposto prima nella Sala dove giocava il Re.’ The entry dates to 29 December 1720; see Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 20 (accessed on 2 October 2017). 49 Walther, 1972–75, 71–72.

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Figure 13 Hyacinthe Rigaud, Portrait of Louis XV as a Child 1715, oil on canvas, 208 × 154 cm. Musée National de Versailles, MV 3695. © bpk/RMN – Grand Palais/Gérard Blot.

so-called ‘Hand of Justice’, while in his right hand he presents the royal sceptre terminating in a fleur-de-lis. A pendant exactly in the centre of the painting hangs from a heavy golden chain, on which shines the cross of the Order of the Saint Esprit. With a great majestic gesture, Louis turns and points towards his left. The impressive scene is set off by heavy, red drapery hanging behind the throne. It is not only the different technique (oil on canvas instead of pastel on paper) and the different size (180 × 135 cm against 50.5 × 58.5 cm) that make this painting so different from Carriera’s

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intimate close-up of the boy. It is Rigaud’s monumentality and the stress on representation, status and courtly milieu that are emphasized by numerous attributes, also his regalia and all of the other prerequisites pertaining to the Baroque tradition. In the Venetian pastel version, he is shown bust-length. He too is turned toward his left but he looks straight at the spectator confidently with a hint of a smile and a friendly countenance. The hair of his brown full-bottom wig falls loosely over his shoulders and his majestic jacket.50 Carriera also included attributes of courtly representation, such as the Order of the Holy Ghost pinned resplendently to the cordon bleu on his chest that identifies him as the sovereign of France.51 The white royal ermine cloak has become just an allusion at the edge of the painting, in the bottom right corner. The emphasis is on the confident, calm expression of a self-assured and optimistic future ruler.52 While Carriera moved in the most elite social and intellectual circles, her acquaintances either visited her Crozat’s residence on the rue de Richelieu or they invited her to their own homes. As the level of interest in the exceptional painter and her art grew, her new acquaintances showered her with commissions. Before long, she had become a true attraction in the city;53 an entry in her diary on 21 February 1721 indicates that members of the aristocracy residing in Paris visited her as early as 6 a.m. to pose for their portraits, for which they offered to pay unusually high prices.54 According to her personal notes, during her stay in France, she executed approximately fifty of these likenesses.55 Eventually, the rhythm had become too fast. More and more often her notes reveal that she had to postpone commissions, that she could not keep up with the schedule and that the workload was simply too much for her. On 31 December 1720 she wrote: I refused, for fear of not having time, to make a portrait of a beautiful lady and two others, a husband and wife. It was arranged with Mme Parabère that I would finish her portrait on the 2nd, and with Mme La Vrillière that I would start hers on the 4th. I promised, provided I had the time, to do the portrait of the marquise de Lautrec.56 50 The fashion of wearing this kind of particularly long and voluminous wig had been introduced by Louis XIV and it reached its height from the 1660s to 1715. Regarding the various styles of wigs during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, see Kwass, 2006, 645–56. 51 Henning and Marx, 2007, 30. 52 Another copy of the portrait by Carriera is kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 133, 141. 53 Zava, 2007, 20. 54 Sani, 1985, II, 777–78. 55 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www. pastellists.com/articles/Carriera.pdf (accessed on 3 Octobre 2017). 56 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 11 (accessed on 3 October 2017).

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Almost a year later, on 22 February 1721, we read: ‘Mme la Duchesse came at the usual hour with a large number of followers. She displayed impatience to have the portrait of her daughter.’57 And only six days later her notes say: Mme la duchesse came with her daughter Mlle de Clermont, and many other duchesses and gentlemen. The whole company put me on the cross so that I would do the portrait of the sister of the prince de Conti, and another very beautiful lady, for which they paid in advance an excessive amount.58

The list continued. She worked without respite, living what Levey called a life of ‘frightening activity’59 and her diligence seemed to be boundless, causing her sister Angela not only to be worried but to finally label her a workaholic: You have resumed your usual practice of being constantly busy, even, at times, with things of no consequence, you know well that this has been your fate, which has at this point become a necessity.60

A note she wrote on 20 November 1720, in her typically curt vein, saying simply ‘At home’,61 might reflect how exhausted Carriera must have been: the relief of having apparently and surprisingly no commitments and duties that day is compressed into these two words. The stay in the city on the Seine offered Carriera also the happy circumstance of getting to know various prominent artists who were of particular interest to her. Among these, she met Nicolas de Largillière, Jean-François de Troy and Hyacinthe Rigaud, the court’s foremost portrait painter.62 According to her diary entries, she also 57 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 14 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 58 Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 14 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 59 Levey, 1959, 140. 60 ‘Avete ripigliato il solito vostro costume di essere continovamente occupate, anche, alle volte, in cose di nessuna conseguenza, ben sapete che tale è stata la vostra sorte, la quale ormai è divenuta necessità.’ Angela in a letter to Rosalba from 1 July 1726; see Sani, 1985, II, 456–57. Her worries are also expressed in an earlier letter, dated 1 October 1713, in which she reminded her sister to take care of herself, as she was aware of the pressure and workload put on the painter by the impatience of the Düsseldorf court; Sani, 1985, I, 246. See also Giovanna’s letter from Vienna to her mother, in which she described how Rosalba worked until midnight. Sani, 1985, II, 519. See further West, 1999b, 49. 61 ‘In casa.’ Sani, 1985, II, 768. 62 On 23 December 1720, Carriera received thirty-nine prints from Rigaud as a sign of his respect and recognition of the Venetian artist, which were already extremely costly at that time. See the respective entry in her diary in Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 20 (accessed on 3 October 2017). See also Sani, 2007b, 53, and 2012, 298–99.

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became acquainted with the pastel artists Jean Baptiste Massé (1687–1767), Jacques Antoine Arlaud (1688–1746) and Joseph Vivien (1657–1734).63 Vivien’s work might have been particularly fascinating for Carriera to study considering his pivotal role in the official, academic appreciation of pastel in the Parisian Salon exhibitions. Nicolaus Vleughels was one of the French painters she already knew. In one of the letters he sent to Venice, dated 21 September 1719, he told her how many of his acquaintances were terribly jealous of the fact that he had already seen her, had been introduced to her and had even been invited to her home. One of these acquaintances, he said, was a man of whom she had probably already heard, and who was anxious to meet her in person. As it was impossible for him to do so, this gentleman wished to at least have a miniature painted by Carriera to call his own.64 The man in question was Jean-Antoine Watteau (Figure 14), a close friend of Vleughels, whom she actually did meet in person in the course of her social obligations, invitations and festivities, but she also paid him repeated visits. This encounter, it seems, can be singled out as having special importance among all her meetings with artists, since she appeared to have been particularly taken with him. Not only did she see Watteau in the course of her social obligations, but she also paid him repeated visits. On 11 February 1721, she began work on a portrait of this esteemed colleague and friend, but shortly afterwards he died of consumption at less than thirty-seven years of age.65 Carriera’s portrait of her illustrious and highly esteemed colleague offers another eloquent example of how her portraits focus on a person’s intimate, rather than the official or representative aspects. We are immediately caught by the pure and genuine naturalness of Watteau’s image.66 In this pastel that is now housed in Treviso, Carriera focused on Watteau’s face, on his expression in a way that it becomes a testimony to his general state of health: the artist’s illness is clearly apparent. Wearing a brown jacket and a white wig, he gazes at the observer with a sad look and tired, glassy eyes. Considering the commonplace clothes and wig he is shown with, his face and his glance are the only signifiers in this pastel. By omitting the typical attributes of a painter and giving no other indication as to what he was famous for, Carriera underlined the personal situation that he was in and the friendship they shared rather than the artistic interest and professional link that bound them together. A further indication of a certain level of intimacy between Watteau and Carriera may be found in a sketch, now in the Rijksprentenkabinett in Amsterdam, that has been attributed to Watteau.67 It shows a female figure sitting in front of a mirror, 63 Henning and Marx, 2007, 32. 64 Sani, 1985, I, 359. 65 Sani, 2007b, 53; 2010, 211. 66 Zava, 2007, 20. 67 A reproduction of the drawing can be found for example in Sani, 2007b, 16, fig. 5. In her catalogue raisonné she further points out how Watteau combined two motifs of Carriera’s miniatures depicting women preparing or cutting their hair in front of a mirror in the presence of a cicisbeo. See Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 18–20, pp. 71–72.

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Figure 14 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Antoine Watteau 1721, pastel on paper, 55 × 43 cm. Treviso, Musei Civici di Treviso – Museo di Santa Caterina. © Musei Civici di Treviso.

combing her hair. If this really does portray Carriera, and if her friend Watteau made the sketch, it would suggest a closer relationship between the two than previously supposed. Yet other prominent, cultivated Parisians must be mentioned: Antoine Coypel (1661–1722) and his son Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694–1752). Antoine Coypel was not only one of the most popular artists at the French court with the official title Premier peintre du Roy (First painter to the king), but he also the director of the Accadémie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture since 1714 and a true admirer of Carriera’s art. His own work shows that he was greatly influenced by her.68

68 The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon has a copy that Coypel made of Carriera’s Girl with a Dove, apparently made from the reception piece given to the Academy, Adamczak, 2014, 177 and 189, n. 58.

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Carriera’s Admittance into the Accadémie de Peinture et de Sculpture Coypel’s admiration for the Venetian artist made him her indefatigable patron and supporter. Together with her influential and highly regarded friend Mariette, they crowned Carriera’s success in the French capital by working to gain her admittance to the illustrious French academy: on 26 October 1720, Carriera was the first and only female, foreign artist to ever receive this honour.69 According to the procès-verbaux of that day, Carriera brought the pastel portrait of Louis XV to the assembly as part of her official request to be admitted. The Royal Academy then made her a member, justifying the decision with the following words: recognizing in her obvious merit that is also known abroad and especially in Rome, Florence, and Bologne, where she had been admitted into the respective academies, [the Académie] has received the above-mentioned Demoiselle Carriera as an academician.70

Her admission is even more astonishing when one considers that during its history (that is, between 1648 and 1793), the institution admitted more than 450 artists, out of which merely 15 were women.71 After Carriera, for another thirty-four years, until 1754, no other female artist entered the ranks of the prestigious institution, with the exception of Margarethe Havermann (1693–after 1739), who was admitted in 1722 but only to be expelled the year after.72 Moreover, just sixteen years earlier, on 25 September 1706, its official members had voted against accepting any women whatsoever into their ranks, and whenever they broke this edict, as with Carriera, they were eager to underline that the acceptance of a particular woman was not meant to set a precedent. The crucial phrase used to express, what Sheriff called, ‘collective anxiety’73 in regard to these women was also applied in the case of Carriera: ‘sans néantmoins tirer à consequence’ (however, without implying [future] consequences).74 As in the 69 It was thanks to Louis XIV that the French academy showed a relatively liberal approach towards women painters, as he had decided that its members should be talented artists independent of their sex; see Sutherland Harris, in Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Le grandi pittrici, 1979, 35. In the summer of 1722, Nicolas Vleughels wrote to Carriera that another woman had been accepted, a flower painter; Sani, 1985, I, 426. 70 Apparently, there was some confusion regarding her memberships as Carriera was never accepted into the Florentine academy. Montaiglon, 1881, 302. 71 Sheriff, 1996, 79. The first woman to become a member was Catherine Girardon (1630–1698), in 1663. Regarding the decision to exclude women until Carriera was admitted in 1720, see Von Fellenberg, 2017, 113–14. 72 This decision was later modified to allow up to four female members. De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 101 and 99. In England, the situation for women was even worse. ‘The English Royal Academy had two female founder members [Angelica Kaufmann and Mary Moser] since 1768, but systematically excluded women from its schools and privileges for the next hundred years.’ Parker and Pollock, 2013, 27–28. See also Sutherland Harris, in Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Le grandi pittrici, 1979, 35 and 37. 73 Sheriff, 1996, 79. 74 Montaiglon, 1881, 303.

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context of Carriera’s admittance to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, the minutes dated 9 November 1720 emphasized that she had been received ‘with the distinction due to her merit.’75 The document also mentioned a rule in the French academy, that her acceptance had to follow a well-established procedure. Any candidate for admission had first to find a ‘presenter’ among the officers, someone who would stand surety for him/her, usually the candidate’s former master.76 Carriera had in fact submitted lettres de provision (letters of appointment) from Coypel together with one from the regent, Monseigneur le Duc d’Orléans, Régent du Royaume, Directeur et Président aujourd’hui en assemblée, and other officials.77 This presenter would guide the aspirant through the proceedings and introduce him/her to the acting officers, who were invited to inspect the candidate’s work. Once the candidacy was accepted by the head of the institution, the future member had to make a propitiatory visit (visite de solicitation) before a date was fixed at which he/she could present his/her work. On submission, the work had to be approved in a secret ballot by a two-thirds majority.78 The importance of this event and of her stay in Paris in general should not be underestimated as ‘this visit marks the peak of Venetian influence abroad and the last time that contemporary Italian art was to make a serious impact on France.’79 As Levey put it, ‘not since Bernini had an Italian artist had such a reception as greeted Carriera at Paris.’80 All the more interesting is that her diary does not openly reveal any kind of pride, joy or enthusiasm about her nomination. While it is true that Carriera rarely ever talked about what was on her mind, or how she was feeling, the way she refers to this outstanding and literally exceptional accomplishment is still astonishing. On 5 October 1720, the artist’s name was discussed for the first time in the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture which declared her admittance. Presumably, this event must have been exciting for Carriera, but in her diary, this paramount event was put in second place. Her dry comment was: ‘Invited to the country by M. Saint-German, and enlisted in the Academy having been proposed by M. Coypel.’81 Just three weeks later, she received a letter giving her the news of how the Academy members had voted and confirming her acceptance to the prestigious institution. On the same day, 26 October 1720, she recorded this event in her diary in the following simple words: 75 ‘avec la distinction due à son mérite.’ Montaiglon, 1881, 304. 76 See Michel, 2018, 211. 77 Montaiglon, 1881, 303. 78 See Michel, 2018, 211. 79 Haskell, 1980, 284. 80 Levey, 1959, 170. 81 ‘Invitata alla campagna con tutte da Mr S: Ger – et arrolata all’accademia promossa da M Coipel.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www. pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 18 (accessed on 3 October 2017).

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Went to the house of the said Coypel with Giovanna, and there was given the letter of the Academy, and the news that I had been received unanimously and without a dissenting vote, no one having wanted to black-ball me.82

One has to read between the lines to see that she was proud of the unanimous vote; she was not, however, prepared to voice any real emotion. Another example of her restraint can be found in her diary entry from 9 November, when the artist attended a ceremony held in her honour at the Academy: Went first to the Académie, where M. Coypel gave me a short speech of thanks; I was welcomed there with the greatest courtesy. I saw with my sisters and brotherin-law the Andromeda by the said Coypel, and another picture by his son. Then we went to the comédie.83

One can only get a glimpse of her delight in the half sentence in which she talked about the courtesy with which she was welcomed by the Royal Academy members. Otherwise, the ceremony is just one item in a dry list of the day’s activities in which she and her family were involved. The only occasion on which Carriera’s pride becomes visible is about six weeks after her acceptance as an Academy member: with a note on 25 November, she marked a special moment which was also proof of the official recognition of the royal house. On that day she was surprised by the regent himself coming to her studio and watching her executing one of her pastel works. ‘The Regent came to me without warning, and stayed more than half an hour to watch me working in pastel. With him were the Marquis de Bullion and others.’84 It is hard to imagine that Carriera did not deliberately recur to the conventional art history trope that embodies the nobility and power of painting and the idea of the ‘artist friend and coequal to princes.’ As we saw earlier, it first appears in a famous legend told by Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) in his Natural History. After Alexander the Great (356–323 bce) commissioned Apelles (fourth century bce) to paint a portrait 82 ‘Andata a casa del sopra detto con Giovanna, e la ricevuto la lettera dell’Accademia, e la nuova d’esser stata ricevuta a piene voci senza balatazione non avendo voluto ne pur uno prendere una fava nera.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists. com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 18 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 83 ‘Andata la prima volta all’Accademia dove Mr Coipel fece per me un breve ringraziamento a tutti li accademici che mi accolsero con la maggior cortesia. Vidi con le sorelle e cognato L’Andromeda del sopradettto Co… et altro quadro del Figlio, poi andate alla comedia.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal. pdf, 18 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 84 ‘Venuto all’improvviso il Reggente, che si è tratenne più d’una mez hora per vedermi a lavorare in pastelle v’era del Mr di Buillion, et altri.’ See Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 19 (accessed on 3 October 2017).

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of Alexander’s favourite concubine, Campaspe, he presents the concubine herself to the artist as a reward for the painting. Another version of the tendentious and celebratory account could have been perceived by Carriera as a possibly more direct link to herself. It had been published by the influential Italian painter and art biographer Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) and included her Venetian colleague and predecessor Titian. Ridolfi adapted the ancient story in his Le maraviglie dell’arte ovvero le le vite degli illustri pittori veneti e dello stato (The marvels of art or the lives of the famous painters of Venice and its state; first printed in 1648), recounting an anecdote concerning the relationship between Titian and Charles V (1500–1558): It is told of Titian that while he was painting the portrait, he dropped a brush, which the emperor picked up, and bowing low, Titian declared: ‘Sire, one of your servants does not deserve such an honour.’ To this Charles replied. ‘Titian deserves to be served by Caesar.’85

By mentioning that the regent had passed by unexpectedly, ‘without warning’ and with his entourage being present, as she underlined, Carriera put herself on the same level as Titian and, by extension, as Apelles, whom ancient writers considered to be the greatest artist of their time.86 As to the nature of Carriera’s notes, it remains to be stated that a kind of self-control or taciturn reserve, that has been mentioned before, can be found also in other diary entries, the majority of which concentrate on all of the commissions she ever began and completed (as well as her financial affairs, among other things). On the few occasions when she did comment on her feelings, she was extremely brief.87 On 14 October 1720, Carriera wrote: ‘Sad day for me.’88 She added nothing else, offering no explanation of the words or the circumstances. A rare moment in which Carriera showed her emotions and proved to be proud and open to compliments can be found in one of her diary entries regarding her commissions for the future King Louis XV. On 28 September 1720, she noted that she had gone to court together with her mother and her sisters, when she overheard Villeroi who apparently said to M.a di Vandatour: ‘See how nice she looks, always well dressed’; one and the other always showed me the greatest kindness.’89 85 ‘Raccontasi che nel ritrarlo gli cadè un pennello, che gli fu da quello levato, a cui Tiziano prostratosi diss: Sire, non merita cotanto onore un servo suo: a cui disse, è degno Tiziano essere servito da Cesare.’ Ridolfi, 1836, 233. 86 The popular theme of a ruler deferring to genius was also used in the context of Albrecht Dürer (1481– 1527) and Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), and in reference to the relationship between Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543) and King Henry VIII (1491–1547); see A. Reynolds, 2016, 211–12. 87 See also Zava 2007, 23. 88 ‘Giornata trista per me.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 18 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 89 ‘Guardate com’ell ha e bone mine toujour bien abiliee, e L’uno, e L’altra usato sempre la magr gentilezza.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 18 (accessed on 3 October 2017).

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At Christmas, however, she tersely commented on the gift she received from her mother in the simple words: ‘Christmas Day. I received my mother’s dress.’90 On 25 February 1721, she laconically noted an administrative issue directly alongside a dreary summary of a sad day: ‘I gave two louis of 37½ livres to my brother-inlaw. I spent the day in great sadness.’91 No further comment was added. Despite the grandiose success in Paris and despite the obligation to again present a reception piece for the local art academy – she had officially promised to submit one during her first assembly session on 9 November 1720 – Carriera and her family embarked on their homeward journey in March 1721. Back in Venice, the painter who was now called the ‘Queen of Pastel’, like some fifteen years earlier, had difficulties in finishing and sending the requested morceau de réception within a reasonable amount of time. In ordinary circumstances, these paintings both determined and embodied an artist’s situation as an academician. They gained their authority ‘to signify the artist’s acceptance by and position within the Academy from the Academy itself. […] On the basis of this work the [academicians] decided the category or rank of the painter.’92 This kind of obligation towards the institution that had bestowed Carriera with the highest honours possible for an artist at that time was therefore not to be neglected, but the painter took her time. Again she tried to explain the delay, asking for patience and comprehension. But unlike the earlier situation in 1705, Carriera does not come across as someone who could have felt intimidated by the task or by the judgement of her colleagues; the wording and the excuses she used in her correspondence give the impression, instead, that she simply did not feel like thinking about the right subject to depict, or did not feel this commitment to be too important to stop her from continuously accepting new commissions. She put her clients before her promise to the Académie, using again, as discussed in other circumstances, the English and the pressure they put on her as an excuse. It must have been the reputation of the English streaming regularly into Venice, and equally, Carriera’s awareness of being well-known for her numerous clients from that country that led the artist more than once to use the English as an apparently handy argument to ‘explain’ the delay. On 10 May 1721 she wrote to Crozat, to whom she had just sent the portrait of her brother-in-law and Marco Ricci, that she would not fail to send the painting she owed to the Académie once ‘some English client’ (quelques anglois) had received his/her portrait.93 Nicolas Vleughels received a letter from the artist in 1721 in which Carriera 90 ‘Giorno di Ne. Ricevuto l’abito di Sigra Madre.’ Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 20 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 91 ‘Dato due Luigi da trentasette e meza a mio cognate, e passato il giorno in gran tristezza.’; Carriera, 2006, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Jeffares, www.pastellists. com/Essays/Carriera_journal.pdf, 22 (accessed on 3 October 2017). 92 Sheriff, 1996, 74. 93 Sani, 1985, I, 388.

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repeated almost exactly the same phrase sent to Crozat referring to the English who made her finish their portraits, which had so far prevented her from working on the ‘small heads’ for Watteau. Further down the letter she promised again to send the morceau de réception for the Académie as soon as possible.94 By mid-August 1721 Carriera’s pastel had still not arrived. The artist must have asked for more time to improve and perfect the piece, as a letter from Crozat indicates. He might also have been promised by the artist that it was almost finished, as his reply includes instructions regarding the best way to send it.95 In the same letter he also informed Carriera that Watteau had died. In October 1721, one year after she had become an official member of the Académie, the artist wrote to Antoine Coypel in Paris that she was sending the long-awaited pastel. The first part of the missive is what Kathleen Nicholson called ‘an exercise in diplomacy and politesse.’ Carriera knew that Coypel had lost his wife six months earlier. She had to find an elegant way to show him her empathy while trying to ensure he would continue to support her reception piece nearly a year after she had been officially accepted. Nicholson continues quoting Carriera: ‘“How could [the pastel] dare present itself without your patronage?” she asked, averring that it was Coypel who had persuaded his fellow academicians to accept her in the first place.’96 Carriera also included a description of the pastel she intended to send (Figure 15): I have attempted to make a young girl, knowing that one pardons the flaws of youth. She represents as well a nymph in Apollo’s service who is about to present to the Academy of Painting, on his behalf, a laurel crown, judging it [the Academy] the only one worthy to wear it, and to preside over all others. She is moreover determined to stay in this city, preferring the lowest position in this very illustrious Academy to the heights of Parnassus. It is therefore up to you, I say again, to secure this advantage for her, so that I may enjoy your good graces and those of the illustrious Academicians, to whom you will be good enough to present my compliments.97

But the French still had to wait; the pastel was to arrive in Paris in February of the following year. The description of her pastel was not only an answer to the questions that Carriera would have been asked by the commission of the academy as 94 Sani, 1985, I, 390. 95 Sani, 1985, I, 400–1. 96 Nicholson, 2019, 175. 97 Translation by Kathleen Nicholson, 2019, 175. The original reads: ‘J’ai tâché de faire une jeune fille, sachant qu’on pardonne bien de fautes à la jeunesse. Elle représent aussi une ninfe de la suite d’Apollon qui va faire présant, de sa part, à l’Académie de Peinture d’une couronne d’orier la jugeant la seule digne de la porter et de présider à toutes les autres. Elle est encore déterminée de s’arrêter dans cette ville, aimant mieux d’occuper la dernière place dans cette très illustre Académie que la cime du Parnasse. C´est à vous donc, je réplique, à lui procurer cet avantage et à moi aussi celui de jouir de vos bonnes grâces et de tous les Illustres de l´Académie, auxquels vous aurez la bonté de faire me compliments.’ Sani, 1985, I, 407.

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Figure 15 Rosalba Carriera, Nymph from Apollo’s Retinue 1721, pastel on paper, 61.5 × 54.5 cm. Paris, Louvre, Cabinet des dessins, inv. 4800. © bpk/Staatliche Kunstsamm­ lungen Dresden/Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut.

established in the decrees regarding the conditions of admission, but it was surely another of her clever tactical moves. At first sight, the letter with the canonical and rhetorical self-effacing hints toward the artist’s modesty could be read as an attempt to make the academicians believe that her reception piece was finished, but her astute strategy of presenting a written description of her own work went way beyond trying to prevent the Academy members getting impatient. By referring to the tradition of ekphrasis the artist inserted herself into the history of the numerous scholars, historians and art critics who have studied or used themselves the dichotomy between the visual and verbal. In her short piece of descriptive writing, Carriera demonstrated that she could paint with words just as much as with her pastels, placing herself as one of the participants in the age-old paragone discussion. This aspect is particularly remarkable given that even in the last twenty years relatively

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few women artists have been included in the inter-art inquiries of the many art, cultural and literary historians who have produced a prolific number of insightful essays and books.98 It is not my intention to fill this gap with the following considerations, but rather to attempt to spark the interest of scholars of Italian literature in studying in detail the extant documents regarding Carriera. By writing that letter, the artist acted out what was a generally accepted idea: poetry/the verbal description produces the usual formal justification for the idea of a painting.99 On the other hand, Carriera thematizes the reciprocal enrichment of the sister arts. More importantly she represented, simultaneously, both positions in her own person – the ‘poet’ and the ‘painter’, the male power of an intellectual author and the capacities of a visual artist all in one – despite being a woman. It was a shrewd tactical move to raise herself to the highest level of artistic production and to the maximum of artistic self-governance. On another level of meaning, it almost seems as if she had planned to first describe the piece in textual form in order to eventually surprise the academicians with a colourful and witty piece that would certainly surpass the image they had created in their minds, exceeding by far their imaginations. In this way, she would aptly demonstrate a point of superiority of painting. On a different level, by explaining the story of her pastel she underlined once more and in a much more effective way than in the context of her admission to the Roman academy some fifteen years earlier, that she was a worthy history painter. Her description erased any possibility of the misinterpretation of the pastel as a ‘mere’ historiated, disguised portrait. As Sheriff has shown concerning Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, the fact that allegories or mythological subject matters were officially regarded as examples of the noble genre of history painting was underscored by André Félibien (1619–1695), art critic and official court historian of Louis XIV, who included in his Conférences de l’Académie Royale (printed in 1669) reflections on the hierarchy of art subjects. He acknowledged the nobilitating elements held in common between what he called la fable (fairy tale) and l’histoire (history). History painting is considered the noblest branch of painting since the Renaissance, and according to Félibien, illustrates historic actions, poetic myths or sacred mysteries.100 As allegories were based on stories drawn from canonical texts of mythology or literature, they needed to be considered history paintings.101 Interestingly enough, some critics regarded allegories as ‘the most erudite of all history painting because in making an allegory the artist became both author and illustrator.’102 This is precisely what Carriera had done. 98 Mirollo, 1995, 44. 99 See Brylowe, 2019, 14. 100 Clements, 1992, 487. 101 On the criticism later in the century regarding these ‘unedifying subjects’ that debased history painting see Sheriff, 1996, 120. 102 Sheriff, 1996, 121.

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If we look at the piece the artist eventually sent to Paris (see Figure 15), we see an idealized female for which Carriera used her most typical formula, according to which the body of her half-figure is turned toward one side and the head is in the process of turning in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, unlike almost all of her figures, the nymph does not enter into direct eye contact with the observer, she looks directly towards the lower left corner at someone or something. In her left hand, she holds the laurel crown mentioned by the artist as a gift from Apollo for the academy, and with her right hand she indicates a place somewhere further up, behind her. The young blonde nymph with her right breast unveiled looks down to the right, her eyes and the slightly tilted head creating a diagonal parallel to her right arm bent in front of her body.103 Comparing the pastel with Carriera’s letter, the nymph presumably points towards the peak of Mount Parnassus while she looks with a smile on her lips towards the Royal Academy, the place that opens the road to Mount Parnassus. It is thus also the place where the light comes from that illuminates the scene, that brightens the future and that is beautifully reflected in her eyes. The typically simple background is divided into two parts. The back of the nymph is dark, almost completely black as if she had turned her back to a dull and difficult past. At the same time, the division creates a dramatic and high-contrast composition underlining the contours of the nymph and emphasizing her marble-like, smooth white flesh. The most highly illuminated spot in the pastel is next to her face on the other side, directly above her shoulder. The wall behind her would be just as light if her body did not cast a shadow onto it. The Academy that the nymph is addressing with her glance and her smile is quite literally the place of illumination, not only for her but for the entire space in front of her that extends all the way up to Mount Parnassus. Most likely, this is also the reason why Carriera departed from her usual pattern of having her figures look at the spectator. One can well imagine that the academicians would have felt pleased and flattered by this celebratory piece once they saw and understood the pastel. If we take a closer look at the choice of her subject matter, further interesting aspects of this work need to be underscored. For her Roman reception piece Carriera had opted for an allegory, the explanation of which has been discussed above. For the French academy the artist preferred a mythological theme, a decision that might lie in the fact that since the 1690s, mythology prevailed as a source of inspiration in the series of reception pieces that Carriera’s predecessors had left in that institution.104 The Venetian painter followed their example, but what is striking about her piece is the invention of a rather unusual iconography: a nymph of Apollo’s retinue. What could have inspired her for this important work? 103 Regarding the tradition of depicting nymphs with one breast revealed in theatrical productions and paintings since the Renaissance, see Steele, 1997, 491–92. 104 Michel, 2018, 216–25.

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I argue that Carriera blended references of French and Italian well-known art pieces that were part of the royal collections to charm her hosts while celebrating her own position as an erudite and astute history painter. The first most obvious allusion, even if made in an indirect way, is in her letter, the mention of Apollo who as the sun god had become of utmost importance for state iconography under the ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV. Extant documentation proves that wherever the artist went, she tried to see as many paintings, as many artworks, as many collections, as possible. While strolling through the gardens in Versailles, Carriera must have seen and admired the group of marbles by François Girardon (16128–1715), the official sculptor of Louis XIV, and Thomas Regnaudin (1622–1706) depicting Apollo Attended by the Nymphs (1666–72). It was one of the most important attractions of Versailles and the iconographically central realization of the sun motif. It seems reasonable to believe that Carriera found inspiration from this spectacular sculptural arrangement for her own invention.105 Especially the standing nymph who is looking over her right shoulder carrying a vase (Figure 16) and who has been identified as Drax may have served this purpose. This nymph shows striking similarities to Carriera’s figure, not only as far as the pose of her body is concerned, but especially regarding the position of both of her hands.106 The fact that Carriera selected single gestures, body parts of a painting or a sculpture for her own artwork has already been stressed above in connection with some of her miniatures, but also in so far as her stay in Paris is concerned, her reinterpretation of a French artist in the realm of Versailles would not have been new to her. The Royal collection in London conserves a miniature by Carriera entitled Françoise-Marie, Duchesse d’Orléans (1677–1749), as Amphitrite,’ for which the artist has adapted a painting of the same title by a follower of Pierre Mignard (1612–1695). Carriera took three figures of the oil painting, the central one plus the two nereids on the right, and reassembled them in her piece into a strikingly erotic miniature, which is still waiting for an in-depth analysis. Choosing single elements or entire figures from another artwork to create her own invention is part of an artistic method of Carriera’s that she seems to have also used for her reception piece.107 Carriera would not have been by far the first artist to be influenced by the marble statues. Charles Le Brun for example used them as a source of inspiration for his The King Governs by Himself’ (1681–84) in Versailles. Numerous drawings and sketches 105 Louis XIV was particularly proud of this group and insisted to show it to all the ambassadors and any other distinguished visitor. In 1674, a stage was set up in front of the marbles for the performance of Molière’s (1622–1673) Le maladade imaginaire. See Maral, ed., Apollo Served by the Nymphs, 2017, 38. 106 Regarding the identification of this figure by Regnaudin and the similarities with the ancient Flora Farnese, see Maral, ed., Apollo Served by the Nymphs, 2017, 44–45. 107 See also Zava Boccazzi, 1999, 203, where she showed how Carriera copied the head of Martha in Guido Cagnacci’s (1601–1663) painting The Repentant Magdalene that was part of the collection of Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga (1652–1708) in Mantua.

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Figure 16 Detail of François Girardon, Apollo Attended by the Nymphs Marble, 1666–73. Versailles, Apollo Grotto. Archive of the author.

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of the group exist that were executed since the end of the seventeenth century and further enhanced the success of the marbles.108 Moreover, already in 1669 Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) had composed his poem Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, based on this striking group of sculptures, and in 1676, André Félibien published his Description de la Grotte de Versailles to which he had added engravings, helping to spread the fame of the sculptures even more quickly. Remembering that Carriera first delivered a written version of her painting before sending in the final pastel, one must wonder if she was aware of one or both of the texts. Her sister Giovanna is known to have read French literature, so she might have come across La Fontaine or Félibien.109 If so, the artist repeated conceptually and chronologically the history of the marble group in Versailles. Jean de La Fontaine’s poem was the first full description of the sculptural decoration of the Grotto of Thetis and tells the story of four friends walking through the gardens of Versailles admiring and discussing the new artistic, sculptural additions to the decorative programme of the park commissioned by Louis XIV. The debates and descriptions offer a fascinating example of Baroque literature which deliberately follows ancient ekphrastic texts. The passage in which La Fontaine’s protagonists approach the Grotto of Thetis is the account of a project still under construction. The marble group had not yet been installed, which means that the author offers a virtual image to his readers, seemingly dreaming about it rather than describing its reality.110 It is possible that the Carrieras used Félibien’s text or his first guidebook to Versailles Vue du Château et Jardin de Versailles (View of the palace and garden of Versailles) for their visit, but it remains speculation. If Carriera was aware of La Fontaine’s or Félibien’s texts, she would not have only quoted the French sculpture in her pastel, but she would have repeated what one of the main representatives of French literature or a supreme art critic had done before her: by sending a letter to the academy with the description of her reception piece, she offered a textual image of a pictorial rendering of a text, a text, furthermore, that she had written herself. Another factor that strikes the observer and that distinguishes this piece from the majority of Carriera’s pastels is the nymph’s conspicuous gesture and the fact that the artist included two hands. One of the most illustrious examples that show a similar pointing index finger of a right hand that crosses over the body pointing to the left can be found in Leonardo’s Saint John the Baptist in the Louvre (Figure 17). The pose, the slightly tilted head and especially the light effects on the faces, along with the position of the arms show clear similarities. It does not seem far-fetched to assume that Carriera was inspired by Leonardo’s work, especially as she must have seen it on 108 See Grove, 1996, 28–30. 109 Giovanna’s interest in French authors led her to a book exchange with Luisa Bergalli who translated French authors into Italian; see the letter Carriera received from Bergalli in 1736, in Sani, 1985, II, 618. See also Oberer, 2014, 85–86. 110 Nédélec, 2011, 6.

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Figure 17 Leonardo da Vinci, Saint John the Baptist 1513–16, oil on panel, 69 × 57 cm. Paris, Louvre, inv. 775. © Louvre, Paris.

her visits to the various galleries in Paris. More interestingly, it would appear that she reinterpreted the old master’s painting also on a conceptual level: Leonardo showed the last of the prophets, standing on the threshold between the Old and the New Testament, indicating with a smile on Christ’s earthly coming, by extension the way to salvation. Carriera translated him into the figure of a smiling female prophetess, standing between the Academy and Mount Parnassus, indicating the Apollonian temple as the place where the apotheosis of the arts takes place. Just as following Christ, who sacrificed himself on the cross that John presents, offered Christians the

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possibility of gaining eternal life, following Apollo, who is symbolized by the laurel crown, leads to Mount Parnassus where eternal fame is offered to those who reach its peak. If John’s gesture can be interpreted as an allusion to the Christ incarnate, human and divine, existence, then the nymph’s raised index finger indicates the human and divine status of the artist. Thus it is also true of Carriera – a status that would have been excluded for a female artist. The emphasis on her own outstanding position is further emphasized by another fact: interestingly enough, neither Christ nor Apollo are physically present; they both appear in the form of their symbols. By omitting the depiction of the sun god, Carriera once more avoided the risk of being criticized for her lack of anatomy studies and, simultaneously and more importantly, she turned her allegory into a purely feminine scene. The presence of the male god is only given through his symbol, the laurel crown. The prominent role of the traditional male protagonist, the god of the Muses, is questioned. His leading position instead is left to a female guide, a ‘prophetess’ of the arts which is in clear correspondence with Carriera’s extraordinary admittance to the Academy – the only foreign female painter in that prestigious institution.111 In regards to Carriera’s personal position as an artist in general, this act of singling out a female figure and borrowing from the genius Leonardo, like the borrowings from Veronese discussed above, implies a claim: reading the painting and drawing of this genius led her to her own invention, Carriera’s reinterpretation is the artistic result of another genius, herself. This is an unheard-of claim for a female painter. To conclude, by combining Leonardo with Girardon/Regnaudin, she blended her Italian roots with what she could learn from her host country. She merged the undisputed quality of one of the most important masters of Italian Renaissance art with the highest expression of French Baroque art, and this fusion could easily be read as a flattering gesture towards the excellence of the French Royal collection that owned and exhibited both pieces. To draw on a sculpture and not a French painting is a noteworthy decision and can be read as a deliberate statement within the ongoing paragone debate that has surrounded this pastel from the very beginning. It was neither the first nor the only time that the artist contributed to this theoretical discourse as described above, but in this case, her way to insert herself into the dispute is particularly compelling. The fact that she first wrote about her piece before sending it to the academy has already been identified as an astute way of comparing literature with painting. In addition, by copying, in an almost ostentatious gesture, Leonardo’s figure while referencing Girardon/Regnaudin in a much less obvious manner, Carriera literally took on Leonardo’s position in ranking painting higher than sculpture and thus marking it as the supreme art form. Maybe with a winking eye, she might have wanted to comment at the same time on the status of French painting at 111 Also Nicholson recognized the self-referential aspects of the pastel: it ‘functions, allegorically, as a representation of the artist herself, and a reminder of her stellar place in the international art world in the early eighteenth century’. Nicholson, 2019, 176.

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the beginning of the eighteenth century. Apparently, there was nothing worth being quoted among her contemporaries in Paris. She was, in fact, the one who was copied and followed in France. It was Carriera who influenced French painters more than the other way round.112 With this intriguing reception piece she finally managed to represent herself officially as an intelligent, erudite and witty painter whose art is based on clever compositions, on a reconsideration of precedents with reason, on the rationality which was gendered masculine, rather than on pure observation and emotion, gendered feminine.113 By means of her astute strategies of paying homage to an artistic tradition, to art theoretical discourses, to ancient and contemporary literature, she flattered her hosts and publicized herself as an intellectual, professional and worthy member of the academy. Much more than in her reception piece for Rome, Carriera was now well-aware and proud of her personal and professional accomplishments and did not hesitate to show it.114 Before the members of Academy could enjoy, discuss and confront her written text with Carriera’s multilayered painted invention they still had to wait. In a letter dated 16 December 1721, Crozat wrote that he had not heard anything yet of the box with the pastel inside.115 Eight days later, Nicolas Vleughels informed Carriera that he had a frame made according to their agreement for the pastel everybody was waiting for.116 Only on 12 February the following year, Mariette contacted the Venetian painter for the first time, informing her that the painting had arrived and had been welcomed with positive reactions everywhere.117 Almost two weeks later he further informed the artist that Vleughels would present the pastel with its frame officially to the academicians. Almost two and a half years had gone by since Carriera had become an official academician. Nevertheless, the city and its art lovers retained pleasant memories of her; as a result of the reception piece arriving, Carriera once again received official recognition in France: in 1722 the Mercure de France published an article in memory of her visit and her successes, bearing the title ‘Eloge de Rosalba Carriera’ (In praise of Rosalba Carriera), which highlighted her outstanding skills as pastel painter. The fact

112 See also Hyde, 2000, 471. 113 See also Rosenthal, 1996, 43. 114 The artist seems to have liked the pose of the nymph as she repeated it at least another four times, in the aforementioned pastel of a woman holding a miniature, in the figure of Ceres and in a personification of summer; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 107, 119; cat. nos. 206–8, pp. 204–5. The personification of water and of fire, which will be discussed below, show the same pose again, but the women are more fully dressed without any of their breasts revealed. 115 Sani, 1985, I, 410. 116 Sani, 1985, I, 412. 117 Sani, 1985, I, 416.

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that her art and the technique she preferred to use was positively compared with oil was the biggest compliment she could have received: [The pastel] summarizes all the parts of painting, as much for the coloris as for the refinement of the details. […] There is common agreement that this demoiselle has found a way to master this medium like no other before her. For this reason, even the most skilful declare that this type of pastel, with the power and veracity of the colours, boasts a certain freshness and light transparency which exceeds even that of oil paintings.118

118 ‘Le tableau […] est un precis de toutes le parties de la peinture, tant pour le coloris et pour la finesse des touches. […] Il faut convenir que cette Damoiselle a trouvé l´art de traiter ce genre de Peinture d´une manière où personne n´etoit arrivé avant elle, ce qui a fait dire aux plus habile que cette sorte de pastel, avec la force et la verité des couleurs, conserve de certaines fraîcheurs et des legeretez dans les transparens, qui sont au dessus de la peinture à l´huile’. Sani, 1985, I, 415–16. The article is attributed to Mariette dall’Abate Marouille; Henning and Marx, 2007, 34.

5 Carriera’s Oeuvre in Pastel The great number of pastel paintings that Carriera produced in her lifetime includes a vast variety of images that represent a personal and at times very specific visual interpretation of the world around her. The many facets involved in her reading of late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century society include reflections of the ‘Venetian myth’, questions regarding her artistic legacy and the matter of social norms relating to individual appearance. Her art also shows similarities between her preferred medium, pastel painting, and fashionable cosmetics, and one particular issue that concerns the importance of ‘owning a Carriera’ leading to the importance of ‘being a Carriera’; her paintings also mirror the artist’s outstanding capacity for psychological insight and her high level of education and erudition.

Carriera’s Portraits within the Venetian Tradition By the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, Venice was a republic in decline, on a political, economic and social level. At the same time, in what seems paradoxical development, cultural production flourished and the visual arts recovered from a century of stagnant conformity and indecisiveness before they ‘flared up in a final, multifarious and brilliant blaze.’1 It was also a period in which painters started finding solutions to what Sohm has called an artistic dilemma2 and Zarrillo a ‘neurosis of visual legacy’.3 With her reading of artistic development in those years, Zarrillo added in important respects to the general idea of it being a time of nostalgia, of ‘a sentiment of loss’.4 She describes an apparently insurmountable difficulty for painters in Venice that had been noticed since the seventeenth century: whether to continue to reinterpret the Renaissance tradition, which implied the stagnation of stylistic retrospection, or to take the risk of brutally departing from their celebrated precedents.5 Furthermore, as Zarrillo points out, there was the question of how to react in reference to the earlier personification of state identity. To what degree would artists decide to stick to the famous Venetian myth that had been carefully constructed over the last 300 years? Was it still possible to visually transmit 1 2 3 4 5

Levey, 1994, 23. Sohm, 1990, 89. Zarrillo, 2016, 11. Favilla and Rugolo, 2011, 254–58. Zarrillo, 2016, 11–12.

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_ch05

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the Venetian ‘dream of might and righteousness’?6 On which grounds would painters continue to celebrate the city’s aspects of divinity that it had thanks to its mythological founding on Annunciation Day (25 March), and how could they still glorify its legendary wealth, infinite beauty, boundless fame, eternal peace and political stability?7 The inability of seventeenth-century painters to find adequate answers to these questions is what Zarrillo refers to when she talks about the artists’ ‘neurosis’.8 What is particularly interesting in Zarrillo’s analysis in connection with Carriera and her work is the fact that it highlights from yet another point of view how unique her artistic choices were. For every single aspect that Zarrillo describes as an obstacle for the development of Venetian art since the seventeenth century, Carriera found her own solution. Being perfectly aware of the ‘Venetian myth’, she continued to allude to it or directly include it in her art when carefully catering to clients who were searching for exactly that: a legend. The travellers from the most diverse countries did not come to participate in the city’s sad final act of a spectacle that had been going on for hundreds of years; the grand tourists did not have any real interest in understanding what Venice was enduring especially as the city ‘may have appeared on the surface delightfully or deplorably hedonistic.’9 Foreign visitors much more happily overlooked the social and political changes and the growing number of poor people on the streets. They indulged, instead, in whatever their idea was of ‘the Venetian experience’: the extraordinary vitality and quality of theatre and opera, the splendour of carnival and its air of freedom, the city’s glory and physical magnificence.10 To quote Zarrillo: ‘They wanted something they were already familiar with – reliable, attractive, recognizable.’11 And the carefully staged public events helped in this endeavour: displays of excessively luxurious apparel on the squares and streets and the stimulating entertainment inside the gambling houses, during carnival or at the opera house served to camouflage the realities of descent and decay; the city was literally in disguise.12 A reflection of many of the foreigners’ tendency to search this ‘truly Venetian’ experience and to desire a ‘truly Venetian’ painting, which corresponded to a long-established, well-known canon, can be gauged in those of Carriera’s portraits in which the sitters pose in carnival costumes and masks. An example of this type of image is the likeness of Gustave Hamilton (1710–1746), 2nd Viscount Boyne, or the very similar 6 Rose, 1974, 479. For a summary of the various elements of the myth, see also Grubb, 1986, 43–44, who discusses its historiography from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. 7 Literature on the aptly created and widespread image of Venetian state identification is boundless, with Rosand’s often quoted studies still being fundamental points of reference: ‘Venetia Figurata: The Iconography of a Myth’ (1984) and Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State (2001). 8 Zarrillo, 2016, 11. 9 Levey, 1994, 24. 10 See also Robinson, 1994, 13–18. 11 Zarrillo, 2016, 11. 12 Steward, 1996, 18.

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portrait of Charles Sackville (1711–1769), Earl of Middlesex, later 2nd Duke of Dorset.13 Their portraits are not only pictures of their elegant selves, executed at a specific age, but more importantly they are visual proof of having experienced and having participated in what Venice really was about, according to their point of view. The Venetians themselves also enjoyed being seen as true citizens of a glorious and beautiful city, aspects of which can be found for example in the portrait of Caterina Sagredo (1715–1772) that I will discuss below. As far as, on the one hand, the weight of visual legacy is concerned, and the risk of novelty on the other, Carriera resolved this dilemma that her Baroque colleagues had found themselves trapped in. By adopting the Renaissance half-figure of her illustrious predecessors, she deliberately drew on Venice’s well-known golden age. As with her miniatures, her figures are, in most cases, depicted from head to shoulders or to the waist, with the head usually turned in the opposite direction to the bust. Hardly anything distracts from the face as the background is usually kept plain and anonymous. The eye is drawn to the head and to the brilliance and lustre of the clothes. While using this general and in part traditional scheme, Carriera nonetheless presented her clients with some novelties. She executed her half-figures applying a new technique, she used new materials and coloured them in a new way. Due to this mix of tradition and innovation, she managed to link herself to the great masters without simply copying but modernizing them. She was able to reshape the past as her own, creating a completely new fashion that spread all over Europe. In this sense, Carriera did indeed take the risk of brutally departing from her artistic ancestors offering something completely new. After a century of stagnation in Venetian painting, these accomplishments are not to be underestimated.

From Unifying Formula to Character Studies One of the most striking aspects of Carriera’s vast oeuvre of pastel paintings to realize is that her interpretations of different themes unveil a particularly refined artistic sophistication. It varies from idealization and embellishment to close observation and true, but never brutal, realism. Art critics and connoisseurs since the eighteenth until the twenty-first centuries have tended to reiterate and emphasize either one or the other side of this spectrum. They never considered her oeuvre in its complex diversity. The question to be raised at this point is not so much how many of her works are idealized images of human beings devoid of personality that ‘all look the same’ or, on the contrary, to enlist all of the outstanding examples of her realistic 13 See Jeffares’ illuminating article on both portraits, ‘Rosalba Carriera, Gustavus, Viscount Boyne’, in Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Essays/Carriera_ Boyne.pdf.

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portraits and the surprising results of her capacity to emulate nature – what is more interesting to explore is in which ways her multifarious interpretations of the human figure take part in different identity-shaping processes. To analyse the different reactions of her critics is a helpful tool in this context. As far as Carriera’s contemporary observers or commissioners are concerned, they generally seem to have agreed on a few points that made her work stand out. They usually underlined the beauty of her colours, her specific soft touch as well as the grace with which she depicted her surprisingly ‘real’ portraits. As early as 1722, for example, the ‘Eloge’ published by the Mercure de France highlighted some precise qualities of her art that explained why it surpassed even oil painting; its observation is particularly striking, as up to that time oil had been the more highly praised genre: For this reason, even the most skilful declare that this type of pastel, with the power and veracity of the colours, boasts a certain freshness and light transparency which exceeds even that of oil paintings.14

In a letter written on 12 February of that same year, her friend Mariette praised not only the grace, the design and the light touches but also the outstanding hues and her colouring.15 Even during the artist’s lifetime, Cyprien-Antoine Lieude de Sepmanville wrote in 1747 in his Réflexions nouvelles d’un amateur des Beaux-Arts adressées à M. de *** pour server de supplement à la Lettre sure l’Exposition des ouvrages de peinture, et sculpture that Carriera’s pastels compared favourably with Joseph Vivien’s: What contrasts in beauty do you make me notice in Miss Rosa-Alba! What grace, what lightness in her pastels! Her touch is admirable, voluptuous and without harshness.16

‘Grace’ is one of the qualities also stressed by her early biographer D’Argenville, who visited her in Paris at Crozat’s house and who described her pastels in the following way: Her portraits, besides being perfect resemblances, have in the eyes of connoisseurs a delicacy of touch, a surprising refinement, an uncommon grace and transitions of colour and of flesh so admirable, that they express feeling.17 14 Sani, 1985, I, 365. 15 Sani, 1985, I, 416. On another occasion, instead he maintained that the brilliant hues and colours would even help to forget the ‘incorrectness’ in her pastels. What exactly he meant by incorrections (errors) he did not explain any further. The original reads: ‘Leur belle couleur fait oublier leurs incorrections.’ Mariette, 1851–1860, I (1851), 330. See also I, 332. 16 Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/ Article/Carriera.pdf, p. 3. The original reads: ‘Quel contraste de beautés vous me faites remarquer dans la Dlle Rosa-Alba! Quelle grâce, quelle légèreté dans ces pastels! La touche est admirable, moëleuse et sans dureté.’ 17 Translation, Dabbs, 2009, 347. The original reads: ‘Ces portraits, outre la parfait resemblance, ont aux yeux des connoisseurs, une finesse touche, une légèreté surprenante, une grace partiuliere & des passages de couleur & de sang si admirables, qu’ils experiment le sentiment.’ Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 317.

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In his Voyage d’Italie, printed in 1773, Charles-Nicolas Cochin praised, in a passage quoted before, similar aspects to those noticed by his predecessors, emphasizing particularly the quality of her colours: The beauty of her colours. The purity & freshness of the tones she has succeeded in employing in her colours are admirable, as is the beautiful ease, as well as the breadth of her style, these have all made her the equal of the greatest masters.18

Similarly, we find a comment from 1784 by the novelist Sophie von Laroche (1730– 1807) who, in her appreciation of a Diana that Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702–1789) had bought from Carriera, described the softness of Diana’s arms and cheeks as astonishing and inimitable. Once again, the mixture of her colours is perceived as being ‘full of grace.’19 When the mimetic fidelity, the astounding similarity to nature and to real living persons with a soul are described as fascinating aspects of Carriera’s art, it touches on the arguably most interesting characteristic of some of her portraits: this is their response to the eighteenth-century demand for resemblance, a theme particularly important to discourses on portraiture. Next to D’Argenville who talked about ‘perfect resemblances’, Frederik von Weiberg also wrote about the reactions of art lovers and connoisseurs in Denmark when viewing her work. He underlined how charmed they were by Carriera’s capacity to create portraits that beautifully resembled their sitters.20 The officer Ulrik Frederik Løvendal who commissioned Carriera to make various pieces for him praised the exactitude in her portraits.21 Crozat, in 1716, was enchanted by one of her likenesses thinking it was très resemblant.22 In surprising contrast to this enthusiastic reception of Carriera’s work by her contemporaries, twentieth-century literature on the artist tended for a long time to either completely negate or at least downplay her talents as a portraitist. They emphasized the decorativeness of her works over the characterization of her figures, and the 18 ‘La beauté de sa couleur. La pureté & la fraicheur de tons qu’elle a sçu employer dans son coloris, sont admirables, & la belle facilité, aussibien que la largeur de sa manière, l’ont egalée aux plus grands maîtres.’ Cochin, 1773, 160. Elizabeth Ellet’s comment on Carriera in her Women Artists in all Ages and Countries, which was the first history of women artists written by a woman, underlines similar aspects: ‘The connoisseurs esteemed her portraits for their perfect likeness, delicacy of touch, wonderful lightness, peculiar grace, and admirable coloring and expression.’ Ellet, 1859, 229. 19 Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, Essay on Carriera’s selfportraits, www.pastellists.com/Articles/Carriera.pdf, p. 2. See also Luigi Lanzi’s Storia pittorica della Italia, originally published in 1792–96, where the scholar praised again the beauty of her colours, the grace and nobility of her drawing; Lanzi, 1809, 286. 20 See Sani, 1985, I, 179. 21 See Sani, 1985, I, 300. 22 See Sani,1985, I. 314.

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standardization of her images of the eighteenth-century ideal of female beauty over the individuality of the women she depicted.23 Their comments very much remind us of how Denis Diderot (1713–1784) harshly criticized Jean Marc Nattier’s allegorical portraits by saying: ‘[He] always painted women as Hebe, as Diana, as Venus etc. All his portraits look alike; one thinks one is always looking at the same face.’24 At the beginning of the twentieth century, authors like Lothar Brieger went so far as to castigate Carriera for her spiritless, expressionless faces that border on depictions of rigor mortis. The outstanding poverty of soul and lack of liveliness and coldness of her sitters, still according to Brieger, turned the artist into the one who had ruined pastel painting in general.25 Even if his comments represent probably the most extreme of negative opinions regarding Carriera’s work, critics like Gino Damerini in his Pittori veneziani del ’700 (1928) judges her art to be superficial and banal;26 Jacques Wilhelm (1953) and even Michael Levey (1980), who adopts a condescending tone in speaking of her artificial, mask-like faces and conventional compositions, each tend to criticize primarily her charming idealization and flattering, banal beautification of her depictions of women.27 An attitude of this type toward her pastels reflects what Geneviève Monnier (1996) politely called an ‘amiable conception of her models’.28 Venetian art since the Renaissance has similar tendencies. Rona Goffen has eloquently shown that Venetians had come too late to portraiture and generally preferred group representation to the personalized image. But when they did decide on an autonomous portrait, outstanding paintings (even by Giovanni Bellini and his workshop), tended to be unassertive, somewhat idealized, and not very revealing psychologically. Goffen concluded that the cult of personality or any ‘public commemoration of inappropriate individuality’29 disappeared behind a collectivist ideology. Drawing on this analysis, James Grubb has highlighted the interesting parallel between historiography and art history. Unlike the Florentines, he insists, the Venetians during the Renaissance did not record or keep their families’ histories (called ricordanze); they seemed to be generally disinclined to individual commemoration. A single person would be viewed only in the context of his/her peer group, which went hand in hand with the suppression of individual fame. The lack of ricordanze in Venice, Grubb added, went hand in hand with the comparably small number of individual, self-standing portraits, ‘the ordinary run of Venetian patricians did not have their images recorded’.30 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Walther, 1972–75, 66. Quoted in Nicholson, 1997, 52. Brieger, 1921, 39 and 43. Damerini, 1928, 72 and 75. See also Molmenti, 1914, 168. Wilhelm, 1953, 239, and Levey, 1980, 171. See also Mariuz, 2007, 27. Monnier, 1996, 242. Goffen, 1989, 204–5, and 219–21. Grubb, 1994, 384.

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From this perspective, one could conclude that Carriera inserted herself into the local artistic and socio-political tradition but this interpretation does not reach far enough to better understand her idealization and beautification of images, as she catered more to foreigners than to Venetians. These portraits were internationally successful, which means that her clients must have seen something other than a continuity of a local tradition; Carriera’s work must have touched a different chord.

The Importance of ‘Being a Carriera’ The antipodes shown above are extraordinarily captivating. We read about what so many modern art critics and historians have had to denounce until today, while Carriera’s contemporaries did not seem to be disappointed or disturbed at all by her art. In fact, I could not find a single comment by connoisseurs or critics during her lifetime referring to the monotonous uniformity of her paintings. For them, as for her clients, there must have been a different agenda at work; Carriera’s visual rendering of the requested theme, whether it be a portrait, an allegory or a mythological subject matter, was greatly appreciated. Her artistic interpretations met the expectations of her clients and corresponded to them and the world they lived in (or to what they wanted to be associated with). Carriera seems to have been able to encapsulate an image her supporters identified with. This capacity to capture the nerve of the time was also noted by the antiquarian Count Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus (1692– 1765), for example. On 12 March 1728, he went as far as expressing how lucky he felt to live in the century that she illustrated.31 So how can we explain the dichotomy between the enthusiasm of Carriera’s contemporaries and the harsh critique by modern art historians? Why were her clients not disappointed or even disturbed by a certain repetitiveness and lack of expression the way the twentieth-century onlooker is? It needs to be pointed out that the aspect of idealization, uniformity and monotony refers primarily to female subjects in Carriera’s work. However, it is important, according to Burns, to put Carriera’s conception of idealization into the context of the eighteenth century’s ‘social norms relating to individual appearance’.32 Burns writes that elaborate conformity to the fashion of the moment, the attempt to look like everybody but slightly different, and an artificiality in the creation of a self or a second self, adhered to an elitist notion of decent representation and longed-for recognition. They were standards to follow and proof of one’s capacity to find ornamentation within the system. One result of this attitude, Burns continues, was a widely 31 ‘je me trouve heureux de vivre dans un siècle que vous illustrés.’ Sani, 1985, II, 484. 32 Burns, 2002b, 18. In this article, ‘Making Up the Face’, Burns concentrates on the link between technical components of pastel painting and art historical investigation of Carriera.

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accepted manipulation and control of one’s face, aided with the help of clearly visible cosmetics. And a considerable amount of time and energy was put into the creation of a fashionable self. After a first private toilette of an eighteenth-century woman of the upper class, a second would follow, ‘attended by her servants and her hairdresser, chatting with her priest or lover, [it] easily took five or six hours to fabricate her appearance’. This imposed appearance was not restricted to women; during much of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century, men wore make-up as well, reflecting the idea of artifice being necessary to civilized social intercourse: ‘cosmetics were less a matter of gender than of class.’33 And it is precisely these ‘works of art’, so to speak, that Carriera depicted and represented in a fair number of her pastel portraits as representatives of idealized, uniform beauty.34 Another interesting aspect that Burns has highlighted is the analogy between the medium of dry powdery pigments and dry powdery cosmetics thanks to which a ‘seductive play with illusion was heightened because identical materials were used to paint (make up) faces and to paint pastels.’35 The matte appearance, the haptic qualities of both, highlighted the excitement of pastel portraits for the audience.36 As the use of cosmetics marked an aristocratic or at least a refined woman, a portrait made in a similar way would only underline the social status of these privileged individuals. In the context of François Boucher’s Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour (1758) in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge (Massachusetts), Hyde has persuasively described a similar convergence of discourses regarding art making and making up a face, femininity, artifice and aristocratic identity in eighteenth-century France.37 Social identity, gender identity and artistic identity can merge in pastel paintings where the making of an artwork resembled so much the making-up of a self. These ‘works of art’ in a dual sense, whether as real persons or on paper, effaced class and often national differences and could ‘impose an idealizing uniformity on the idiosyncracies of individual appearances.’38 They created and/or followed at the same time the general ideal of beauty of an eighteenth-century woman who was ideally supposed to look like an […] adolescent […], with a refined delicate oval, almost infantile [face], with dimples on the cheek, a small round chin, long almond-shaped eyes, and a small fleshy mouth. […] Effects of age were replaced by the illusion of eternal youth.’39 33 Burns, 2007, 87. 34 See also Nicholson who summarized the conventional look for women as follows: ‘Since the convention for women was a mask-like white make-up that covered the skin, with rouge or beauty spots added for emphasis, any insight into character through nuances of individualized skin tones clearly would have been blunted at the outset.’ Nicholson, 1997, 54. 35 Burns, 2002b, 19 and 21. 36 Burns, 2016, 19. 37 Hyde, 2000, 453–75. 38 Hyde, 2000, 460. 39 Burns, 2002b, 19.

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Roger de Piles (1635–1709), one of the most influential art critics and theorists of the eighteenth century in France, commented on the alliance between clients and portraitist in regard to their preference for an embellished portrait over an all-toorealistic likeness of themselves. Likeness being the essence of portraiture, it would seem, that we ought to imitate the defects as well as beauties, since by this means the imitation will be more complete: It would be even hard to prove the defence of this position. But ladies and gentlemen do not much approve of those painters who entertain such sentiments and put them into practice. I have known ladies frankly own that they had no value for a painter who made a strong likeness; and that they had rather their pictures had much less resemblance, and more beauty. It is certain, that some complaisance, in this respect, is due to them; and I question not, but their pictures may be made to resemble, without displeasing them: for the effectual likeness is a just agreement of the parts that are painted, with those of nature; so that we may be at no loss to know the air of the face, and the temper of the person, whose picture is before us. This being laid down, I say, that all deformities, when the air and temper may be discovered without them, ought to be either corrected or omitted.40

Unfortunately, Carriera left no written statements about her view of the aim and nature of portraiture. However, it seems not too far-fetched to hypothesize that many of her female clients, like her contemporaries described by de Piles, would have indeed preferred to be portrayed in a charming, flattering way. The personal preference of her clients in conjunction with societal expectations regarding the appearance of women and the making-up of an identity partly explain why and how Carriera embellished and idealized a great number of the female subjects in her oeuvre. I wonder, though, if the conventionality of what Burns has called ‘passive images’ might contain some other level of meaning that goes beyond the analogies between the powdery substances of cosmetics and the pastel sticks or a general ideal of beauty. If we remember a phenomenon in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, where Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) had codified another specific portrait formula, we might find a different key for the understanding of the identity-shaping aspects even of these pieces. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Kneller was commissioned to produce a series of forty-eight likenesses of members of the Kit-Cat Club in London for which he created his own portrait formula. Along with the specific size he chose for each of them of roughly 72 by 91 centimetres, the leading politicians and men of letters of the club were depicted each time in a very similar way, that is as less than halflength figures presenting one or two hands. The portraits showed a certain poverty 40 De Piles, 1743, 163–64.

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of poses, gazes and facial features. It was a clearly recognizable pattern for which the term ‘Kneller mask’ was coined and which dominated English male portraiture for half a century. His clients did not complain about the similarity of their portraits but instead identified with this pictorial system that guaranteed a public display of good breeding. As well, it bestowed the gentlemen on the canvases with character and politeness.41 I wonder if Carriera’s formula, in so far as it was a formula that differentiated those images clearly from a more realistic rendering of her sitter, did not work in a similar way. Her female clients who finally had their own stage by being depicted independently of their husbands in pendant portraits were eager to be shown as belonging to a certain social class, as corresponding to a certain ideal of beauty that was more important than a true likeness. Appearance was codified in what Breen has called ‘a visual déjà-vu’42 that included recognizability, fashionable clothes and expensive jewellery which substituted for the need to be identified through facial features, as evidenced above. But it is worthwhile to go back to another aspect I have mentioned, that is ‘the importance of owning a Carriera’. We have seen that once the artist managed to mark one international success after another, many of her clients did not necessarily specify the subject or theme of their commission anymore; it was enough to own a piece from her hands. The significance of her pastels is reflected in the fact that it had become ‘a must’ to put a Carriera on display in any sophisticated household, and to be represented in such a piece would nobilitate the sitter automatically. If we look at Boucher’s painting La Toilette in the National Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid that shows two women in a rather untidy interior, we see a woman tying her garter while her maid, seen from behind, watches her. An interesting detail can be found behind the Chinese screen in the painting: part of a pastel portrait of a woman that is immediately recognizable as ‘a Carriera’. None of the existing pastels by the Venetian artist corresponds to the one in Boucher’s painting, but the formula, the colours, and the pose are emulating ‘a Carriera’. It is only one part of the decoration of the room in Boucher’s work but it is one of the distinguishing aspects of this fancy and refined household. The same would surely work for the women she depicted. Appearing on a pastel by Carriera, these women became part of a unified group of equals which bestowed a special status on them as such, a status that required a correspondence with an ideal of beauty, but that was created by ‘being a Carriera’. Her paintings had more and more gained a status of their own, and so did the women depicted in them. To be portrayed by the Venetian artist in a recognizable ‘Carriera way’ created a sense of collective identity, a reason for which what I call the ‘Carriera mask’ was voluntarily accepted. Being ‘a Carriera’ meant automatically being part of an exclusive group 41 Solkin, 1986, 42. 42 Breen, 1990, 343, in the context of American portraitists of the first half of the eighteenth century.

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of women, of what Welch has called a ‘visual community’.43 It implied an elevated social and cultural status, refined manners, exclusive taste as well as outstanding beauty. A gorgeous physical appearance that corresponded to the ideal of beauty at the time further signified femininity and virtuousness, and more importantly the public prominence of the women.44 The Carriera mask thus blurred boundaries of class and, considering her success all over Europe, also of nationality. It allowed for the permeability of social classes without causing a clash or any form of rebellion and it shaped an identity in front of which individual features or national roots were deliberately and freely neglected. It does not seem to be a coincidence that this sense of unity within a recognizable group was a quality that we find primarily among Carriera’s female portraits. The delicacy of Carriera’s women was what a fair number of her female clients apparently longed to be associated with. The sense of group identity offered by the Carriera mask was an element that could be negotiated. Interestingly, strong female characters whose role in society was exceptional for one reason or another, like Caterina Sagredo, Faustina Bordoni, the Empress Wilhelmine Amalie or especially Carriera herself chose different ways to be depicted, as I will show below. Carriera’s close confidant and friend Anton Maria Zanetti amused himself and whoever had the chance to look at his caricatures of famous people of his time. This kind of social satire was still a relatively new genre, and Zanetti indulged in this amusing, light-hearted form of witty criticism, concentrating on opera singers and other representatives of the musical and theatrical world in Venice. Among the celebrities that Zanetti recorded was also his close friend Carriera (see Figure 27), and he chose an interesting way to depict her. It is the only print in which he abandoned his common pattern of showing his figures full-length, ‘often in profile and in a barely delineated setting but with minute attention paid to details of costume, physiognomy ad posture.’45 Very often he also presented them in the act of performing whatever their profession was. Instead, in this caricature he shows the artist as a half-length figure, frontally facing the onlooker, with a bonnet on an oddly angular head and a stubble around her smiling mouth. She is wearing a dress cut vertically slightly underneath the beginning of her shoulders and jewellery consisting of earrings and a necklace. Zanetti’s affectionate approach is underlined by the inscription, ‘Signora Rosalba Friend of the Author’. The fact that Zanetti departed from his usual way of depicting his celebrities announces a different agenda. Carriera does not appear as a painter but as an ironic deformation of the formula for her female sitters: half-length and engaging with the spectator. Especially the bonnet, the fact that her dress does not 43 Welch, 2009, 256. 44 See also Rosenthal, 1996, 211. 45 Rauser, 2004, 109, in the context of Matthew Darly’s (active 1754–78) caricatures in England who used the same formula.

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show any fanciness or pomp and even more so the distasteful stubble make up his ironic comment of her beautifying portraits of elegant ladies. It almost seems to be a witty satire of what I called the importance of ‘being a Carriera’; by depicting the precise opposite, a clearly recognizable woman of non-noble status with individualistic features and personal imperfections, he presents Carriera herself. The importance of ‘being a Carriera’ is cleverly substituted with an image that highlights ‘being Carriera’.

Carriera’s ‘Galleries of Beauty’ Carriera’s series of beauties constitute a special genre within the depictions of attractive women that gained great renown, both inside and outside of Venice. It is a group of paintings that has a different function and it needs to be seen within a specific tradition of the courtly representation of female beauty since antiquity.46 In the early modern era, a similar interest existed, as can be seen for example at the court of Francis I (1494–1547) who owned a manuscript with portrait medallions of twenty-seven of the most famous beautiful woman from Milan.47 In the sixteenth century, the Tyrolean archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595), in Ruhelust castle, and Vincenzo I Gonzaga (1562–1612), in Mantua, also decided to surround themselves with collections of the world’s most beautiful women in painted form.48 In Florence, Alessandro Acciaioli’s private palace contained more than thirty female portraits, most of them of acclaimed beauties from the city on the Arno.49 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the practice became fashionable in both court culture and in private palaces. Just as the Grand Duke Ferdinand II (1610–1670) chose to collect for his Villa Artimino,50 so the Medici Grand Duke Cosimo III (1642–1723), and his daughter-in-law, Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1689–1713), followed the fashionable trend of commissioning paintings of women, among them beauties, for their collections.51 In Rome, the inventories of the Colonna and Chigi collections document acquisitions of similar women portrait series by two of the eternal city’s most famous and influential families.52 well-known examples of similar galleries in Germany include the collections of Sophie Charlotte of Brandenburg (1668–1705) in Charlottenburg,53 46 Henning and Marx, 2007, 24–28. The most complete survey of European ‘galleries of beauty’ between 1470 and 1715 was presented by Wenzel in his doctoral thesis, ‘Heldinnengalerie – Schönheitengalerie’, submitted in Heidelberg in 2001. Regarding the tradition of galleries of beauty in northern Europe, see also Wenzel, 2004. 47 Mehler, 2006, 21. 48 Interestingly, the Gonzaga collection consisted not only of portraits of princesses but also of private women; see Wenzel, 2006, 29–34. 49 Hickson, 2012, 185. 50 See Wenzel, 2006, 23–29. 51 Wenzel, 2001, 370–80. 52 Wenzel, 2001, 336–58. 53 See Wenzel, 2001, 181–208.

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and her niece, Sophie Dorothea of Hannover (1687–1757), for the castle of Montbijou. Landgrave Wilhelm VIII (1682–1760) of Hessen-Kassel owned a similar series.54 In England, we also find well-known examples of the portraits of ten glamorous ladies from the royal court, named the Windsor Beauties by Peter Lely (1618–1680),55 or the Beauties of Hampton Court for Queen Mary II Stuart (1662–1694) by Godfrey Kneller.56 The Mirroir des plus belles courtisanes de ce temps by Crispin de Passe (1593/94–1670), that consists of forty portraits of internationally renowned courtesans,57 was published in the Dutch Republic in 1631 with verses in French, Dutch and German. Hence, the increasing interest, and not only of the aristocracy, in owning such portraits executed by Carriera is hardly surprising. What needs to be underlined, instead, is the fact that she did not simply follow the tradition but further developed functional and representative changes in these galleries of beautiful women. A specific example of her contribution to this tradition becomes evident when we analyse the shift from ‘galleries of heroines’ (Heldinnengalerien) and ‘galleries of beauties’ (Schönheitengalerien) to what the Venetian artist transformed into a ‘gallery of stars.’58 When after the Renaissance the allegorical female personifications or biblical and historical heroines with moral associations began playing a less important role in how the commissioners of galleries of beauties chose their subjects, it was the physical attractiveness of the women or, in some cases, even aspects of a growing sense of emancipation that became increasingly valid criteria for choosing specific figures to be shown.59 As Wenzel pointed out, the beautiful women depicted in the Windsor Beauties series for example included not only representatives of the court but also untitled women who were chosen primarily for their pleasant looks. ‘Beauties’ and court women had become, for contemporaries, one and the same.60 The history of the portrait gallery of Maurits Lodewijk of Nassau-Beverweerd (1631–1718) in the Hague61 shows that, apart from the ladies of the commissioner’s circle, he also started to include examples of English ‘beauties’. At the same time, he also began choosing female representatives of the salons in his own city, thus turning his gallery into a document of female emancipation.62

54 Baumbach, 2003, 209–43. 55 Wenzel, 2001, 271–93. 56 Wenzel, 2001, 299–14. 57 For the history of galleries of beauty in France, see Wenzel, 2001, 318–35. 58 Wenzel, 2001, 314–15. Regarding the development of galleries of beauty in England, see Wenzel, 2002, 315–18, and 413. 59 Baumbach, 2003, 219. 60 Wenzel, 2001, 408. 61 Wenzel, 2001, 257–62. 62 Wenzel, 2001, 409.

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With respect to Carriera’s depictions, they too result from this new tendency to choose the subjects almost exclusively based on their stunning beauty; and, as in other galleries of this type and like the examples analysed above, they show undeniable signs of a certain standardization.63 The first series of beautiful women Carriera executed was commissioned by Theresa Kunigunde Sobieska (1676–1730), the second wife of Maximilian II Emanuel of Wittelsbach, Elector of Bavaria (1662–1726). She requested in a letter of September 1706, a likeness of herself, along with portraits of ‘the most beautiful ladies in Venice.’64 The interest in collecting paintings of gorgeous women can be linked in her case to a family tradition starting at the latest in mid-sixteenth century when the wife of William IV, Duke of Bavaria (1493–1550), Duchess Jacobaea of Baden-Sponheim (1507–1580) asked Hans Schöpfer the Elder to paint such a series for Munich.65 The tradition continued with the paintings requested by Henriette Adelaide of Savoy (1636–1676) and her son Maximilian II for their castles and residences.66 Also, among the paintings in the Nymphenburg palace in Munich are two series of female portraits by the French painter Pierre Cobert (1662–1744), commissioned by the Elector of Bavaria. As a likely result of Cobert’s stay in France until 1715 and, following the prevailing taste for French culture in Munich, they depict famous women in mythological costumes and various accessories from the French court, most of them the ruler must have known personally.67 Other commissions to paint beauty series followed that offered Carriera further chances to experiment with new conventions. Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg, followed Theresa Kunigunde Sobieska with the same request. Soon afterwards, King Frederick IV of Denmark (1671–1730) also expressed, in 1709, the wish to own a similar series.68 Dézallier d’Argenville wrote, in his early biography of Carriera, that she gifted them to the ruler on the spot,69 which is an interesting note in that it shows she possibly took a hand in marketing this new kind of gallery. Sophie Charlotte, Queen of Brandenburg, is known to have received a similar collection, probably as a diplomatic gift.70 The Danish king must have been overjoyed and immensely grateful for Carriera’s more than generous gesture.

63 See also Baumbach, 2003, 219. 64 Del Negro, 2009, 57. ‘M’ha impegnata a fare, con il suo ritratto, quelli ancora delle più belle delle dame di Venetia.’ Sani, 1985, I, 106; 2007b, 52. 65 Wenzel, 2001, 173–75. 66 Wenzel, 2001, 364–70 and 381–87. He was also the brother of Violante of Bavaria, who realized the same idea in Florence; see above. 67 Wenzel, 2001, 382–83. 68 West, 1999b, 56–57. 69 Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 315. 70 Wenzel, 2003, 182.

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The fact that an inventory of the Medici guardaroba of 1732 lists four women from Bologna painted by Carriera,71 suggests that some of the women series were created with an almost encyclopedic interest in gauging and eventually comparing not only national but specific local characteristics. A remarkable pastel, today part of the Dresden collection, depicting a beautiful Venetian lady is just one example of the Venetian beauties (Figure 18). In the past, it was identified as the portrait of Lucrezia Mocenigo but it more likely depicts Pisana Corner (or Cornaro) who in 1703, who had married the patrician Alvise IV Antonio Mocenigo (1685–1759) and who was known in Venice as one of the more famous salonnières of her time.72 The fact that the catalogue of the Dresden collection of 1765 mentions the portrait as the likeness of the Venetian lady Pisana Mocenigo, as well as a letter written in 1740 by August III, king of Poland, in which he makes reference to the painting, constitute compelling arguments for the identification of the portrait’s subject.73 Dressed in a lavish gold dress with a pattern of leaves that is typically decorated with white lace around the cleavage, Pisana Mocenigo looks at the spectator with a friendly captivating glance of her big round eyes. A faint smile rests on her glowing lips. Her grey white hair is combed back while one long curl falls over her right shoulder. Big crystal earrings as well as a glittering broach tied with a chain at the level of her right breast and pearls in her hair emphasize further this Venetian woman’s exclusive position. The ermine cloak playfully hanging over her left shoulder serves the same purpose. Looking at Carriera’s depiction of women in general, her tendency to follow a certain standard in her rendering of females, as well as her tendency to idealize or beautify her models suggests that probably a more correct way to label her series in which the women were chosen for their physical beauty would be ‘gallery of beauty’ rather than ‘gallery of beauties’. In some cases, though, the criteria for choosing a woman for this type of series now combined a woman’s outstanding looks with exciting gossip around her scandalous behaviour. This significant change in standards for inclusion marked the beginning of what Wenzel called the ‘gallery of stars’. An example of this occurred on 8 January 1708, when Giorgio Maria Rapparini, Carriera’s intermediary with the court in Düsseldorf, wrote on behalf of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici,74 requesting that the artist send the miniatures of a Venetian 71 See Sani, 1985, I, 131, n. 1. 72 In 1716, Lucrezia Mocenigo was chosen by the doge to be one of four Venetian aristocrats to accompany the crown prince of Saxony, Frederick Augustus, son of Augustus the Strong, during his sojourn in Venice. Henning and Marx, 2007, 27. In 1754, he became Venetian ambassador in Rome. 73 For further arguments in support of the subject’s identification as Pisana Mocenigo, see Henning and Marx, 2007, 27–28. See also Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 23, p. 75. 74 The painter Antonio Bellucci (1654–1726), who had moved to Düsseldorf in 1705, was also involved in the discussion.

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Figure 18 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Lucrezia Mocenigo c.1708, pastel on paper, 52 × 41 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 23. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

noblewoman, the so-called ‘heroina Mozeniga’, and also of a second Venetian woman, ‘her competitor’.75 By the word heroina Rapparini might have meant the above-mentioned Lucrezia Mocenigo, who was the wife of the procurator of San Marco and 75 ‘I have several times spoken of the beauty of that heroine Mozeniga, and of that other competitor of hers, describing them to the Most Serene Electoress as admirable and rare. If my most accomplished Signora Rosalba should have two of her copies and were willing to deprive herself of them […] she would oblige me to keep them.’ The original text reads: ‘Ho io più volte parlato della bellezza di quella heroina Mozeniga, e di quell’altra sua competitrice, descrivendole alla Serenissima Elettrice come ammirabile e rare. Se la mia compitissima Sig. Rosalba avesse due delle sue copie e che se ne volesse privare […] mi obbligherebbe a farmele tenere.’ Sani, 1985, I, 120. See also Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 22, p. 72.

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thus one of the most well-known noblewomen in Venice. She was renowned as an avid gambler and particularly famous for her great beauty. The fact that Anna Maria Louisa de’ Medici desired to own her likeness is not surprising as the depiction of the procuratessa was part of the standard repertoire of Venetian beauties commissioned by German rulers, male and female.76 A painting by Carriera of the woman known as Mocenigo delle perle (Mocenigo of the pearls), on account of the jewellery that the Mocenigo women bequeathed to the next generation,77 was also requested by Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg (1683–1756), as well as by many other travellers who arrived in Venice. When Lucrezia Mocenigo lost a conspicuous amount of money in gambling, she became the subject of international gossip, which is documented in a letter of Frederik von Weiberg who was one of Carriera’s great admirers. On 3 January 1711 he wrote from Copenhagen commenting on the scandal. Weiberg, who knew Mocenigo personally, seemed to know every detail of the scandal, including the sum lost (6,000 ducats) and the rigorous way her creditors were trying to get their money back.78 It also seems that he had fallen in love with her as he was happy to leave Venice, putting a distance between them. Nevertheless, he added, at the end of his missive, thanks to one of Mocenigo’s portraits that the king of Denmark owned and that seemed to be particularly admired at court, Weiberg had the chance to look at a vivid image of a person he had sincerely loved and whom he would always love.79 The fact that for years Mocenigo continued to appear on the chronique scandaleuse abroad is supported by the attempt of Carl Ludwig von Pöllnitz (1692–1775) to reconstruct a love affair between her and Augustus the Strong in his La Saxe galante, in 1734. The great interest in owning a portrait of Lucrezia Mocenigo adds a new dimension to the creation and history of these popular galleries, that is one of an unprecedented ‘star cult’. The growing media of newspapers, journals and gazettes brought about new forms of journalism that could speed up the creation of international stars and provide them with all manner of new publicity. The ‘image’ of a media 76 Wenzel, 2002, 414. See also a letter by Hans Böttcher, the secretary of Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who asked on 3 December 1708 for a portrait of a ‘well-known woman of good reputation’ (una donna di riputatione e conosciuta), like one of Mocenigo. See Sani, 1985, I, 124. 77 Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 22, 23, 25, pp. 72–75. A letter written by Hans Böttcher to Carriera on 3 December 1708 shows how well-known the lady of the Mocenigo family was. In it he asked for a portrait of a woman for Duke Christian Ludwig II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, specifying that it should be ‘a portrait of a reputable and well-known woman, for instance, Her Excellency Lady Mocenigo, covered with rock crystal.’ The original text reads: ‘che sia un ritratto d’una donna di riputatione e conosciuta per esempio S. E. la Mocenigo e coperto di cristallo di rocco.’ Sani, 1985, I, 124. 78 ‘J’ay appris que Madame la Procuratresse Mocenigo a perdu l’yver passé 6000 ducatis et que ses créanciers ont été un peu rigoureux pour la seureté de leur payement.’ Sani, 1985, I, 180. 79 ‘je me console beaucoup de mon éloignement par la vive representation, que ce portrait me fait, d’une personne que j’ay aimé avec tant de sincérité et que j’aimerais toujours.’ Sani, 1985, I, 181.

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personage became a value in itself which resulted in a bigger demand for its various depictions, a process, as Wenzel points out, in which the person in question did not actively participate.80 In order to fully understand the function and meaning of Carriera’s depictions of beautiful women, scholars need to research more fully the various collections they were intended to be part of, as well as their specific location, and details of where they were placed. However, even at this stage, it is possible to identify four fundamental specifics regarding the various commissions that Carriera received to depict le più belle veneziane. The prevailing criterion for selecting certain women above all others was their physical beauty; their stunning looks were an aspect introduced at the very start of seventeenth-century England’s beauty series. The fact that Carriera used at least one of these series as a gift underscores the worthiness of these images; a donation of this type was her typical way of flattering and indulging her clients. Moreover, Carriera was presumably the first artist who was asked to depict specific Venetian ladies because they were already creations of a star cult. Lastly, she was most likely the first woman painter who to be asked to execute series of beautiful women, which added an extra value to the paintings. They depict outstanding women who represented either the beauty that they or Venice was famous for, executed by another woman who herself was the epitome of an outstanding woman in the lagoon – a Venetian star herself.

Character Studies and Erotica Unlike the pieces in which the artist recurred to what I called the Carriera mask and unlike her galleries of beauty and of stars, some of her most fascinating portraits are the ones that prove her outstanding capacity to produce realistic and psychologically intriguing likenesses. One captivating example is the pastel, kept in Dresden, that depicts Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo (Figure 19) who came from one of the most illustrious aristocratic families in Venice, a family with a long history of artistic patronage. She was wellknown for the high level of education that her mother, Cecilia Grimani, had assured for her and her sister’s intellectual pursuits. Both sisters lived an active cultural life patronizing among other things theatres and single artists like Giambattista Tiepolo and Pietro Longhi, and they read in several languages and managed the family patrimony.81 Caterina was also praised for her outstanding beauty and famous for being a tireless traveller. For her first marriage to Antonio Pesaro di Leonardo in 1732, she 80 Wenzel, 2002, 414. 81 Gabel, 2013, 41.

Carriera’s Oeuvre in Pastel

Figure 19 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo 1735–40, pastel on paper, 42 × 33 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 16. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

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received the highest dowry that was known at the time consisting of 48,000 ducats. It was on the occasion of her second marriage to Gregorio Barbarigo di Giovanni Francesco on 28 June 1739, that Caterina decided to have herself painted by Carriera.82 She is depicted in a particularly original way that has nothing to do with the uniformed beauties discussed above. It is a portrait of a self-confident woman who is tilting her head coquettishly to the right. With a smile on her face, she is looking directly at the spectator with a somewhat provocative glance. Her shoulders are draped with a blue mantle, and she wears her tricorne daringly askew over her right ear which most likely refers to her reputation of being a skilled horse rider.83 The particularly lavish jewellery that is displayed consists of heavy pearl earrings with sixty-six brilliants, and alludes to the impending wedding. According to the documents, they were worth 1,600 ducats.84 Her equally remarkable pearl necklace, which is highlighted by a bright red ribbon attached to her blouse, not only underlined her noble status and add to the proof of her financial well-being, but represented the same necklace her mother had received as part of her dowry.85 To put wealth and social status on display in a female portrait, especially if it was directly connected to a wedding, was normal practice, but the woman in this painting shows much more of herself. Carriera presented her in a close-up that notably reduces the distance between onlooker and sitter and forces us to engage in and at the same time withhold Sagredo Barbarigo’s bold glance. Its dialogic and provocative nature, as well as her self-assured pose, betray a coquettish mischievous nature of one who is either challenging or flirting with the spectator, leaving no doubt about the woman’s strength of character and alluring eccentricity. It is easy to imagine that her own casino close to the Procuratie Nuove, according to Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762), would attract as many as 300–400 people for its regular meetings.86 These salon gatherings were among the most notable in Venice. This woman was a celebrity in Venice, and she became even more notorious when in 1747 the Inquisition closed the second casino she had rented on the Giudecca for its scandalous and unacceptable mixing of sexes. A completely different personality was fixed in a piece in which Carriera again shows her dexterity in producing intimate studies of character. It is her portrayal of Suor Maria Caterina, which is kept in the Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice and dated c.1732–34 (Figure 20). Shown in the black and white habit of her order, the Dominican nun is depicted with a meditative gaze, downcast eyes, and hands folded in prayer. The emaciated face betrays a bony, skinny body, and the unkempt eyebrows and the

82 83 84 85 86

Mandelli, 2017, 602. Giacometti, 1997, 357. Mandelli, 2017, 602. Henning and Marx, 2007, 93. Plebani, 2004, 157.

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Figure 20 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Suor Maria Caterina 1732, pastel on paper, 44 × 35 cm. Venice, Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico. © Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico, Venice.

wrinkled hands are expressions of a frugal life of deprivation that corresponds to her introverted demeanour. Both her entire posture and the fact that she does not engage with the onlooker suggest that she is experiencing a moment of spiritual concentration, caught in an act of meditation. The intense and realistic rendering of the nun’s face was noticed also by the recipient of the pastel, Antonio dall’Agata, who wrote about it in a letter to Carriera in 1732: [This portrait] of the tertiary Domenicana […] agrees well enough with the description made to me some time ago of her life: that she is completely spiritual and does

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not nourish herself in any other way but for a little hot water; this is expressed in her extreme exhaustion and the splendour of her eyes.87

The woman depicted seems not to be aware of anybody looking at her, let alone painting her. The truthful, impressive rendering of this ageing, unpretentious nun might be seen as an exemplary image. As Campbell has shown in her insightful article on portraits of older women in early modern Italy, these works often had a moral and spiritual function. Based on the study of conduct literature from the sixteenth century, Campbell points out how old age was seen as the final stage of virtue, as a stage of sanctity, ‘a time when women were advised to set the cares of the world aside and devote themselves to God.’88 Campbell further highlights the exemplary character a portrait of this type could convey: the exchange among artist, sitter, viewer, and the ideals of female old age – in which the transformation of a revered […] mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, or nun into a living image could attract, arrest and infuse the beholder with virtue – could bring about new ideas about female old age and its potential as a phase of virtue.89

Carriera’s faithful version of nun Maria Caterina exudes a sense of remove that was typically accorded to iconic images of saints. In this sense, the portrait of this woman, who died with the reputation of being a saint herself, could easily be read as an image of virtue at the same time.90 The exemplary character of the pastel is even more convincing if we consider the fact that Carriera also explored the position and potential significance of ageing women on other occasions – as will be discussed later.

Carriera’s Favourite Pupil, Felicita Sartori Sartori moved into the Carriera home in 1728 when she was fourteen, having arrived, according to Dézallier d’Argenville, as a chambermaid only to later become Carriera’s student.91 87 Translated by Burns, 2002b, 17. The original reads: ‘Quello della terziaria Domenicana […] si conforma assai alla descrittione fatami già molto tempo della sua vita; ciò è che fosse tutto spirito e che non si nutrisce d’altro, che di quella poca d’acqua calda; il che lo esprime la sua estenuatezza e lo splendor degli occhi’. Sani, 1985, II, 565. As the letter was written in 1732 and as Isabella Piccini (1644–1734), a nun herself and one of the few female printmakers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, made a print after Carriera’s pastel, art historians date Carriera’s portrait between 1732 and Piccini’s death in 1734. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 326, pp. 293–94. 88 Campbell, 2010, 824. 89 Campbell, 2010, 826. 90 Campbell, 2010. 820. 91 Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 316. See also Sani, 1985, II, 499 and 519, where Sartori is mentioned together with a certain ‘Nane’, another chambermaid serving in the Carriera household.

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During the thirteen years she lived and worked with Carriera, Sartori received a sound artistic training and also found a place where she felt at home: she could go about her work and improve her skills learning from the Venetian master and copying oil paintings of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists.92 This time formed the basis of her future successful career: d’Argenville called her a Muse naissante (incipient Muse), and she was the only artist in Carriera’s studio to rise above the anonymous status of assistant by eventually becoming a respected court artist in Dresden (Plate 4).93 Her portrait, now kept in the Uffizi in Florence, shows Carriera’s favourite pupil as a pensive, slightly melancholy woman dressed up as a Turk, possibly for a carnival party or following the fashion of turquerie in the eighteenth century.94 Neither the theme nor the costume was unusual for Venice. Her head is adorned with a white turban with some jewels and a black feather, and her blue, floral-print cloak hangs open, giving the observer a glimpse of the white shirt and lace underneath. Around twenty-five at the time, Sartori is portrayed in a provocative, sensual stance, her head leaning slightly backward and to the side, her languid gaze fixed on the observer. In her left hand, she holds a black mask, called a moretta, which she might wear on the occasion of carnival. As well, the black colour contrasts beautifully with the whiteness of the shirt and the bright blue cloak. Sartori was portrayed by Carriera in this way around 1739, the year Franz Joseph von Hoffmann (1696–1749), privy councillor to the Saxon prince and Polish king August III, reappeared on the scene in Venice.95 On this trip, he was part of the entourage of Prince Frederick Christian. It was to be a turning point in Sartori’s life. Hoffmann not only purchased additional pastel paintings by Carriera for August III, one of her major customers, but he also bought a few miniatures by her pupil whom he met at Carriera’s house. August III was so delighted with these works that he invited Sartori to his court in Dresden. Hoffmann and Sartori began to correspond until he asked her to come to Germany, but she procrastinated. In May 1741, Sartori received an official invitation from Hoffmann to serve as court painter in Dresden. At the end of July in that same year, the couple married in Germany. Although Carriera did not personally accompany her protégé to Germany, she took care of the details of Sartori’s trip to Dresden, and made sure she had an honourable companion for the journey.96 The strong emotions that linked those two women find their clearest expressions in the way their feelings of loss are described in the surviving documents and by the 92 Sartori made copies of paintings by Piazzetta, Carlo Cignani, Nikolaus Knüpfer, Rubens and others; see Sani, 2003, 495–97. 93 Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 316. 94 A copy of the pastel is kept in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 345, pp. 306–7. Regarding another potential portrait of Sartori, see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 213, pp. 210–12, and cat. no 309, p. 279. 95 He had already accompanied the Saxon ruler on his trip to Venice in 1716; B. Marx, 2010, 23. He came back in 1739 in order to collect the paintings sold by Smith and transport them to Dresden; Sani, 2003, 495. 96 Sani, 1985, II, 672.

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somewhat odd gesture of a friend to send Carriera a piece of Sartori’s garter.97 On the one hand, this gesture could be seen as emphasizing and respecting the close affective ties between the women, but the nature of the object is striking, to say the least: Carriera was given something very intimate from Sartori’s private sphere – an object associated with the bride’s loss of virginity – as though she, Carriera, was the parent who had given Sartori to her husband and to the consummation of the marriage, or as if she was, probably unconsciously, associated with her friend’s defloration. With this gift, Carriera is symbolically involved in the bodily consequences of her beloved friend’s marriage, and invited to conserve the proof of these consequences as a physical, touchable item. Referring at the same time to the piece of garter as a reliquia (relic, that is something belonging to a saint or to someone deceased) also implied that it came from someone who was no longer physically present to Carriera. At any rate, and maybe not truly by coincidence, the gift to Carriera was certainly highly symbolic. In considering the various facets of Carriera and Sartori’s intense relationship that extant documents reveal, the question arises as to how modern scholars conceive of this friendship, and also what others thought about it during the artist’s lifetime. Interestingly enough, the names of Carriera and Sartori have not been included in any of the scholarly explorations of gender studies, queer studies, friendship studies or studies on female bonding and social interaction in general. As for contemporary documents, they typically underline either the ‘student-teacher’ relationship, or the protective ‘mother-daughter’ bond, or, more generally, the particular intensity of a female friendship, a phenomenon publicized in Europe in an unprecedented way beginning in the seventeenth century. Keeping these results of my analysis in mind, it is worthwhile re-examining the portrait that Carriera executed of her student and friend (Plate 4). Apart from the protagonist, the most interesting object in the painting is arguably the mask. In a thematically and stylistically similar piece by Carriera in Dresden, the sitter also called The Turk, is, like Sartori, depicted in his exotic attire and with curled whiskers. He holds a coffee cup, an object which can be easily associated with a Turk.98 Apart from the whiskers which are probably artificial,99 no other object or attribute can be seen that alludes to disguise, concealment or masquerade. So why did Carriera choose to include a mask in her student’s portrait – apart from the fact that since the seventeenth century the mask was connoted feminine100 – and not an item that would allude to a Turkish woman? 97 See Sani, 1985, II, 814–15. 98 See Henning and Marx 2007, 80–81. 99 As wearing a beard was not fashionable at the time, this pastel is a real exception within Carriera’s works. Regarding the significance of beards in the eighteenth century, see Rosenthal, 2004a, 2–7. Rosenthal highlights how facial hair establishes ideas of ethnic identity. She quotes a letter in which Richard Pococke, an Irish archaeologist described how his whiskers more than the Turkish habit and the turban he wore provoked sensations of ethnic transformation; see Rosenthal, 2004a, 5–6. 100 Regarding the use of and implications of masks in a gendered discourse, see Trauth, 2009, 34–38. In fact, also in Carriera’s oeuvre, the majority of people depicted with a mask are women; if a man shows a mask, it is a foreigner who wanted to underline his presence in Venice and participation in the Venetian life and tradition, as described above.

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So far, the mask in Sartori’s portrait has been read as an allusion to the carnival tradition in Venice or to the representation of ‘Simulation’ or ‘Painting’, based on Ripa’s description of Simluatione or Pittura. It was also interpreted as a symbol of deceit, fraud or falsehood, but a different meaning now emerges that seems more convincing.101 In 2011, Johnson offered a new reading of a Woman Holding a Mask and a Pomegranate by the Florentine artist Lorenzo Lippi (1606–1665). In the context of this painting, Johnson suggested interpreting the mask as ‘a version of the honest mask that hides all things securely within the heart’,102 as an instrument of virtue, a symbol of ‘a modus vivendi, intended to preserve rather than disrupt.’103 This finding also offers an interesting key to a better understanding of Carriera’s portrait. Accordingly, in both Lippi’s and her painting, the sitters cover the mask’s mouth with a finger, Sartori tellingly with her index finger, the one typically used to put on lips in order to indicate silence. This reading would fit into the way the moretta was worn: it had no bands or strings and it was held in place by means of a button that the one who wore the mask had to clench in between her teeth. Consequently, speech was effectively precluded.104 It might well be, therefore, that Carriera, who entertained – as was shown above – a very close, intimate relationship with her student, was either trying to include a warning against feigning and falsehood, or, what seems to be more likely, she might have aimed at reinforcing their close ties by showing her dearest friend as one who keeps the secrets of her heart. Could the portrait thus be understood as a token of trust, of mutual agreement or a secret arrangement? Apparently, Carriera made this pastel after a self-portrait by Sartori in the form of a miniature, today kept in Dresden.105 Unfortunately, the addressees of the miniature and of the pastel are unknown, but I am inclined to the hypothesis that Carriera copied her student and friend’s little painting during the period when Sartori was staying at her house, because of their strong emotional bonds. In 2006, Ulrich Pfisterer pointed out in his article, ‘Freundschaftsbilder – Liebesbilder’ (Friendship paintings – paintings of love), that since the Renaissance no specific iconography, no visual code existed that clearly differentiated depictions of friendship from those of two men expressing love for one another. A fluid shift from amor to amicitia allowed for a partially desirable ambiguous veil that permitted a piece’s open interpretation.106 As far as the Freundschaftsbild (friendship painting) and a Freundinnen-Paarbildnis (painting of a couple of female friends) is concerned, 101 Leuschner points out already before Johnson that Ripa’s Iconologia contains more than twenty different entries in which a mask is employed, inviting art historians to seek a different explanation of the mask as a symbol. See Leuschner, 2010, 311–12. 102 Johnson, 2011, 97. 103 Johnson, 2011, 101. 104 Steward, 1996, 20–21. 105 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 344, p. 306. 106 Pfisterer, 2006, 240.

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Baumgärtel describes the phenomenon in a way similar to what Pfisterer says.107 While in the so-called friendship painting (female) the artist’s friends are portrayed typically at bust-length, concentrating on the facial expression and the intense glance with which the sitter looks at the beholder, the depiction of two female friends include both figures, the model and the artist.108 Usually, the emotional bond between the two women is expressed through physical closeness and/or the tender exchange of looks. A certain openness as to the interpretation of the relationship between the women is also maintained in these two cases. If this second interpretation of the significance of Sartori’s mask in Carriera’s pastel is correct, this work could represent a unique combination of a Freundschaftsbild and a Freundinnen-Paarbildnis. In Carriera’s admittedly rather sensual work, Sartori’s seductive pose, her languid glance and the mask in her hand intrinsically link the friends together as the artist is symbolically present not only as the creator of the painting but also in a subtle way as recipient of Sartori’s glance with which she intensely looks out towards the onlooker in general and the artist in particular. Her gesture of covering the mask’s mouth, the indication of keeping silence, is open to interpretation.

Carriera’s Young Lady with a Parrot An entirely different and particularly dazzling painting of Carriera’s is her Young Lady with a Parrot at the Art Institute of Chicago (Plate 5). The pastel, dated c.1720–30, shows an unknown, young elegant and, according to Sani, probably English woman who, with the hint of a smile on her bright red lips, looks directly at the spectator. The vivacious lady is depicted with cascades of reddish, bejewelled hair falling on her back and her shoulders, a kind of hairstyle that is an absolute exception in Carriera’s rendering of women. Fashion and societal norms would prescribe a more contained, controlled way of wearing one’s hair.109 A blossomed rose and some smaller flowers at the height of her ear embellish the right side of her head. Furthermore, the woman in Chicago is wearing a fancy blue silk dress with more jewellery attached to the sleeves that is open almost all the way down to her waist. She invites the onlooker’s gaze to linger freely on the subject’s broad expanses of soft and naked flesh.110 A mischievous parrot perching on two fingers of her left hand holds in its beak one brim of her 107 Baumgärtel explains the development and characteristics of the different types of portraits within the oeuvre of Angelica Kauffmann; see Baumgärtel, 2009, 221–40. 108 Baumgärtel, 2009, 234 and 237. 109 Regarding the significance of hair in the eighteenth century, including bears and eyebrows, as an important aspect in life and in representations, see Rosenthal, 2004a. 110 Burns, 2007, 96. Sani notices the sitter’s similarity to one of Lord Manchester’s daughters as portrayed by Pellegrini in a 1713 painting now in Kimbolton castle; see Sani, 1991, 82.

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bodice and is in the act of pulling it back to reveal even more of her bosom. Two long strings of pearls are wound around her neck only to be crossed in the middle of her chest and tied with a pink and white bow on her left breast which further emphasizes the painting’s erotic charge. The parrot represents a peculiar attribute, which from a purely aesthetic point of view enhances the colour scheme’s elegant balance – it has a green-blue plumage that beautifully matches the young woman’s silk dress. It is interesting to note that a parrot had been used in several of the artworks by the Venetian artist and her pupils with the symbolic implications of the exotic companion not always being the same.111 The most interesting example in this context is a miniature that the Musée d’Art e d’Histoire in Geneva put on display in 1956. It shows another young lady with a parrot on her hand that is about to reveal the girl’s breast by pulling back part of her clothes.112 The artist had used exactly the same idea already many years earlier in a piece that could have been used as the decoration of a lid of a snuffbox which would have explained the daring subject more easily, considering the privacy of the object and its consequentially reduced visibility. As for the interpretation of the pastel in Chicago, Cesare Ripa and his Iconologia – which Carriera used as a textual resource for symbolic meaning in a number of her paintings as we have seen – is not really helpful in understanding the parrot’s meaning. Ripa linked this specific bird primarily to the figures of ‘Quiescence’,113 ‘Docility’114 and ‘Eloquence’.115 Sani suggests that Carriera could have instead referred to Ripa’s association of ‘lust’ with a sparrow and herself freely interpreted this figure with a poem by Catullus in mind, in which Lesbia holds a sparrow close to her breast.116 It seems a bit far-fetched to believe that, because of the artist’s friendship with the Paduan humanist Giovanni Antonio Volpi (1686–1766), who published an edition of Catullus, Carriera reinterpreted both, Ripa and Catullus. Maybe her choice to include a parrot rather than a sparrow is based on a different tradition in which the exotic bird is directly associated with lust, sensuality and eroticism, as can be observed in other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century paintings.117 An interesting example of this association occurs in a work by Nicolas de Largillière in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, dated 1696 (Figure 21). It shows the full-size portrait of a woman in a garden playing with the water spurting out of a fountain in the company of her African slave child, who is holding onto a dog, while the woman’s pet parrot sits in front of her on the basin of a wall fountain nibbling a cherry. 111 112 113 114 115 116 117

Johns, 2003, 36. Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 40, p. 82. Johns, 2003, 38. Sani, 1991, 81. Ripa, 1603, 128. Sani, 1991, 82–85 See also Zaunschirm, 1985, 16.

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Figure 21 Nicolas Largillière, Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Madame Claude Lambert de Thorigny (Marie Marguerite Bontemps, 1668–1701), and an Enslaved Servant 1696, oil on canvas, 139.7 × 106.7 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no. 03.37.2. © bpk/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Without trying to suggest that Carriera knew Largillière’s piece and took inspiration from it, I still find it worthwhile to underline a curious conceptual similarity that links the two paintings: the disclosure of a female body by, or in the presence of, a parrot, even if in Largillière’s earlier canvas it is not the parrot that is about to reveal parts of the body of the protagonist but the woman herself who is lifting up her dress. Largillière repeated this eroticizing element and clarified it by means of the specular representation of a more daring exposure of a female statue’s leg, which is located in

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a niche behind the woman. The parrot nibbling on a cherry, a symbol of sexual organs and the sins of the flesh,118 underlines further the painting’s erotic charge. Interestingly, Carriera had used the same combination of a young woman, a bird and cherries to create a sexual innuendo in a miniature now held in the Devonshire Collection in Chatsworth. She would later exploit the theme on a bigger scale in her pastel.119 At the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, a painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770), dated 1760–61, again depicts a female figure holding a parrot. While De Grazia maintains that Tiepolo’s half-length depiction of the beautiful woman, the hazy contours of her head and the fluid brushwork of the flowers in the coiffure are direct reflections of his familiarity and appreciation of Carriera’s art, this painting theme is slightly different from both her painting of the young woman in a state of undress and Largillière’s of the woman in the garden. De Grazia interprets the Tiepolo painting as a depiction of a Venetian courtesan, evidenced by such typical attributes as the roses in her hair, a yellow dress, costly pearls and the macaw as a symbol of lust.120 In this third painting of possibly a prostitute, the interpretation of the same exotic bird right next to an exposed breast is just as convincing a symbol of longing, libido and sensuality.121 The paintings, Woman with a Parrot by Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), dated 1827, and the one either by Gustave Courbet (1817–1877) or Edouard Manet (1832–1883), both executed in 1866 and residing today in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, mark further steps in the development of an unequivocally erotic theme that Carriera’s pastel importantly conveyed as early as the decade between 1720 and 1730. Moreover, the fact that Carriera portrayed the woman with particularly strong red lips, a wild rose in her sinuous curly tresses of red-blonde curly hair that is carefully draped over her shoulders, emphasizing two strings of pearls that lie crossed upon her partly exposed chest and tie in a diagonal across her dress, reminds us of three aspects Pedrocco has described in his article as being part, since the sixteenth century, of the typical iconography of Venetian courtesans.122 Moreover, Gill Perry has shown how in eighteenth-century England, hair, and especially curls, could function as a fetish with a variety of sexually charged associations.123 One the most striking passages that the author quotes is a citation from Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty (1753) which is worth being repeated here: The most amiable [form] in itself is the flowing curl; and the many waving and contrasted turns of naturally intermingling locks ravish the eye with the pleasure 118 See Williams, 1994, 232–33. For further information on the painting see Rosenfeld, ed.,Largillière and the Eighteenth-Century Portrait, 1982, 120–23. 119 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 85, p. 107. 120 De Grazia, 1996, 256–57. 121 See also exhibition catalogue, Loire et al., ed., Giambattista Tiepolo 1696–1770, 1998, 214. 122 See Pedrocco, 1990, 82. 123 Perry, 2004, 150.

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of pursuit, especially when they are put in motion by a gentle breeze. The poet knows it as well as the painter, and has described the wanton ringlets waving in the wind.124

As mentioned above, there is no other example within Carriera’s oeuvre where a woman is presented with long curly hair as in the pastel in Chicago, which further supports the thesis that the artist depicted the woman in this way to underscore the eroticism in the piece. And maybe it is no coincidence either that both Tiepolo’s woman and Carriera’s woman in her blue dress wear a clearly visible rose attached to their hair. Even though flowers often decorated the heads of women in the eighteenth century, I wonder if the choice of the rose was purely fortuitous, especially as roses are a common and central symbol in courtly literature with sexual connotations, and they were at the same time a well-known symbol connected with Venus.125 One of the well-known and popular handbooks in Italy that explained the iconography of the ancient gods and their symbols was Vincenzo Cartari’s (1531–1569) Le immagini dei Dei degli antichi which was first published in 1556 and immediately enjoyed an enormous success.126 The first illustrated edition of this best-selling publication followed in 1571 and numerous editions and translations in various languages resulted from its popularity. Cartari’s references to roses are connected with Venus, the goddess of love. He explained how they belonged to her: they have a sweet perfume that represents the sweetness of amorous pleasures, that is to say, because just as roses are colourful and may only with difficulty be picked without feeling the sting of the sharp thorns, so it seems that lust brings with it our blushing every time that we recall its ugliness, wherefrom our consciousness of the mistakes we have already made stings us, and runs through us in a way that we feel very sharply. What is more, the beauty of a rose which brings delight to the beholder lasts for a very short time, and soon it fades, as do amorous pleasures, too.127

124 Quoted in Perry, 2004, 150. 125 Regarding roses as symbols of female sexuality, see also Rosenthal, 2004b, 569. 126 Sheriff, 1990, 75. Cartari’s publication was part of the three most popular sixteenth-century writings that not only wakened interest in ancient mythology but also served to inform and inspire poets and artists for the use of certain motifs; Umbach, 2008, 64. 127 ‘Perche queste hanno soave odore, che rappresenta la soavità dei piaceri amorosi: ovvero perche come le rose sono colorite, e malagevolmente si possono cogliere senza sentire le punture delle acute spine, così pare, che la libidine seco porti il farci arrossire ogni volta, che della brutezza di quella che si ricordiamo, onde la conscienza de i già commessi errori ci punge, e ci trafigge in modo, che ne sentiamo gravissimo dolore. Oltre di ciò la bellezza della rosa, onde porge diletto a’riguardanti, dura brevissimo tempo; e tosto langue, come fanno etiandio gli amorosi piaceri.’ Cartari, 1608, 485–86.

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Cartari’s ‘amourous pleasures’ and the fleetingness of physical satisfaction and of beauty fit in with Pedrocco’s description of a courtesan and make it all the more plausible that both the parrot and the other details are significant facets of Carriera’s idea of presenting a flamboyant, eroticized subject.

Portrait or Allegory? Among Carriera’s impressive oeuvre of pastels we find numerous examples in which the genre of a private client’s portrait is inextricably mingled with a depiction of an allegory. Earlier examples of Venetian Renaissance art had already shown a ‘wash of meaning’ without fixing or limiting the sitter.128 It is enough to remember the tradition of depicting beautiful women as half-figures by Giovanni Bellini, Titian, Palma il Vecchio (c.1480–1528) or Veronese that appear as Floras, Venuses or nymphs. For the most part, they can neither be identified, nor can it be clearly established whether they are the foremost representatives of ideal beauty without regard for the model’s true identity.129 It is an overlap that can also be found in many paintings of the period in which Carriera works, as the beginning of the eighteenth century in general is marked by a real efflorescence of female allegories and allegorical portraits. Next to the traditional repertory of women depicted as Diana, Venus or Flora, they also now appeared dressed as Muses, goddesses of youth, vestal virgins, and other figures of mythology and ancient history. The number of these depictions between 1700 and 1750 is impressive; at the same time, it is important to note that ‘allegorical portraiture ceased to function as a viable convention for the representation of men.’130 Carriera’s oeuvre precisely reflects this situation. Among the dozens of historiated portraits of figures who appear in allegorical or mythological attire, none of them depict men. However, a clear distinction cannot always be made between these works and real portraits of dressed-up women. As Burns pointed out: Undoubtedly some [of the allegories] were originally portraits of identified sitters, perhaps lightly disguised as a form of flattery, but they have lost their referentiality with the passage of time. Yet others were imaginative creations from the beginning.131

128 Junkermann, 1988, 358. 129 The literature regarding these paintings and their authors is boundless; particularly helpful in this context is Steele’s article ‘In the Flower of their Youth: Portraits of Venetian Beauties ca. 1500’ (1997). Regarding the blurring of boundaries of genre in Venetian Renaissance paintings see also D’Elia, 2006, 324–34. 130 Nicholson, 1997, 56. 131 Burns, 2002b, 18.

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In 1733, the English antiquarian, astronomer and mathematician Martin Folkes (1690–1754) wrote in his travel journal: ‘I saw among others [in Carriera’s studio] a fine idea representing musick; the face was taken I heard from a person now kept by an English Nobleman.’132 Even though Carriera’s images did in any case epitomize contemporary notions of beauty which undermined the idea of true likeness and might have contributed to the confusion, it needs to be underlined that the potential ambiguity of her allegorical figures is not exclusively due to the absence of documents or lack of knowledge regarding the names of her sitters; instead, it reflects the eighteenth-century taste for picturesque charade, playful masquerades and pictorial riddles that invited the onlookers to identify the real person behind the painting by various hints and allusions to a painting’s play of meanings. To set these aside as simply forms of pure flattery or as expressions of the idealized effeminate world of Rococo does not reach far enough. Nicholson justly points out: Through the agency of allegorical portraiture, a symbolic system evolved that plotted the complexity or difficulty of forging female identity in response to their negative assumptions governing women’s behavior and dictating their function in society.133

The choices of subject and the various nuances added to the themes could turn allegorical paintings into pictorial articulations of the struggle between societal expectations or values and the real aspirations of those women depicted. Nicholson adds: ‘The sitter could reconfigure selfhood or identity as a process of continual inventions, open to amendment.’134 Also, in Carriera’s case, the evidence of female commissions of some of these pieces suggests that women were at some level complicit in the process. In the Dresden collection of Carriera’s works is one of the numerous portraits she made of the Venetian mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni.135 Bordoni, who had made her successful debut in 1716 in the San Giovanni Crisostomo Theatre in Venice, was one of the internationally celebrated opera divas in Europe. From Venice she went to Florence, Bologna, Rome, Munich, Naples and Vienna. In London, where George Friedrich Handel (1685–1759) dominated the musical scene at the time, she became the legendary rival of Francesca Cuzzoni (1696–1778). A nasty onstage fight between the two prima donnas occurred inside the King’s Theatre in London during the last performance of Bononcini’s opera Astianatte on 6 June 1727, and in the presence of 132 Quoted after Burns, 2007, 94. 133 Nicholson, 1997, 57. 134 Nicholson, 1997, 57. 135 In 1745, Felicita Sartori also executed two miniatures of the soprano and her husband that are still part of the Dresden collection; Henning and Marx, 2007, 44.

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the Princess of Wales. This event provoked gossip all over Europe with the effect of spreading their fame throughout various countries.136 In 1730 Bordoni married the composer Johann Adolf Hasse (1699–1763) who was particularly famed in Venice for his contributions to the opera seria. The following year she moved with him to Dresden where they became part of the illustrious court of Augustus the Strong (1670–1733). Hasse played an important part in establishing the tradition of Italian opera there and Bordoni, the prima donna assoluta, continued to work successfully in Saxony, interpreting, among other things, the works of her husband. For the next twenty years she performed at various European theatres.137 The earlier portrait Carriera made of her, probably executed between 1724 and 1725 (Figure 22), positions the singer as an eroticized figure in an allegory about music or song. She is depicted with black hair and wearing a blue cloak over a thin white shirt that leaves her left breast exposed. As a further contrast, the red ribbon and the lace on the singer’s shoulder are added, but these are visually counteracted by the flowers in her hair and by a glittering pearl earring.138 Her exposed bosom, her mouth slightly opened as if she were about to sing and the sheet music she holds all suggest that she should also be identified as a muse. In fact, in view of the mezzo-soprano’s age, her light clothing and her sensuality, she resembles Carriera’s versions of muses.139 In this way, not only does Faustina represent music; she is at one with it, and her physical appearance seems to step behind these allegorical expressions of success and social identity.140 Interestingly enough, in the portrait of the singer at a later stage in her life, which is housed in the Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice, Carriera depicted her in a completely different way (Figure 23). This artwork is a realistic portrait of a woman around forty years of age. It was a period in her life in which she started to reduce her engagements abroad, staying for the most part in Dresden with her husband. Carriera concentrated on the calm, serene face, cutting off her left shoulder and including only the very brim of her cleavage. She also depicted Faustina with her natural hair. The singer’s dress is adorned with small, modest pieces of jewellery that are complemented with two sparkling earrings. At this point in her career, it seems that allusions to her profession are not necessary anymore, nor any lavish clothes that would distract from Bordoni’s face. This portrait is not a tool to advertise the outstanding capacities of a mezzo-soprano but acts as a character study of an accomplished and self-confident woman.

136 Emerson, 2005, 68. 137 Regarding the cultural transfer between Dresden and Venice and the migration of singers to the Dresden opera c.1730, see Mücke, 2010, 140–53. 138 Regarding other portraits of the singer by Carriera, see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 202, p. 202; cat. no. 372, p. 328; and cat. no. 408, p. 354. 139 See Henning and Marx, 2007, 60–64. 140 If we compare the work with a pastel by Carriera that depicts another, anonymous Venetian singer, today part of a private collection, the emphasis on the allegorical elevation of Faustina becomes even more evident. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 74, p. 104.

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Figure 22 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Faustina Bordoni c.1724–25, pastel on paper, 44.5 × 33.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 118. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Mythological Subjects Another often requested theme was the depiction of mythological figures and goddesses, with Diana being the most popular. Numerous indications in Carriera’s letters and diary entries confirm that she regularly worked on different versions of the hunting goddess, especially during the 1730s. At least twelve renditions by Carriera

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Figure 23 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Faustina Bordoni c.1731–40, pastel on paper, 47 × 35 cm. Venice, Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico. © Museo del Settecento, Ca‘ Rezzonico, Venice.

are known in the literature.141 The images of the chaste deity that follow the eighteenth-century fashion of alluring pastoral scenes and historiated portraits were a perfect example of an erotically coded role model which offered collectors or 141 Sani included twelve miniatures and pastels depicting Diana, Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 41, 59, 148, 193, 215, 247, 248, 249, 262, 263, 400, 413; see also Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/Articles/Carriera2s.pdf, pp. 6–9 (accessed on 9 July 2018).

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spectators in general the opportunity to either identify or be identified with her. This becomes particularly obvious in those cases in which Carriera portrayed a woman dressed as Diana, as in an early miniature on ivory which is part of the Dresden collection.142 The elegant young woman is depicted as fully dressed and she shows the typical hairstyle of her time. In her right hand, she holds an arrow that, as an attribute of Diana, is completed with the quiver visible on her back. The ambivalent gesture with which she seems to measure or caress the arrow in front of her, clearly marks its phallic connotations; these go hand in hand with the subject’s deeply cut cleavage and her direct, almost provocative gaze. These eroticizing elements have led Sani to describe Carriera’s version of this goddess as an expression of ‘malicious gallantry’,143 and this miniature was not the only example of such an approach. Apart from the traditional attributes of the quiver and arrows, Carriera added either a dog and/or a half moon on the goddess’s forehead to other versions. If the function of some of her pastels was not primarily to represent her clients’ likenesses but also to render parts of their figures in ways that Sani calls ‘subtly ambiguous’,144 the women were typically depicted as sexually desirable beauties with a dreamy expression and at least one of their breasts exposed. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg holds an outstanding pastel showing a Diana by Carriera with other sensual and more explicit erotic elements (Plate 6).145 Together with the pendant piece of Apollo (Figure 24) they were part of Robert Walpole’s collection, who hung them in the great middle room of his mansion in Downing street.146 The goddess, half dressed in a flimsy white shirt underneath a bright blue mantle, is framed at three-quarter length. Attributes of Diana (like the delicate halfmoon on her head as well as the presence of a hunting dog) leave no doubts about her identity. The alluring glance of her big dark eyes and the exposure of her porcelain-white left breast that beautifully contrasts with her brilliant blue shoulder mantle – both tangibly convey this artwork’s sensuality. By the way she looks directly at the spectator, she does not seem to be too aware of, or distressed by, the risk of losing her virginity; she rather represents or looks forward to the joy of seduction. With her right hand, Diana holds or pats her companion’s left leg after he jumps onto her lap in between the goddess’s legs; the dog licks her right forearm.147 With her left index finger and thumb, she pinches the part of the dog’s leash next to her exposed breast. As Burns has already pointed out, we find gestures in Carriera’s works that ‘when present, are active but often ambiguous.’148 And, as far as the sexual nature of hands 142 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 41, p. 82. 143 Sani, 2007b, 82. 144 Sani, 1978, 204 145 The pastel stems from the collection of paintings formerly owned by Robert Walpole; Sani, 2007b, 358. 146 Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 413, p. 358. 147 Carriera used the same idea in an earlier pastel dated c.1722, the location of which is unknown today. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 148, p. 155. 148 Burns, 2007, 98.

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Figure 24 Rosalba Carriera, Apollo 1740–46, pastel on paper, 67 × 52 cm. Saint Petersburg, the State Hermitage, inv. OR-17961. Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo by Konstantin Sinyavsky.

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are concerned, Welch has shown that since the early Renaissance they were understood as potential signifiers of erotic love. The hands being one of the few areas of flesh visible on the Renaissance body, Welch has highlighted that they were repeatedly celebrated in Petrarchan poetry. When hand gestures are placed in conjunction with glancing eyes and playful smile, the externalization of desire falls in line with the conventional imagery of the Petrarchan lover.149 In Carriera’s case, the erotic charge lies also in other details of the pastel. The leash fashioned of another material softer than leather, the pinching fingers, the breast and the licking dog are all placed around Diana’s lap. Their positioning epitomizes the painting’s thinly veiled eroticism. Carriera’s intention is particularly witty: the goddess, who had Actaeon killed by his own hunting dogs in order to protect her chastity and to punish him for his forbidden voyeurism, shows herself with hardly anything concealed from anyone. Still, the spectator is being warned by the presence of the dog that seems to dissuade any imagined transgression, while being beguiled with the sexual allusions. The symbols of the goddess who has taken the vow of chastity are clearly put on display, but at the same time, her body and the sexual innuendo that is prominently displayed turn the spectator who lingers over the image into a participant in a potentially dangerous game of glances. It is an encounter of the two, the onlooker is Actaeon enchanted by the naked beauty of the goddess but, unlike the hunter, he/she is fully aware of the titillating fatality of the enchanting vision.150 In the pendant piece (see Figure 24), the figure of Apollo is depicted as the usual half-figure, mirroring almost perfectly Diana’s pose. He is wearing a laurel crown on his blonde curly hair and a lyre in front of his torso that is only slightly covered by a brown cape. Apollo’s eyes are not directed towards the onlooker but towards the top right corner of the painting. Unlike a fair amount of Carriera’s pastels, the background is not simply anonymous, but it shows bushes and trees. This pastel is the only one in Carriera’s oeuvre that focuses on an almost nude male figure, and it is hardly a coincidence that she depicted Apollo in this way. As discussed in the context of her miniature of Armida and Rinaldo, she aptly chose a figure that does not require the representation of a virile male body. As the sun god’s iconography allows for an effeminate body, Carriera could avoid being criticized for her lack of male anatomy studies. Her knowledge of and capacity to depict female bodies was sufficient for this piece, and indeed, if we compare Apollo’s body with those of Winter or Autumn as Venus with Cupid’, both in the Royal Collections in Windsor, the Muse Clio, once part of the Dresden collection, or Poetry in Karlsruhe,151 just to name a few, we see that the 149 Welch, 2009, 260, and Elston, 2018, 29. 150 The same idea was expressed in an earlier pastel dated c.1722, where the same licking dog is part of the paintings’ erotic charge. However, in Carriera’s earlier version, Diana is in the act of unleashing her companion, which could have been intended as a similar, even more explicit warning regarding sexual transgression. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 148, p. 155. 151 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 130, p. 138; cat. no. 285, p. 262; cat. no. 373, p. 329; and cat. no. 374, p. 330.

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anatomy of all of them is basically the same. Even the breasts are only slightly more developed in the female figures. Carriera’s choice to combine the god of youth, healing, music and prophecy with Diana can be explained by the fact that they were twins who loved to go hunting together. The fact that Apollo is depicted by himself, presenting his lyre in a rather ostentatious way, suggests that the artist alluded to one of the most famous episodes of the stories regarding Diana’s twin-brother, that is, the musical contest between him and the satyr Marsyas. According to the myth told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses and in his Fasti, Marsyas, in a fit of pride and presumption, dared challenge the mythic god of poetry and music. The satyr played the double-pipe Minerva had invented and thrown away, and Apollo defeated him with his lyre. The winner’s reward was to choose the punishment and the temperamental Apollo decided to have Marsyas flayed. Interestingly, Carriera did not underline the contest between satyr and god: she did not highlight the judgement of their respective merits or, unlike Ovid, the brutal punishment. She showed an intermediate, undefined phase open to interpretation. The entire story is implied in the presentation of the lyre, his glance beyond the onlooker and the fact that Apollo is standing outside, close to trees that could refer to the spot where Marsyas would be tied to a tree in order to be flayed. At the same time, the sensuality of the god’s body, his perfect, white smooth skin cannot be overlooked. The satyr’s death embodies the end of dark, low, uncontrollable instincts and passion. Marsyas’ base sexuality eventually gives way to Apollonian purity. As we have seen before, also in these two pastels, Carriera cleverly combines different layers of meaning. The onlooker has the possibility of a moral reading of her pieces, while he/she can easily indulge in the pleasures of erotically charged images. Both pastels show a god and a goddess who torture and eventually kill an intruder or rival. Neither sexual transgression nor hubris remain unpunished. Regarding Carriera’s rendering of the temperamental musician, yet another aspect needs to be highlighted. With his curly hair, his perfectly straight nose and his strigilated eyebrows, he resembles, in an astonishing way, Antinous. Caroline Vout describes typical characteristics of the ancient Antinous statues and reliefs that regard primarily his hair as follows. The luscious curls from a round mop of hair which seems to sit like a cap on the crown of the head covering a series of longer, straggly locks which poke out beneath to conceal the nape of the neck. Longer curls hide the subject’s ears. More specifically, the upper curls fall forward from the crown in a soft comma formation separating just the left of centre to sweep up and back towards left and right respectively.152 152 Vout, 2005, 85.

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Apollo’s hair resembles the ancient model, and in combination with the effeminized looks, classicizing features, the marble-like skin and melting gaze, it does not seem far-fetched to assume that Carriera drew on the ancient image. Reproductions and prints were widespread, and, since the Renaissance numerous artists included adaptations of the beautiful youth in their paintings or sculptures.153 Considering the increasing popularity of Antinous in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and Carriera’s erudition, the citation of Hadrian’s young lover is plausible. What is sure is that the revealed bust, the undermining of the arm muscles and, especially, the hair and straight nose suggest a link between her Apollo and the famous Antinous. It remains speculation to tie this invention of hers to any other specific cast or print,154 but it is reasonable to believe that she knew the bust of Antinous that was in Venice since the end of the sixteenth century. It is a bust nowadays kept in the Palazzo Grimani in Venice (Figure 25), and it shows an interesting parallel to Carriera’s piece that is not to be found easily in any of the depictions of the ancient beauty – that is, the laurel crown. While the hair of the marble version of Antinous is also decorated with flowers, Carriera, who might have found inspiration for her pastel in this bust, reduced the decoration to laurel leaves, according to the iconography of Apollo. Another interesting aspect of the pastel is that Carriera chose to use the figure of Antinous for her sun god Apollo; the two figures show indeed analogies: both were known for being beautiful youths, both (eventually) were divine and both were hunters. And even if Carriera did not know about their overlapping stories,155 or about the fact that there was a tradition since antiquity of linking the two figures, she could have easily created an analogy by herself, thanks to their outstanding beauty and their youth. Again Carriera proved herself to be a widely versed and well-informed painter whose artistic taste was not only highly refined but pioneering. Especially with this piece, she heralded the return to classical art of the following generation of artists. 153 See for example Donatello’s (1386–1466) bronze David-Mercury or Michelangelo’s (1475–1563) Bacchus, both in the Bargello in Florence, Lorenzetto’s version of Antinous’ head for Raphael’s statue of Jonah in Santa Maria del Popolo; see Vout, 2005, 83, and Mambella 2008, 263–65. Also Titian’s (c.1490–1576) oeuvre shows various quotations from antique sculpture; Krischel, 2007, 116. 154 In 1735, a bas-relief of Antinous was excavated and immediately bought by Cardinal Albani the following year. It was a relief that caused a stir and profound admiration by the art lovers and connoisseurs of Europe, and it was immediately published after its discovery. As Carriera was in touch with cardinal Albani at least since the end of the 1730s, and as the pastel is roughly dated c.1740, it is by no means clear, but a slight possibility, that she drew on the example, either thanks to her personal relationship with the cardinal or thanks to the numerous prints and casts that circulated of the relief in the eighteenth century. Also a statue of the same Antinous was already in the Albani collection and described in the inventory of 1733. Regarding early publications with illustrations of the Albani relief starting in 1736, see Haskell and Penny, 1981, 144–46. 155 Vout, 2005, 90.

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Figure 25 Bust of Antinous 2nd century AD, marble, 80 cm. Venice, Museo Archeologico Nazionale – Museo di Palazzo Grimani, inv. 382. © Museo di Palazzo Grimani.

The Reception of Carriera’s Erotic Pastels To depict, allude to or explore the amorous and erotic life in the eighteenth century was the common practice of painters as well as writers all over Europe; Venice, in particular, seemed to offer an even more perfect stage. Mary Sheriff described the situation in the lagoon city as follows: gallants paid court to ladies, rakes dallied with wayward wives, and coquettes flirted with everyone. Women achieved celebrity as actresses, dancers and singers, and some lived the good life as courtesans whom rich men supported. Inside performance spaces, love held sway in theatre boxes and corridors, while at masquerades disguises concealed unsanctioned dalliance. Adding spice to love were the

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pleasures of music, food, wine, and wit, and in affairs of the heart love letters were written, gifts given, and portraits exchanged.156

That Carriera also produced overtly erotic works is not as surprising as the fact that through the double meanings and ambiguities of her paintings, which could include moralizing aspects, she managed to keep her reputation and protect her image as a morally impeccable artist. In the context of her miniatures, the format of the artwork itself might have served as a kind of protective shield, but in connection with her pastels that were also displayed in illustrious residences and in famous galleries, a different agenda must have been at work. On a purely practical level, beyond the honour of the academy memberships in Rome, Bologna and Paris, these institutions were important for Carriera’s as they offered public platforms to display her paintings at their exhibitions.157 At least in their spaces her reception pieces would be visible. Apart from these, Carriera’s paintings were hardly ever exposed in public exhibitions. In Florence, Cosimo III offered artists an international stage to present their works in the public exhibitions held since 1673 in the cloister of Santissima Annunziata.158 Unlike the organization of the Salons in Paris where the artists themselves sent in their works, the paintings shown to the public were given on loan by collectors. As far as Carriera’s pastels are concerned, the visitors could admire examples of her art at least twice, next to her female colleagues Giovanna Fratellini (1666–1731), Maria Maddalena Gozzi (1718–1782) or Elisabetta Sirani.159 Regarding the official recognition of Carriera’s work in her home city, one remains perplexed before the few records we have of her work being exhibited. The celebrations of St. Roch’s Day in 1743, during which one pastel by Carriera was put on display, are an exception in this sense. Scarcely any written criticism or documents have survived focusing on the painters and their artworks exhibited, which makes it difficult to estimate how seriously the shows were taken, but it still must have offered some kind of platform for the participating painters.160 Levey explains how extraordinary but limited these showings were compared with those other European cities with academies and art exhibitions of one sort or another: On that day, [August 16] painters hung up their work partly perhaps as decoration and partly as self-advertisement. These San Rocco exhibitions are really the nearest thing to an organized exhibition that took place in the city, except that there was

156 157 158 159 160

Sheriff, 2018. Borzello, 2000, 76. Borroni Salvadori, 1978, 366. Once in 1729 and a second time in 1737; see Borroni Salvadori, 1974, 74. On the exhibitions at the Scuola di San Rocco, see Haskell, 1980, 330–31.

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no organization, there were no catalogues, and hardly any foreign visitor to the city knew of the annual event.161

It is noteworthy, that in Venice, a city in which a remarkably high number of women had achieved an unusual degree of fame from the fifteenth century on,162 and where Carriera was something of a showcase artist, she became a member of the Collegio de’ Pittori (Painters’ guild) as late as 1750. It is particularly surprising considering her international recognition, and the fact that art academies in the eighteenth century increasingly wished to invest in presenting a woman among their ranks as a kind of cultural celebrity.163 But regular events like the salons in Paris where a general public could look at and learn about her art did not exist for Carriera. The disadvantage of this lack was not having the possibility of using the exhibitions as a locus of publicity, but then again, not appearing that much in the public eye also meant not being attacked as much by critics and theorists. Another aspect to mention might be the fact that no official critique or moralistic condemnation of Carriera is documented. Marguerite Gérard (1761–1837) is another example of a woman artist who included erotic paintings in her oeuvre without being publicly exposed for it. As the sister-in-law of Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732– 1806), she had joined the Fragonard household in 1775, at about fourteen years of age, which allowed her to see the artworks spread all over Paris and gave her access to the artistic community in the city. As far as we know, Gérard was not criticized for works of hers that implied a sexual innuendo; this aspect of her oeuvre was not even noticed. As Sheriff put it, although interpreters have readily acknowledged the erotic content of images by Fragonard, Boilly and Shall, Gérard’s rendering of love letters […], music making […] and female intimacy […] are usually considered innocent.164

Is it then possible that in Carriera’s case as well, because of her being woman artist, no suspicion had ever arisen that she would even think about indulging in sensually appealing or erotically charged artworks? Was the most superficial reading of her paintings, one that simply identifies the subject, considered to be enough, following the general conviction of women lacking not only intellect but also the relevant education to be a valid inventor of ‘stories’? Was the general public reluctant to believe that a woman’s creativity could include various layers of meaning in one 161 162 163 164

Levey, 1959, 12. Sama, 2009, 128. Del Negro, 2009, 46–47. Sheriff, 2011, 321.

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and the same painting? The creation of such pieces would require traits of a genius which was gendered masculine. Was Carriera’s theoretical exclusion from the realm of ingenious inventions combined with her singular ability to construct an image of herself as the epitome of saintlike virtue and utmost modesty at the base of her contemporaries’ a priori neglect of any form of ‘indecency’ in her art? Or do we have to accept the fact that, parallel to female authors of erotic novels in the eighteenth century, Carriera’s activity as a painter of eroticizing and purely erotic paintings did not seem to be too much of a problem? This appears evident if we take into account the reactions expressed in the letters that some recipients of her art sent to Venice. Following Shearer West, who asked the same questions and came to a similar conclusion, I suggest that various aspects played together. For the more naive and perhaps intentionally unsuspecting spectator, Carriera aptly left the possibility of an ‘innocent reading’ of her potentially ambiguous pieces which seemed to correspond to the virtuous lifestyle of an honourable woman. One could, if he/she wanted to, easily ignore the erotic charge. At the same time, the connoisseurs and clients who were willing to and managed to decode her images could enjoy the delight of these titillating images without attaching any moralistic afterthoughts or ideas that revolve around what West has called ‘the circle of lust’.165 Again it is Rapparini who most openly acknowledged his pleasure when he looked at the pastel he had just received. On 17 February 1718 he wrote: Healthy and rubicund and with a mien from Paradise, this most delicate pastel has arrived – not in any way fatigued by the trip and without suffering in the least. Nor has any harm come to the bouquet of flowers in her hand, nor even to the beautiful nudity of her breast from the vigorous cold of the season.166

His enthusiasm regarding the image that he treated like a real human being, led him to describe the rejuvenating effects of the painting, revealing his physical reactions while admiring her. Oh what a beautiful Virgin. This appearance has made me – a man over forty – feel again the sting of love’s arrow. I was expecting a beautiful thing, yes, but not a miracle, a marvel, a Paradise. I am sure that when our little son sees her and runs desirous to that teat, far fresher than the one he has just left, why then will I acknowledge my son! This has to be his heritage and his legitimacy when he will be grown-up.167 165 West, 1999b, 59. 166 Quoted and translated by West, 2015, 216. The original reads: ‘Sana e rubiconda e con una ciera di Paradiso, è arrivata la gentilissima pastella, niente stanca dal viaggio e senza il menomo patimento, né punto ha potuto nuocere al mazzetto de’ fiori che ha in mano, né alla bella nudità del seno, il vigoroso freddo della stagione […].’ Sani, 1985, I, 323–24. 167 ‘Che bella Vergine. Poter del mondo, che questo aspetto mi ha fatto risentire, nell’età di passa quarant’anni, anche le punte de’ strali d’amore. Io m’aspettavo una bella cosa sì, ma non un miracolo, un mostro, un Paradiso. Son sicuro che se il figliocchino la vede, che scorre famelico a quella mammella, assai più fresca che quelle che

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No words seem to be enough to express the frenzy that elevated not only his spirits but also his desires: Oh, what a taste! Oh what touches! Oh what harmony! Oh what hues of colour! Oh what outlines not outlined! Oh what features! Oh what purity! What nobility, what mastery! I could make a hundred living ones and still not be able to make something like this, that has life and blood running through her veins.168

The use of the accentuating anaphora and the numerous exclamation marks highlight his alleged difficulty putting into words the sensations Carriera’s miniature evoked. Again and maybe more importantly, the rhetorical tone of his lines reflects his awareness of the general notion held until at least the first half of the eighteenth century that to be aroused and transported by art (or literature) was a sign of superior sophistication. This intense experience typically led to a ‘blurring of the boundaries between life and “art”, body and mind’. To own this painting was not only for one to possess a piece of art but for that piece of art to possess a life of its own.169 The passion awakened in Rapparini by the painting culminates in the wish to come together with his wife as soon as possible, first to make her look at the painting and then, with her remembering every part of it, to produce their next child, whose beauty would be influenced by the glorious piece of art. It was common belief since antiquity that if pregnant women looked at beautiful things or edifying art, the fetus in their womb had better chances of being of a gentle nature and beautiful as well. In this sense, he wrote to Carriera that he had decided to hang it in the bedroom, right ‘next to the bed, that she [his wife] may grasp this form in her mind, now that we are imminently about to undertake the manufacture of our tenth puppet.’170 What Rapparini’s remarks reflect is not only a fascinating openness towards Carriera as far as his reaction to one of her pieces is concerned, but also a popular belief that had survived since antiquity. It was generally held that a pregnant woman’s or a mother’s imagination was entangled with art and desire, that the imagery she looked at influenced the outcome of the child. Allegedly, Empedocles (495–444 bce) in a lost text had formulated that ‘progeny can be modified by statues and paintings that the mother gazes upon during her pregnancy.’171 And more specifically, he maintained,

vien di lasciare et allora lo riconoscerò mio figlio. Questa dev’esser il suo patrimonio e la sua legittima, quando sarà grande.’ Sani, 1985, I, 324. 168 ‘Oh che gusto! oh che tocchi! Oh che accordo! oh che tinte! oh che contorni non contornati! oh che tratti! oh che purità! che nobiltà, che maestria! Io ne posso fare cento de vivi e non saprei far una cosa come questa, che à vita e sangue nelle vene.’ Sani, 1985, I, 324. 169 Rosenthal, 2004b, 565. 170 ‘che vo’ porre vicino al letto, perché pigli quelle forme in mente, ora che si darà opera immediata alla fabbrica del decimo burattino.’ Sani, 1985, I, 324. 171 Huet, 1993, 4–5.

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like Rapparini himself, that it was through the woman’s imagination during conception that children were formed.172 A different kind of compliment was expressed by eighteenth-century observers who drew analogies between Carriera’s art and the achievements of the ancients. Even though these constituted a well-known literary trope at least since the Renaissance, and in this case referred to her expertise as a miniature artist, this traditional, intellectually charged form of appraisal had since the seventeenth century been extended beyond the male-dominated art scene to include women painters as well.173 Mariette, for example, elucidated Carriera’s accomplishment in a sonnet dedicated to his friend, celebrating her talent for singing, music and, above all, painting, by the appropriation of a luminary such as Apelles. Tell me gentle Rose, Serene Dawn, Did Earth or Sky give You such beautiful names? […] But if I admire the industry of your brush, I swear that a second Apelles lives in you, or that your images came from heaven. In such vivid lines I lose myself; Go Rose to adorn with miniatures the sun’s cycle Now that Dawn, your colours have given Light to the world.174

The poem is not only an interesting document with regard to the conventional trope of comparing a painter to Apelles,175 but because his lines are part of a whole series of comments and sonnets dedicated only to this Venetian painter, thus applying to Carriera the concept of the paragone, the root of the ekphrasis debate about the sister arts since the Renaissance. In the context of the analysis of some of her miniatures and of her reception piece for the academy in France, the links between the Venetian artist and those traditional theoretical concepts have already been highlighted, but it is worth underscoring in a different context how her clients and friends reacted to her art by referring to the same ideas. To this end, I will provide examples of how sister-art questions arise regarding sibling rivalry between painting and sculpture 172 Huet, 1993, 5. 173 See Bohn, 2004, 265–66, who quotes a similar form of appraisal in the context of Elisabetta Sirani, or Greer in the context of Irene di Spilimbergo (1540–1559), Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) and Elisabeth-Sophie Chéron (1648–1711); Greer, 2001 [1979], 71 and 73. 174 Translation in Sani, 1991, 87. The original reads: ‘Dimmi Rosa Gentil, Alba serena/ Ti diè la Terra o il Ciel, nomi si belli? […]/ Ma se del tuo Penel l’Industria ammiro,/ Giuro o ch’in Te vive un Apel secondo,/ O l’Imagini tue dal Ciel usciro./ In Linee sì vivaci Io mi confondo;/ Va Rosa, a miniar del sole il giro,/ Or ch’Alba, i tuoi color dier Luce al Mondo.’ Sani, 1985, II, 829–30. 175 See also the letter Etienne Mack wrote from Vienna on 3 October 1731, in which he told the artist that Mr. Stampart, a contemporary painter, could not praise her work enough and regarded her as Apelles. Sani, 1985, II, 561.

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and especially, painting and poetry, as well as the phenomenon that Mirollo called iconinvidia or image envy.176 In a letter dated 19 December 1732, Crozat thanked Carriera for a piece he had just received in Paris. He stressed how impressed he was to see the antique sculptures and busts brought back from Italy by Cardinal Polignac that, in his opinion, were some of the most outstanding pieces of art he had ever seen. Nevertheless, he added, the pastel of a half figure that Carriera sent was comparable to the finest busts ever made by ‘those Greeks’.177 Not only did Crozat touch on the conventional appraisal of an artist by asserting his or her superiority to ancient art, but his fulsome exaltation of her pastel in comparison with Greek busts, almost in passing, evokes the controversy regarding the supremacy of painting over sculpture, or vice versa, that had occupied the minds of philosophers, thinkers, artists and critics since the time of Plato and Aristotle. By involving Carriera in this debate and declaring her to be the winner in this ‘contest’ of which he was both organizer and judge, he paid her an extraordinarily great compliment. While Mariette, in the above-quoted lines, used poetic language to play with the meaning of Rosalba’s name and indirectly competed, with his words, with her painted images that, according to him, illuminated the world, an anonymous author N.N. made reference in a sonnet to a specific painting showing a butterfly dying in the candlelight that he had allegedly received as a gift from the artist.178 Apart from the fact that he claimed to own an image of an extraordinarily unusual subject matter by the hand of Carriera for which, to my knowledge, there is no documented evidence, his sonnet belongs in the long tradition of ekphrasis. He began his sonnet with a memory of the painting, first describing it but, more importantly, then giving an interpretation of its deeper significance. In this way, he used this thank-you note as an ‘opportunity for the virtuoso display of [his] literary skills’179 and his intellect. By doing so, he gave voice to a silent painting180 and thus placed poetry, and its potential to more convincingly render inner emotions of the soul, above the ability to imitate the exterior world by Carriera or by any other painter in general that he set out to celebrate. Felice dalla Costa similarly wrote a sonnet about a portrait in which Carriera depicted him smiling, ‘il mio ritratto ridente’. He showed his gratitude to have received a portrait by the hand of the artist because, he wrote, if he died, it would save his face from the damages and troubles of time. By recurring to a tradition known since the Renaissance that iterates the power of painting, of art, to conquer time, he 176 177 178 179 180

Mirollo, 1995, 30. Sani, 1985, II, 570. Sani, 1985, II, 843. Mirollo, 1995, 38. Regarding the motif of voicelessness within the debate see Mirollo, 1995, 39–50.

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pointed out that while his body is changing and he is crying as he approaches the end of his life, his own image, without any pity, seems to be laughing at him.181 Already Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) have famously underscored in their praise of painting its capacity to preserve nature’s beauty that is destroyed by time or death.182 Della Costa recurred to the topic of the enduring image of a person for eternity celebrating the image itself while at the same time exalting the power of poetry as only his words seem to be truly able to convey the pain and tragedy of the human condition. Count Gabriel Petrina also dedicated a sonnet to Carriera in which he celebrated the paintbrush with which she was able to astonish and amaze by depicting images that speak. Through the eyes of those she portrayed, a loving passion, amoroso ardore, is visible to the observer.183 In other words, the portraits seem to come alive and evoke an emotional reaction in the beholder, just as a living person could do. In this sense, associations with the Pygmalion myth are awakened and most likely are not coincidental. In a similar way, Ferdinando Maria Nicoli expressed his admiration for Carriera’s art in a letter written from Bologna on 26 June 1703, stating that he had expected a painted figure and instead received a living maiden.184 Another interesting case in which a poem celebrates Carriera’s artistic skills, directly stating the sister-arts contest and, likewise, this notion of iconinvidia, are the lines Antonio Sforza dedicated to the painter. He began by stating that there were times when he thought that no piece of art could surpass sweet and ornate rhymes (dolci Rime ornate). But once he looked at the image Carriera had created, he had to admit that he seemed to see even the soul of the sitter in the depiction of the eyes and the lips. And so, he concluded, if even nature herself surrenders to Carriera, so will poetry.185 Sforza aligned himself with Carriera but also asserted, using yet another art history trope of the painter competing with nature, that her art, being able to exceed even nature, was the superior one.186

181 ‘Gode, gentil Rosalba, gran ventura,/ Quella, ch’un dì pingesti, imago mi/ Quella, che mi donò tua cortesia,/ Poiché da guai del tempo s’assicura./ S’io manco, non vien meno, né mai s’oscura,/ La fresca guancia in lei che come pria,/ Vanta biondo ’l capel e legiadria/ E da crespe la fronte sciolta e pura./ Intanto il tempo a me porta i suoi danni,/ D’atro color me copre, e ’l crin di brine,/ E d’una cosa sol fia, che m’affanni,/ Che mentre corro lagrimando al fine,/ Quella senza pietà i miei malanni/ Par che scherzi e che rida a mie ruine.’ Sani, 1985, II, 836–37. 182 Regarding the significance of the debate for Venetian sixteenth-century paintings, see Steele, 1997, 491–501. 183 Sani, 1985, II, 835. 184 ‘Desiderava una figura dipinta e voi mi mandate una donzella vivente.’ Sani, 1985, I, 67. 185 The original final lines of the sonnet read: ‘Ah, se natura istessa cede a Rosalba, a Lei cedano i carmi.’ Sani, 1985, II, 830. 186 See for example the various episodes recounted by Pliny the Elder regarding lifelike depictions of grapes.

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The mimetic fidelity, the astounding similarity to nature and to real living persons with a soul, that both Count Gabriel Petrina and Antonio Sforza described as fundamental aspects of Carriera’s art, touch on the arguably most interesting characteristic of some of her portraits, which some of her contemporary critics also pinpointed: this is the eighteenth-century demand for resemblance, a claim particularly important to discourses on portraiture.

Carriera’s Religious Works for Dresden The less brilliant pieces executed by Carriera, also the least in quantity, are her religious paintings.187 When contrasted with the artist’s attitude toward her other works, she adhered in these paintings more closely to an already established tradition, especially to consolidated models created by sixteenth-century artists like Correggio (1489–1534).188 During Carriera’s stays in Paris, Modena and Vienna, her visits to various art galleries and collections were a fundamental part of her professional interest and training, just as her participation in private entertainments was also precious. Henning speculates that for Carriera even the possibility of looking at and learning from ‘the Old Masters’, also being informed about the novelties in the modern works, could have been, especially in the case of the Paris trip, the decisive argument and primary motivation for her to travel at all.189 On Carriera’s return to Venice, after the long months she had spent in Modena portraying the princesses of the House of Este, she wrote to her friend Crozat about what her travel had given her: to see up close every day such beautiful living originals, copies so excellent after nature by Correggio, Titian, Carracci and other very very able painters who are collected in the famous Gallery in Modena, which is, as you are well aware, the most beautiful ornament of this city.190

It can hardly be a coincidence that the first artist who came into her mind was, indeed, Correggio; it is primarily his influence on her religious pieces that her contemporaries most often noted, as have modern art historians.191

187 Between Sani’s catalogue (1988 and 2007b) and Jeffares’ list of paintings (2006) attributed to our painter, we count no more than twenty examples. 188 See Zucchetta, 2007, 169, and Sani, 1978. 189 Henning and Marx, 2007, 42. 190 ‘de voir aussi tous les jours après de si beaux originaux en vie, les copies si excellentes après nature de Corège, Titien, Carazi et des autres très très habiles peintres qui sont ramassés dans la fameuse Galaria de Modène, qui fait, comme vous n’ignorez point, le plus beaux ornement de cette ville.’ Sani, 1985, I, 442. 191 Henning and Marx, 2007, 43. See also Sani, 2007b, 197, 233, 234, and 235, who in 1978 had already dedicated an article to Correggio’s influence on Carriera; Sani, 1978, 203–12.

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Figure 26 Rosalba Carriera, Madonna with Downcast Eyes Pastel on paper, 29 × 23 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 57. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

The French politician and scholar Charles de Brosses (1709–1777), for example, made a note in a letter to his friend M. de Quentin, on 26 October 1739, that Carriera copied her Mary Magdalen after Correggio’s.192 Carriera was not the only artist to be influenced by the foremost painter of the school of Parma; the intellectual circle in Paris around Crozat and Mariette, including Nicolas Vleughels and Charles Coypel, might have further encouraged her professional interest in Correggio. All

192 Sani, 1978, 205–6.

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of these were men who she met during her stay in France, all of whom shared this predilection.193 In her analysis of Carriera’s Madonna with Downcast Eyes in Dresden (Figure 26) Sani traces similarities with her sixteenth-century colleague Corregio’s Campori Madonna in the Galleria Estense of Modena. Also, his earlier San Sebastian Madonna in Dresden (c.1524) influenced Carriera’s pastel depicting Mary with a Book, just to name two examples.194 On a more general level, Henning points out that the highly emotional depictions of figures in some of Carriera’s religious paintings bear characteristics typical of the Mannerist Correggio, as in the slightly over-lengthened proportions of their hands and fingers and in their elongated faces with their softened or, in the case of the Madonna with a Hand on her Chest, suffering aspect.195 General observations in the eighteenth century of the influence that Correggio had on Carriera led not only to frequent comparisons of her work with his but even to an identification of the female painter with her male predecessor. A letter from Crozat, dated 12 March 1728, included a note by Charles Coypel who wrote: ‘Charles Coypel à Antoine Corrège dit aujourd’huy Carriera’ (Charles Coypel to Antonio Correggio, today called Carriera).196

193 Sani, 1978, 208–9. As to the various letters in which Carriera is called or compared to Correggio, see Sani, 1985, I, 179, 442; II, 481, 483, 703, 704, 762, 810. 194 Sani, 1978, 206. See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 241, pp. 233–34, and cat. no. 238, p. 231. 195 Henning and Marx, 2007, 43. 196 Sani, 1978, 211.

6 The Single Woman, the Spinster On 26 June 1703, Ferdinando Maria Nicoli from Bologna wrote in a letter to Carriera: I don’t know who it was who said: what good luck for a painter to have so virtuous an artistic emulatress for a spouse; to which he replied that, in order to properly find her match, one would have to resuscitate Signor Guido Reni.1

Nicoli’s words convey a form of recognition quite in keeping with the tradition of artistic competition. Coming from Bologna, home of the and highly regarded painter Guido Reni (1575–1642), this comparison was doubly flattering to Carriera. Yet Nicoli touches on the artist’s celibacy, an aspect of her private life that was often a topic of discussion among her contemporaries and biographers. Not only did Carriera’s resolute choice mean swimming against current conventions as well as finding a role and an identity for a social group not officially acknowledged to exist, but it also entailed renouncing the predefined role of the wife who receives financial and social support, and protection from her husband. It was a decision that carried along with it certain threats. As Adrienne Ward has stated, even with fathers present, unmarried daughters of a certain age embodied the nexus of several potential instabilities, risks to domestic and communal order. They could compromise family honour, disrupt estate succession, confuse relations between families, and stain community morality.2

It is worthwhile examining not only the consequences but also the possible reasons behind Carriera’s decision not to enter into marriage, and to take a closer look at the social network which she constructed for herself to compensate for the loss of the system that excluded her as a single woman. As in her career, Carriera chose independence in her private life, remaining alone and never marrying. It was a choice that made her part of a tiny minority of the society she lived in. Fewer than 10 per cent of eighteenth-century women remained spinsters.3 Nevertheless, among the group of female artists she took on a quite 1 ‘Vi fu un non so chi che disse: che fortuna d’un pittore che havesse una sì virtuosa emola dell’arte per consorte; a cui egli ripigliò che bisognava, per ben accoppiarla, far risuscitare il Sig.r Guido Reni.’ Sani, 1985, I, 68. 2 Ward, 2018, 236. 3 Regarding the question of whether marriage represented an advantage or a disadvantage for women artists between 1500 and 1600, see Borzello, 2000, 65–73.

Oberer, A., The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462988996_ch06

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representative role as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced a striking number of female painters who also remained unmarried, such as Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670), Chiara Varotari (1600–1660), Maria van Oosterwijck (1630–1693), Elisabetta Sirani and Giulia Lama, to name just a few.4 And in Carriera’s case, her decision never to enter into marriage was certainly not due to a lack of offers or opportunities. Malamani (1910), for example, is convinced that despite her allegedly plain appearance, the painter was attractive to men thanks to her inner beauty and her talents: In spite of the exterior flaws of her person, she elicited genuine passions among men, which, much more than the fleeting splendor of beauty, attach themselves to and nourish themselves in the light of the soul and of invention.5

But more specifically in her case, being the firstborn and thus heiress of the family and at the helm of a thriving family business enterprise she could have been a desirable property.6 In fact, until the beginning of the eighteenth century, Carriera’s contemporaries would still take into consideration that she could have a relationship, which finds expression in the letter from Ramelli and dated 3 June 1706. He advised the artist not to travel to Germany, reminding her how difficult she would find it to leave her mother and sisters behind. To make matters worse, he noted, the country was at war, and the climate, the different customs and the foreign language would all make a sole journey arduous and burdensome. Nor was he persuaded to sanction the trip by the possibility she might be considering marriage: I do not suppose you are considering marriage candidates and, in this case, I do not believe that such could be missing—someone better suited to you, more sober and in a country more agreeable to one and the other.7

Evidently, Ramelli does not preclude the possibility of Carriera marrying at this point, even though she had already reached the age of thirty-nine. As for her close friend Anton Maria Zanetti, Carriera’s contemporaries were uncertain of the role he played in her life. He was in constant contact with Carriera, visited her frequently in her home on the Grand Canal, went on excursions to view art with her wherever they stayed together, and accompanied her to evening events such as 4 Borzello, 2000, 65. For a more complete list of unmarried women artists from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century see ffolliott, 2016, 19. 5 ‘Malgrado i difetti esteriori della persona, suscitò fra gli uomini vere passioni, le quali, molto più che nello splendore fugace della bellezza, trovano presa e alimento nella luce dell’anima e dell’ingegno.’ Malamani, 1910, 98. 6 In the context of Carlo Goldoni’s La Locandiera, see Ward, 1990, 236. 7 ‘Je ne panse pas que vous songiez à un parti d’un marriage et, en ce cas là, je ne crois pas qu’il vous en manque, avec quelqu’un qui vous soit plus propre, plus sobre et dans un pays à meillieur gré de l’un et l’autre.’ Sani, 1985, I, 97.

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concerts, operas and theatre performances.8 It was the same Zanetti who followed Carriera, her sisters and her mother on their successful trip to France in 1720. As a result, he was regarded by mutual friends not only as a loyal and close companion but as a family member in the Carriera household, though the exact relationship between the two was never clearly defined; perhaps it did not need to be – almost as though he was already a husband of sorts.9 The question as to whether her close friend was simply a ‘Platonic admirer’10 remains unanswered, but to date there is no evidence of a true love affair. To what extent Zanetti entertained hopes of entering into a partnership – and ultimately marriage – with Carriera, is no longer possible to know for certain. It is however possible to name at least one of Carriera’s potential suitors: Christian Cole. The first secretary of Lord Manchester corresponded regularly with the artist, and it was he who took great pains to have her admitted to the Academia di San Luca in Rome. Over and over again, he offered her his assistance and support in any shape or form. One is struck by the great energy he invested in procuring the right pastels for Carriera. The frequency of the letters he sent to the artist bears witness to his considerable, sustained efforts on her behalf. In one of his letters, dated 22 September 1704, he wrote: With particular joy, I received your very kind [missive] of the 27th Sept. I thank your Signora for the news it contained and I am very much obliged for the disappointment she was willing to express for not having been able to come above the Brenta. […] at the same time, I wish for her correspondence and should she need something I can send from here, I desire her orders.11

Just ten days later, he was in touch again, this time from Rome, writing full of hope and enthusiasm: My latest was of the first of this month, whereupon I received the honour of your letter written that same day. There is something sympathetic in this. I am glad that they are enjoying themselves so well in Venice and I am sorry that I cannot be present at each of their amusements and in particular in the company of my honoured patroness.12 8 See for example the letter Carriera sent to Crozat in December 1723, in Sani, 1985, I, 442. 9 Barcham, 2009, 153. 10 Sensier, 1865, 411. 11 ‘Con singular contento, ho ricevuto la sua gentilissima de 27 7bre. Ringratio a la sua Signora per le nuove che contenga e sono obligatissimo per il dispiacere ch’ella ha ben voluto mostrare per el non haver potuto vernire sopra la Brenta. […] in quel mentre desidero la sua correspondenza e ha besogna de qualche cosa, ch’io poterò inviare di qua, desidero il suo comando’. Sani, 1985, I, 82. 12 ‘La mia ultima era del primo de questo mese, doppo questo ho ricevuto l’honnore della sua scritta in el medesimo jorno. C’è qualche simpatia in questo. Me n’allegro che loro se divertano tanto ben in Venetia et mi dispiace che non poterò esser presente in tutti loro divertissamenti et in particulare in la compagnia della mia honorata patrona.’ Sani, 1985, I, 84.

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He provided her with gifts of all sorts, showed himself as the always available and helpful friend who was truly attached to the artist. On 10 January 1705, one can sense in his letter his fear of losing Carriera: I have also sent a print of the Knight Charles Morat, it is but a trifle, but I hope that you will receive it as a little token of proof of the very great esteem in which I hold you. If you should have other orders or should want other things from Rome I hope that You will honour me with your requests. I beseech you not to interrupt your very dear correspondence.13

Not long after this, negotiations with the art academy began, and, on 31 March 1705, he wrote that he had just talked to the secretary of the institution expressing great confidence that Carriera, owing to his efforts, would soon become a member: ‘and then I will have you admitted there.’14 He repeatedly told Carriera how important her letters were to him – which was, in effect, an indirect plea for continuing their correspondence. The fact that he constantly reassured her of not missing a single opportunity to promote her cause almost seems like a form of unconscious blackmail to make Carriera write to him more frequently.15 But Cole gave even clearer evidence of his feelings in a letter of 1 September 1707 that went beyond their friendship: Because I wished to see Venice again principally to see you again, all seems dead to me during your absence. […] You could not begin to comprehend how interesting I find anything which concerns you, and I see that you do not want to believe me when I explained the friendship, not to mention other things, which I feel for you. I pray you believe at least that I am dying to see you again.16

Following this, something must have happened between Cole and Carriera; possibly ‘those other things’ were too much for the painter. In the last of his letters to her, his tone is more serious, and considerably more sober and distant:

13 ‘Ho inviato ancora una stampa del Cavallier Carlo Morat, è una bagatella, ma spero ch’Ella la riceverà come una piccola prova della grandissima stima ch’io porto per Ella. Se ha qualche altre ordine o che vol altre cose de Roma spero ch’Ella me honorerà sempre delle sue comande. La conjuro di non discontinuare la sua cara correspondenza.’ Sani, 1985, I, 86. 14 ‘e poi io la farò entrare là.’ Sani, 1985, I, 87. 15 Sani, 1985, I, 87–88. 16 ‘Comme je désirais de revoir Venise principalment pour vous revoir, tout me paroit mort pendant vostre absence. […] Vous ne sçauriez comprendre combien je m’intéresse dans tous ce que vous regarde, et je vois que vous ne voulez pas croire quand je vous explique l’amitié, pour ne pas dire autre chose, que j’ay pour vous. Je vous prie de croire au moins que je meure de vous revoir.’ Sani, 1985, I, 118.

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I am sorry that I did not have the good fortune to see you before your departure. I came Saturday morning, early, to the house of Your Ladyship where I was told that you had left Friday evening. […] I hope you will return soon and that you will have painted the portrait for Florence.17

Even if we do not have the respective letter from Carriera, it would appear that she rejected him, letting him know that she had absolutely no intention of entering into any relationship with him, let alone marrying him. Carriera’s exemplary reply to an anonymous admirer shows that she knew very well how to react in such a situation: Seeing as my having to leave home delays the honour of our being able to converse, I have resolved to write to say that you have caused me a wonderful surprise. Your Lordship could easily have indicated to me what you represented to your friend and thus avoid my blushing from seeing that I had inconvenienced him for something which was not worth his trouble. He spoke of you in such a fine manner that he would have persuaded me, were I less distant than I am from any inclination to alter my style of living. My employment, which greatly involves me as well as a rather cool nature, has always kept me away from love and thoughts of marriage. I would make the world laugh heartily, if now that I have already spent my youth, I should embark upon these. Giovanna, who has nourished a disposition equal to mine in withdrawing from all meetings and commitments, knows of this matter; but she will remain silent, as I wish your friend will do, too, and that you should believe, without feeling any offence, that I could never be anything other than your Devoted and Most Obliged Servant.18

The artist’s reply is clear, leaving virtually no room for misunderstandings or further discussion. At the same time, one gets a distinct impression that she had fashioned a niche for and an image for herself, both of which offered her, on various levels, advantages, opportunities and freedoms that would not have been open to her had 17 ‘Mi dispiace che non ho avuto la fortuna di vederla avanti suo departo. Son venuto sabato mattina a buona hora a casa di V. S.ra ove m’hanno detto che venerdy sera Ella era partita. […] Spero che in breve Ella tornerà e che haverà fatto il ritratto per Fiorenza.’ Sani, 1985, I, 122. He presumably alludes to Carriera’s selfportrait for the Grand Ducal collection in Florence I discuss below. 18 ‘Vedendo che il dover sortire di casa mi differisce l’honor di poter parlare, rissolvo scrivere per dirle che mi ha fatto una gran sorpresa. V.S. poteva bene palesar a me ciò ch’ha rappresentato al suo amico e sotrarmi al rossore di vederlo incomodato per cosa che non meritava la sua pena. Egli ha parlato per lei con tanto di buona maniera, che mi avrebbe persuasa, quando fossi stata meno aliena di quello sono da ogni inclinatione di mutar sistema di vivere. Il mio impiego, che troppo m’occupa ed un naturale assai fredo, m’han sempre tenuto lontana dagli amori e pensieri di matrimonio. Farei ben ridere il mondo, s’hora, ch’ho già passata la gioventù, entrassi in questi. Giovanna, che sempre ha nudrito un genio uguale al mio di sottrarsi ad ogni incontro ed impegno, sa questo affare; ma tacerà, così bramo che facia il suo amico et che lei, senza offendersi, creda, che non potrò ai essere, che sua Dev.me et Obb.ma Serva.’ Sani, 1985, II, 753.

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she married. Playing on the gender stereotypes of her time, she consciously propagated an unattractive picture of herself as a busy, inflexible and cold woman, the stereotype of an old spinster.19 This carefully constructed masquerade offered her both liberty and a potent shield,20 while one consequence of her efforts to construct this stereotypical image was that others presumed her to be a virginal celibate woman who lived the exemplary life of a ‘holy’ painter. It is hardly a coincidence that Carriera was commonly linked with sainthood, and it is truly remarkable to note the extent to which others used religious vocabulary and ideas in relation to the artist.21 D’Argenville talked of a higher calling, given from God’s reign: ‘but Heaven had destined her for more elevated things’,22 which is a particularly interesting comment as divine inspiration and genius were generally gendered notions. It was unusual that a contemporary biographer of a female artist would use these terms in connection with her gifts and her talent.23 Also Giovanni Francesco Zamboni, the personal physician of the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf, used comparisons, metaphors or allusions to the religious sphere considering her hands divine and therefore capable of making miracles.24 When one of the most celebrated female portrait painters in Britain in the eighteenth century, the Scotswoman Katherine Read, was travelling back from Rome to London, she visited her by then blind colleague in Venice in 1753 and compared Carriera’s ideas to those of angels.25 ‘As far as I am concerned, I consider you a person filled with inspiration and with truly beautiful and angelic ideas.’26 19 Also Shearer West has noted: ‘Her presentation of herself as a weak-willed spinster dedicated to her family ironically allowed her certain freedoms that were outside the reach of her male counterparts.’ West, 1999b, 49. Or further below: ‘The diligence and virtue she and her correspondents invested in her personality was in no small way tied up with her unmarried status and her alleged unattractive appearance.’ West, 1999b, 52. The phenomenon of the secular spinster appeared around the second half of the sixteenth century; V. Cox, 1995, 528. Concerning the tradition of this unappealing spinster image in eighteenth-century literature and how it is caricatured in the nineteenth century, see Adams, 1996, 883. 20 ‘Witch hunts in Europe had placed women in fear that if they were not viewed as holy virgins, chaste mothers, or good wives, or as nurses and teachers, they would be seen as prostitutes or promiscuous and evil witches.’ De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 68–69. Cox points out that the unprecedented figure of the secular spinster appears by the second half of the sixteenth century; V. Cox, 1995, 528. 21 See also West, 1999b, 53–55. 22 Translation by Dabbs, 2009, 344. The original text reads: ‘mais le Ciel l’avoit destiné pour des choses plus élevées.’ Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 314. 23 Dabbs, 2009, 340. 24 Sani, 1985, I, 350. 25 On Read’s life and career see Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/articles/Read.pdf (accessed on 8 August 2018). In 1751, she copied Carriera’s pastels, which were part of the famous collection belonging to Cardinal Alessandro Albani (1692–1779) in Rome; see Whistler, 2009, 202–3. 26 The original text of her letter to Carriera dated 31 May 1756, reads: ‘Pour ce qui me regarde, je vous considère comme une personne remplie d’inspiration et d’idées vraiment belles et angéliques.’ Sani, 1985, II, 732.

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Similarly, Suor Maria Beatrice Davia wrote in a letter from Modena to Carriera of 3 March 1731: Blessed be the hand that has handled the brush so well in outlining so well the Holy Image of the Divine Saviour, for he is so beautiful as to seem alive and with an air of Paradise; tell me, have You seen our Lord in some rapture of the spirit?27

The pastel she had received from Carriera seemed to her the result of an ecstasy, a spiritual experience often associated with female saints. Divine intervention was also used as a metaphor by Crozat when he wrote on 19 December 1732, thanking her for her particularly well-executed half-length figure she had sent him: ‘[It] appears to have been made by the hands of an angel rather than by a human being.’28 And her supporter and friend Mariette raised her not only to the level of an angel but directly to the status of a goddess where he wrote: ‘You appear a heavenly woman or an earthly goddess.’29 Just like Benedetto Berner who, after having opened the box in which he saw one of Carriera’s pastels, exclaimed: ‘Goddess, oh! Goddess! This is not like that poetic fairy tale but eternal truth.’30 It reminds us of a comment of Ferdinando Maria Nicoli that extended beyond imputing spiritual ecstasy, to praise her to the heavens and quite literally compare her to God himself, as quoted previously.31 An analogous tendency to describe Carriera with religious vocabulary can also be found in early secondary literature. In 1885, Alfred Sensier calls her casta diva (chaste goddess).32 Malamani addressed Carriera in 1910 as a ‘vestal virgin of art’, who thanks to her independence is able to preserve her ‘holy flame’.33 Hoerschelmann describes Carriera’s diary theatrically as the ‘sanctuary of a great soul’,34 calling the artist herself, whose name, she says, is always surrounded by a halo, the ‘high priest of the ideal of beauty of her time.’35 My idea that Carriera deliberately instrumentalized her status as an unwed woman by acting out and diffusing the image of a fragile and modest holy spinster is further supported by some surviving private documents. 27 ‘Sia benedetta quella mano, che ha così bene maneggiato il pennello per dellineare così bene la Santa Immagine del Divino Salvatore, ma così bello che pare vivo et ha un’aria di Paradiso; mi dichi, ha Ella veduto il Signore in qualche rappimento di spirito?’ Sani, 1985, II, 541. 28 ‘Semble estre fait par les mains d’un ange plutost que par un home.’ Sani, 1985, II, 570. 29 ‘Tu sembles une femme céleste ou une déesse terrestre.’ Quoted by Hoerschelmann, 1908, 15. 30 ‘Dea, oh! Dea! questo non è come quella favola poetica, ma eterna verità.’ See Sani, 1985, I, 341. 31 See also Giorgio Maria Rapparini, who spoke of Carriera in connection with heresy, less in terms of her art and rather in relation to her decision not to be married. See Sani 1985, I, 172. See also the definitive description of the three Carriera sisters as ‘prestantissime vergini’ by Felice Dalla Costa; Sani, 1985, II, 575, n. 1. 32 Sensier, 1865, 411. 33 Malamani, 1910, 98. 34 Hoerschelmann, 1908, 299. 35 Hoerschelmann, 1908, 307.

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In a letter she wrote to Crozat in 1721, the artist clearly reinforced the impression that she used the alibi of having, as a woman, a position vaguely associated with weakness – in this instance to evade a second trip to France: Nor do I suppose I will see Paris again, as I am female and not male, otherwise, among other things, I would have, perhaps, so much will and resolution that I could better come to know so beautiful a royal residence and so worthy, polite and likeable a nation.36

And on some occasions even her contemporaries became incredulous regarding an attitude that was occasionally too ostentatious. Don Bartolomeo Sampellegrini for example accused Carriera of using and exploiting to her best advantage the fact that she was a woman. In a letter of 18 August 1731, he wrote from Rome that he had been glad to hear of her intention to come to the ‘eternal city’ – an intention, however, that unfortunately turned out to be a false rumour: but it is surely true that you do not have that great desire which you say you have to see it [Paris] for if you did, the mere fact of being a woman would not prevent you from undertaking the trip which is not even the trip to Vienna: I do not wish to proceed further into this matter, limiting myself solely to protesting toward you all my sincerest affection.37

As he knew that she had stayed in Vienna the year before, her bogus argument that she would not travel because of being a female did not at all appear convincing to him. But apart from the debates regarding her reluctance to leave Venice, it was primarily Carriera’s decision to remain unmarried that evidently represented for her contemporaries something of a dilemma. It was the same dilemma that Elisabetta Sirani had previously provoked in Bologna by remaining unwed while at the same time rejecting ‘a life of saintly reclusion [in favour of] a public active professional one, and this was pushing the boundaries of acceptable female behaviour.’38 In order not to push the boundaries too much and not to ruin her carefully constructed image, the single woman Carriera had to behave in an impeccable way, and that included another tactical move, that is to downplay or veil the success of her 36 ‘Né pure io mi lusingo di riveder Parigi, perché femina e non maschio, altrimenti, per altro, avrei forse, quanto chi che sia volontà e risoluzione, per venire meglio conoscere così bella regia e così degna, polita ed amabile nazione.’ Sani, 1985, I, 411. 37 ‘è ben però vero, che lei non ha quel gran desiderio, che dice d’avere, di vederla che se tal fosse, il mero essere di donna non gl’impedirebbe d’assumere un viaggio, che non è poi quello di Vienna: io non voglio avvanzarmi più oltre in questo particolare, ristringendomi solo a protestarle tutto il mio più sincero affetto.’ Sani, 1985, II, 559–60. 38 Modesti, 2014, 33.

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professional life. Fame and glory or ambition and success were dubious goals or qualities for a woman at the time,39 and Carriera, accordingly, made sure that she followed societal expectations of a modest and humble lady. This further, somewhat curious aspect becomes evident from an analysis of her correspondence: her business letters do not contain personal details, and interestingly, they rarely refer directly to money issues. She presented herself to the world as a woman who takes care of her family, and who focuses on her idealized, purified work, untouched by baser motives. It seems she consciously played down as far as possible any interest that she, as an independent artist, would have had in earning money and therefore a living. Crude, common monetary concerns do not fit in with her image, so are ignored. Even though Carriera’s commissioners regularly asked in their letters to let them know how much they owed the artist, hardly any of her answers have survived. It would appear that the artist did not make (or have made) any copies of the letters in which she must have given more precise details regarding commercial transactions. And she was not alone in the display of this attitude, as it was part of a widespread idea of a ‘noble belief system that money spoils the purity of art, even though in reality painters became rich, famous, and noble through the commerce of art.’40 As there was, indeed, a stigma attached to the notion of a woman earning money from art,41 the idea of remaining ‘pure’ was far more important for a female artist than for her male colleagues. Talking money did not suit a woman, and for an artist like Carriera it was just as delicate an issue. The only lines we can find in her correspondence regarding her expenses inform the commissioner (and consequently ourselves) that she wrote the requested amount on the paper in which she wrapped the artwork.42 The fact that this was indeed a well-considered strategy becomes evident when one looks at Carriera’s diaries, in which financial affairs play a far larger role, and which often contain minute details regarding money issues.43 Another way of maintaining perfectly acceptable behaviour for a woman within the mores of the art market was the use of gifting.44 It implied an exchange based on a social code masquerading the monetary aspect. As Sohm stated: Gifting relied on a belief, where both buyer and seller are complicit, that selling paintings was not mercantile but an exchange between equals, where payment was never discussed but only assumed to be forthcoming based on the generosity and social standing of the patron. Art and the artist are thus cleansed of demeaning associations with the lucre of trade and hence the taint of commodification 39 40 41 42 43 44

See Goodman, 1989, 332. Sohm, 2010a, 13, Murphy, 2007, 28–29. See for example Sani, 1985, I, 357. See also West, 1999b, 51–52. Goldthwaite, 2010, 288.

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and craft. The artist is not a craftsman or businessman but a purveyor of beauty and ideas. Art transcends economic value. It is priceless, as Pliny the Elder concluded regarding Zeuxis’ gifting practice.45

And also Carriera, who was an inventive promoter and clever marketer of her work, benefited enormously, both financially and socially, from this form of exchange.46 In a great number of letters that make up her business correspondence we read about the most varied gifts that she received, including artworks, clothes, tea, chocolate, a watch and even a relic.47 In one specific case, we read that again she deliberately refused to tell her client Etienne Mack the price which made him reply: I would be the happiest person if I could hold a treasure in my hands, but the point is that you would not at all tell me the price, and you are right as your works are priceless: so I will not miss finding something for you that is witness of my gratitude, you have seen it with the portrait of my wife, and I will not fail to do the same for mine.48

His lines not only prove that this kind of payment was normal practice but also show that in reality, ‘gifting did not escape the logic of commercial exchange [as] the value of the respective gift was precisely calculated in monetary terms and entered as a business expense.’49 In her situation of being an independent female painter, it was vital for Carriera not to become the object of gossip and scandal. Only too easily did women artists of her day become victims of slander, especially the ones who specialized in portraiture, finding themselves caught in a paradox. On the one hand, the genre was associated with them, and on the other it was a ‘potentially dangerous employment’ as the activity of a female portraitist entailed the encounter between the artist and her sitter; and if the client was male, the session could turn into a problematic professional pursuit implying an intersubjective exchange of glances that went against societal conventions and expectations. As Angela Rosenthal describes in her revealing article: according to the European ideal of femininity, constituted by notions of domestic, private virtues, and culturally regulated through conduct books, literature and other media, a decent woman 45 Sohm, 2010b, 228. 46 See Sohm, 2010a, 13, and Ago, 2010, 269. Guido Reni was famous for refusing to talk about the price of a commissioned painting in the certainty that the client, once he/she received the finished product, would reward him generously. This behaviour has been called a marketing technique to raise the demand for and therefore the price of his work. Goldthwaite, 2010, 288. 47 See Sani, 1985, II, 505. 48 ‘Moy je serais le plus heureux de posséder un trésor entre mes mains, pour ce qu’il sçagit de ce que vous ne me marquez point de prix, vous avez raison, car vous ouvrages sont impayable: pourtant je ne manquerai pas de vous trouver quelque chose pour vous témoigner ma reconnaissance, vous l’avez vû pour le portrait de ma femme, et je ne manquerai pas d’en faire de même pour le mien.’ Sani, 1985, II, 557. 49 Ago, 2010, 268.

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could not direct a prolonged searching look at a man without impropriety. That is, women who did not conform to such cultural limits were excluded from polite society, and considered either uncultured, unnaturally powerful or immoral. Within such imbalanced visual economy, portraiture was a problematic professional pursuit for women to whom such ideals of comportment were thought to apply; and because the behavioural codes focused upon the ocular submission of women to men, especially troublesome to the female portraitist was the heterosexual encounter.

And Rosenthal quotes a diary entry of the biographer James Boswell (1740–1795), dated 18 April 1775, referring to a conversation he had with Samuel Johnson (1709–1784): He [Johnson] thought portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman. ‘Public practice of any art, (he observed,) and staring in men’s faces, is very indelicate in a female.’50

In one of the famous conduct books published in England in the eighteenth-century, Whole Duty of Women (1737), the anonymous author dedicated an entire chapter to the subject, ‘Of the Manner of Behaviour towards Men’. Right at the beginning of chapter 7 the significance and power of a glance is made unmistakably clear: it must engage them to have a perpetual watch upon their eyes, and to remember that one careless glance gives more advantages than a hundred words not enough considered; the language of the eyes being very much the most significant and the most observed.51

Rosenthal also underlines that the international success of painters like Carriera or later Dorothea Therbusch (1721–1782), Adélaide Labille-Guillard, Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun or Catherine Read ‘flew in the face of the moralists’ objections to a woman “staring in men’s faces”.’52 Following this discourse regarding a portrait not only as a finished product but analysing it in its process of creation, the relationship between artist and sitter as well as the studio or space where the meeting takes place, become important factors to be aware of. In Carriera’s case, the only morally questionable location could have been her home. As long as she painted at the courts of the king of France, the imperial court in Vienna or even at Crozat’s hôtel in rue de Richelieu in Paris, the presence of court members or other guests would have turned the intersubjective encounter into a less risky affair. The art practice in public was more easily acceptable for the onlookers 50 Rosenthal, 1997, 147. 51 Rosenthal, 1997, 148, and Anon., 1737, 86. 52 Rosenthal, 1997, 148.

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and presumably slightly less awkward for the sitters. But how much of what ffolliott called a ‘controlled environment’53 was her home, her studio, where the male sitter was more intimately exposed to the female gaze? Did the unusual situation create tensions between her and her male models pertaining to a society in which conventions and conduct books like the above-mentioned English text, The Whole Duty of a Woman, of 1737,54 produced and reflected a morally loaded idea of female glances? Unfortunately, neither Carriera nor any of her clients left any records of the dynamics during her creation of likenesses of her male clients – Spence only left a record of what they were talking about while the artist was creating his portrait55 – but Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun did, and her entries show a clear awareness of the reciprocal risks of ocular intersubjectivity: while she was painting, she received admiring looks, full of desire and seductiveness, but she felt shielded by the moral and religious principles of her maternal education.56 And even if Carriera, depending on her sexual orientation, could have been more or less easily seduced or at least distracted by her male clients and their glances, from the literal point of view of the men who came to her studio the situation might have entailed a disorienting ambiguity. It seems reasonable to believe that the artist’s mother and/or her sister Giovanna were present during the sittings which most likely sanctioned the space of encounter as it did in the case of Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun.57 Another critical aspect of her role as a female painter was that generally, her contemporaries were under the annoying delusion that such women consorted in male circles with uncommon regularity, and might even, as artists, be tempted to follow the lead of their male colleagues and paint nudes of men. It was of the utmost importance, therefore, that Carriera avoided becoming the object of harmful rumour, malicious tongues and scandal as far as was possible, and to strictly attend to the appearances of propriety, leading an exemplary life and showing impeccable behaviour, especially as she did not have support from a brother or a husband.58 Her good friend and colleague Felice Ramelli, who maintained regular and close contact with her, was well aware of the dangers to which his friend was subject. In a letter dated 28 June 1703, he wrote to the artist that he intended in future to address her as ‘M. Jean Carriera’ so as not to compromise her by the large number of letters she, as an unmarried woman, received from a gentleman.59 53 ffolliott, 2013, 428. 54 The full title of this anonymous text is The Whole Duty of a Woman, or, an Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex (1737). 55 Spence, 1966, 603–6. 56 Rosenthal, 1997, 153. 57 Rosenthal, 1997, 154. 58 Tinagli and Rogers, 2012, 279. 59 Johns links this extraordinary document to the fact that in Rome ‘the highly moralizing tone of the clerical society had recently been reinvigorated by Pope Clement XI Albani to whom Ramelli was thoroughly devoted.’ Johns, 2003, 28–29.

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Carriera’s self-idealization, which is so evident in her letters and in some of her self-portraits discussed later in this book, her caution, tactics and the control of her behaviour, worked out remarkably well if we take into account that to date we do not have any specific public criticism regarding her private life, her reputation or her morals. Her biographers never mention anything of this type. For an artist who was internationally renowned to the extent she was, someone whom people talked about and discussed at the various European courts, who received a manifold clientele from an impressive number of different countries, and who worked in a city where she could have easily become the target of envious, local painters, it is noteworthy that she managed to live a relatively undisturbed life. Nevertheless, she was only ‘relatively undisturbed’, because her personal letters do contain various indications of people chit-chatting in a malicious way, even though the content of the bad-mouthing is revealed only in a few cases. What needs to be underlined is that they never take on the forms of any public scandal of any sort. Her friend and colleague Ramelli for example wrote a letter on 12 January 1704 with New Year’s wishes from Rome. Without giving any details regarding the content of the rumours or what kind of diabolic voice had talked badly about the artist – apparently it was one of her male friends who was the ‘little devil’ (petit diable) – he assured Carriera that she did not have to worry, especially as her virtue had always been above that kind of mean gossip (méchantes babilleries).60 Another equally vague hint of this kind of chit-chat can be found in another letter from Ramelli, of 6 March 1706, where he mentioned ‘a bit of envy’ (le peu d’envye) regarding her.61 Much later it was again Ramelli who informed his friend of the fact that a male colleague of hers spread the news that she was another of those artists who had left Venice to go abroad. According to the anonymous voice, she had gone to Düsseldorf where she would have been paid 6,000 talleri, which meant three times as much as Antonio Bellucci (1654–1726) who had left the year earlier to work for the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, until the ruler’s death in 1716.62 The most mysterious remarks are included in one of the missives by Niccolò Nicoli. On 13 May 1710, he started his letter talking about a kind of solution to a riddle that in its vagueness resembles the obscurity of an oracle. He also stressed that one did not necessarily take the rumours too seriously. It would appear that Carriera had received an anonymous letter she was not pleased about but could not decipher, or did not quite understand: If, if you have to give credence to them [the oracles], the insolence came from an idle person that did not have any reason to be against your most illustrious person. 60 See Sani, 1985, I, 74. 61 Sani, 1985, I, 97. 62 Sani, 1985, I, 100.

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I notice that he also wanted to leave us a trace of who he is, but as the words are obscure, they need an explanation.63

What follows is his attempt to decode various words that at first sight seem to be incomprehensible but that could give an indication of the author of the insulting words. Having arrived at the conclusion, Nicoli suggested that part of the riddle could hide the name Marco. He wanted to know if she knew anybody of that name and, if not, to simply conclude that the insult stemmed from some idle person, he repeated, who attacked her as he could have done anyone else.64 More than once, Carriera herself mentioned wagging tongues regarding her person, never though clarifying for the modern reader what exactly the rumours (ciance) were about.65 The fact that she eventually left Venice to go to Paris in 1720 seemed to be too much for some of her contemporaries. This unheard-of event, of a woman, even more, a woman artist, from the lagoon deciding to travel to France because of her work, did stir up gossip. The chit-chat in the city apparently got more intense as we find references to some form of malicious deception more often in Carriera’s correspondence. On 10 August 1720, her godfather and notary Gabrieli sent Carriera a long letter in which he reported the latest news from Venice, how things were going, how their acquaintances, including the servants left at the house on the Grand Canal, were doing, and he included some facts regarding business. Eventually, he turned to the artist herself and started commenting about the malicious gossip that he had heard about. With a rather annoyed tone he predicted that those, I won’t speak of those ill-willed ones, but may some of these torpid minds come to bite their lip for they have pleased themselves to say what they wished both about your departure and about who counselled you poorly, including those who have attacked myself. In short, they have spread rumours, wrought as much havoc as they sought to, that my friend [Pellegrini] had never received the commission for the ceiling, and as far as you are concerned, that your works were more appreciated abroad when you stayed in Venice, and nice little things like that. […] but now it starts eating at them and I hope it will eat at them so much that all their teeth will be consumed.66 63 The original reads: „Se, se li deve prestar fede, l’insolenza è provenuta da un ozioso, che non aveva con V.S. Ill.ma alcuna causa. Osservo che anco ha voluto darci una traccia dell’esser suo, ma perché le parole sono oscure, hanno necessità di spiegazione.’ Sani, 1985, I, 161. 64 ‘Ella, dunque, si compiacia di riflettere se conosce alcuno con questa traccia e quando no, giova concludere che l’insulto sia provenuto da un ozioso, che tanto poteva attaccar un’altra, come Lei.’ Sani, 1985, I, 161. 65 Sani, 1985, I, 254. 66 ‘non dirò li malevoli, ma certi di genio torbido s’habbino da morsicare le labbra, perché si sono sodisfatti di dire quando hanno voluto e sopra la vostra partenza e di chi vi ha malamente consigliato, per di che ha tocato a me la mia parte; in somma han seminata quanta zizania hanno voluto: e sopra mio compare che mai

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At the beginning, Gabrieli confessed, he would have ranted in the face of what he heard if he did not have firm belief in divine providence, but now, he added, it was also Carriera’s enormous glory and success that gave him strength. But the bad-mouthing continued. Three weeks later, on 31 August 1720, he congratulated the artist, referring once more to her great success in Paris and the applause she had received for her portrait of the king. In view of the unceasing rumours, he commented sympathetically: The darts of their malice that they shoot are not so much directed against you, because our Carriera is too great, and too difficult to hit, but against the poor Pellegrini who every once in a while gets hurt, as I hear, which causes me more pain than he can feel, but at the end those will bite their lips when they realize, as I hope, that they must take back the lies they spread.67

Playing with the meaning of her name, ‘Carriera’ which translates in English into ‘career’, he included a flattering pun that would encourage her by underscoring that this kind of bad-mouthing could never do her, or her career, any harm. And still in September Gabrieli confessed to her mother Alba that the rumours never stopped, and that he continuously had to fight against them, trying to rectify the facts. At the moment, he told her it was said that you were deeply disgusted with Rosalba […], to the point that you have abandoned her alone at Crozat’s palace moving into the house where Pellegrini stayed whose work shortly afterwards was interrupted, and that Signora Rosalba did not have any work anymore, which led all of you into total poverty, without any assistance, and all you were left in a state of complete unhappiness.68

Even if these nasty comments must have been painful and annoying, they most likely were the result of nagging jealousy, of professional envy, as they primarily refer to Carriera’s work, to her career; they did not attack her as a person or her lifestyle. And that her colleagues felt threatened by her seemed to be a well-known fact as a letter haveva da far quella sala, chi sentiva costoro; e sopra di voi, che le vostre opere sarebbero più stimate in paesi esteri, stando voi a Venezia, e altrettante belle cosette. […] ma adesso principiano a roder il morso e spero roderanno tanto che si consumeranno tutti i denti.’ Sani, 1985, I, 377. 67 ‘i dardi, però, della loro malignità non scoccano tanto contro di voi, perché la nostra Carriera è troppo grande et è difficile il potervi colpire, ma più contro il povero Pellegrini che di quando in quanto lo sento ferito, con il più mio dolore, di quello che può sentir lui, ma al fine costoro poi si morderanno le labra nel veder come spero, inalzata la balla da loro battuta per abbassarla.’ Sani, 1985, I, 380. 68 ‘È stato detto che voi vi siete fortemente disgustata con Rosalba […], a segno che l’havete abbandonata sola in Ca’ Crozat e che siete andata a star col Pellegrini in tempo che poco doppo a lui è restata sospesa l’operazione del suo lavoro, che la S.ra Rosalba non ha più niente che fare, onde attornate tutte senza denari, senza assistenza et in stato infelicissimo. Si può inventare cosa più enorme?’ Sani, 1985, I, 382, n. 1.

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from Giuseppe Pollaroli in 1734 shows in which he stated that her name was not only intimidating for anybody who paints in Venice but in any place where her works had appeared – that is, anywhere in the entire world.69 Attacks against her morals, her personal, intimate life would have been worse. How delicate the situation of a famous woman was in reality, and how easy it was to ruin her reputation, can be gauged by the way Carriera’s younger sister Giovanna was treated. Recanati, who during the stay of the Carrieras in Paris would regularly look after the house and the servants who had remained in Venice, wrote a letter shortly after the family had left the city. On 13 April, he informed Giovanna of the latest rumours that were going around in Venice talking about a fight that Giovanna, while still at home, had had with a certain Madame Cornet. The consequence of the dispute was, according to the gossip, that Cornet’s husband and son both had left Venice following Giovanna to Paris.70 This type of slander was potentially more threatening as it regarded the moral values of the time: Giovanna was described as a dangerous woman who ruined a marriage and tore apart an entire family. If we look at the case of Vigée-Lebrun who was accused of a lesbian relationship with Queen Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), or recall one the rumours regarding Angelica Kauffmann about an affair she was accused of having with Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) it is easy to understand what kind of danger Carriera was exposed to.71 Also, it suffices to remember once more how Giulia Lama was maltreated by her Venetian colleagues to understand that Carriera must have been more than aware of the risks she and her sisters were taking. She had to find a way to put up with the continuous verbal attacks. Carriera and her family members sometimes did get quite irritated and encouraged each other not to take the gossip too seriously. In a letter the artist wrote from Modena in 1723 she warned her youngest sister Angela not to listen too much to the gossip as it was not worth it and on top of that, it only led her to hurt and torture herself.72 Still, on one occasion Carriera did get hurt. At a certain point, she used her own words to release the accumulated frustration, starting to compose a poem in which she described those maldicenti (those who talk badly about something or somebody) as people who look at the world with ‘cursed eyes’ (occhi maldetti) only to see faults and defects.73 It remained unfinished. However, what needs to be underlined is that no matter how unnerving or sometimes insulting the chit-chat regarding the artist became, in the end, none of the talk did any harm to Carriera’s reputation or hindered her career or her success. 69 ‘nome non solo dà soggezione a chi dipinge in Venezia, ma in ogni luogo, dove sono comparse le opere della medesima, vale a dire per tutto il mondo.’ Sani, 1985, II, 591. 70 Sani, 1985, I, 365. 71 Regarding Kauffmann’s reaction, who accused Nathaniel Hone (1718–1784) of slander, see Rosenthal, 1996, 308–11. 72 See Sani, 1985, I, 440. 73 See Sani, 1985, II, 745.

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It was in the face of this reality that Carriera had cleverly built her image of a cold, saintly spinster who also paints. But even if this carefully created image, this astute way of self-fashioning made her lifestyle socially more acceptable, her contemporaries still found themselves in the dilemma of trying to give good reasons for her not becoming a virtuous wife. Among their letters we find different attempts to try to explain her choice: One was that they saw her dominant position in her family and her reluctance to leave its members, particularly her mother, alone as a possible hindrance to a marriage. When her close friend Crozat, for example, tried to persuade her to undertake a second trip to France, he referred to Carriera’s relationship with her mother directly as an obstacle in her life. He showed little understanding for her chosen lifestyle as a single woman. In a letter dated 28 June 1728, he wrote: I think that I could persuade you, knowing, as I do, your willingness to flatter us that you would gladly enter into all our plans if only Madame your mother was no obstacle. Should you be married, would you not have to part, supposing that you were and that your husband took you to France.74

With a husband at her side, he was convinced, the mother obstacle would be removed. Another of Carriera’s regular correspondents, Rapparini, was equally puzzled with regard to the painter’s extraordinary life that seemed to be too closely, inextricably linked to her family and to Venice. The famous exchange of letters between Carriera and Rapparini in the year 1710 illustrates even better the level of incomprehension primarily of her male acquaintances, clients or friends. In the context of his bewilderment why she turned down so many invitations to leave Venice, he eventually asked Carriera why she did not travel to England to visit her sister Angela and be celebrated by her many admirers there. His weak attempt at explanation ends with a provocation: I pity Signora Rosalba who must remain in Venice to comfort her Lady Mother, without knowing that outside of those lagoons there is still a world, men, and bread.75

Carriera reacted with annoyance. After accusing Rapparini of naivety, she put him in his place and corrected her correspondent by saying that first, her family was not really any of his business, and second, the world on the other side of the lagoon not 74 ‘Je crois vous persuader conessant, come je fais, votre bon coeur pour nous flatter que vous entreriez volontiers dans tous nos dessins si Madame votre mère n’estoit pas un obstacle. Si vous estiés mariée ne faudroi il pas vous séparer, suposés que vous l’estes, que ce mari vous mène en France.’ Sani, 1985, II, 482. 75 ‘Compatisco la Sig.ra Rosalba che deve restar per conforto della Signora Madre a Venezia, senza saper che fuori di quelle lagune ancora si trova mondo, huomini e pane.’ Sani, 1985, I, 167.

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only had bread and men to offer, but also women. Moreover, she wrote, she was not particularly interested in men. You, besides, have no reason to wonder, when you consider the constitution of our family. […] You must also be certain that I know very well that even outside of the Lagoons there lies a world of men and women, but that I am conforming to the will of Heaven which has ordered that my travels go no further than this table and that I content myself with a little bread. Also, as far as men go, believe this great truth: that there is nothing in the world that concerns me less than them.76

Whether this ‘great truth’ was intended as pure provocation or whether it reflects a different truth that nobody talked or knew about and regarded her sexual orientation, can only speculated. The wording, however, is stunningly strong. At the close of her letter, she completely belittled Rapparini by referring to him in the third person, claiming she only deigned to accept him because of his wife Margherita, a claim that might imply more than an element of playful provocation: I would not make exception of Signor Raparini, were it not that I consider him the husband of Signora Margherita, great patroness, which requires me to show toward her, as I am towards Your Lord/Ladyship, all veneration.77 After this, Rapparini tried very hard to excuse himself, also extract himself from the situation, though with little dexterity: I should not have to answer to her last letter, for all that it was of the kindest nature, had I not felt obliged to defend what I had written, where I said that beyond Venice there is a world, men, and bread.78

Indirectly, he responded to Carriera’s admonition by denying that he had misogynous tendencies, and countering that she herself was a misandrist: By ‘men’ I meant knowledgeable people who recognize merit and it displeased me to have found she held our sex in so little account, while I remain servant and worshipper of hers.79 76 ‘Lei, poi, non ha a meravigliarsi, quando rifletterà alla costituttione della nostra famiglia. […]. Deve esser certo ancora, che so benissimo ch’anche fori delle Lagune v’è mondo d’uomeni e donne, ma che m’accomodo ai voleri del Cielo ch’ordina che li miei viaggi siano al tavolino e che mi contenti di poco pane, che, in quanto agli huomeni, creda questa gran verità che non v’è cosa al mondo che meno mi dia pensiero.’ Sani, 1985, I, 170–71. 77 ‘Non ecetuerei ne men il Sig.r Raparini, se non considerassi in lui la metà della Sig.ra Margherita, gran patrona, che m’obliga ad esser così ad ella, come a V.S., con tutta la veneratione.’ Sani, 1985, I, 171. 78 ‘Io non averei forse che replicare all’ultimo suo, per altro gentilissimo, foglio, se non fosse che mi corre obbligo di difendere lo scritto periodo da me, dove dissi che fuor di Venezia si trovava mondo, huomini e pane.’ Sani, 1985, I, 171. 79 ‘Intesi per huomini, gente conoscitrice e riconoscitrice del merito e spiacemi d’aver trovato in lei poco caso del nostro sesso, sempre tuttavia servo et adoratore del suo.’ Sani, 1985, I, 171.

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Addressing Carriera also in the third person, his letter, spiced with irony, answered her remarks on his wife by saying: So, if I hadn’t had with me my Signora Margherita, the art which is mine would not have been observed by Signora Rosalba. Oh poor me, who thought himself to be a little in her graces!80

Almost as a form of revenge or as though they were playing a power game, he retaliated by reminding Carriera of the importance of the men in her life: She would be out in the cold, Signora Rosalba, if her virtue were to be judged solely by the taste of women. Princes, Monarchs and Electors have noticed it, they welcome her in their cabinets and garnish them with gems so that if I were of that rank, I would want to do otherwise.81

One can only hypothesize as to whether Carriera was truly struck or even wounded by this rather indiscreet reference, considering the fact that she was calculating and cool when it came to choosing powerful or influential men as her partners in conversation or in business. Her strategy to achieve fame and success led to the unusual situation in which these very men came to her and not her to them, also without her being dependent on them. In Carriera’s private life, these men were, at best, friends, customers or agents, but never potential partners, as she pointed out herself, and in her studio, she only worked with women.82 Carriera did, as was typical for women artists of the time, take pupils and assistants of her own sex;83 she employed a number of women to support her in her work and help deal with the immense number of commissions she received.84 In addition to her younger sisters Giovanna, and for a short period also Angela, we only find mention of the names Felicita Sartori, Marianna Carlevarijs (1703–post 1750) and the sisters Margherita and Maria Terzi.85 And Margherita seemed to have stayed and worked for Carriera until the very end, as proven by a letter that Katherine Read sent on 22 July 1756 asking the artist to greet 80 ‘Dunque, se io non avessi in me mezza la sig. Margherita mia, quella arte ch’è mia, non sarebbe osservata dalla Sig. Rosalba. O poveraccio me, che mi credeva un po’ in grazia!’ Sani, 1985, I, 171–72. 81 ‘Starebbe fresca, la Sig.ra Rosalba, se dal gusto delle donne sole dovesse esser giudicata la sua virtù. Prencipi, Monarchi ed Elettori fanno caso di essa, l’accolgono ne’ gabinetti ed ornano di gemme e s’io fossi di questo rango, vorrei far altro.’ Sani, 1985, I, 172. 82 Limentana Virdis, 1996, 26. 83 Borzello, 2000, 69. Elisabetta Sirani and Mary Craddock Beale (1632–1699) were among the earliest women artists to have female students; see De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 95. 84 Henning and Marx, 2007, 57. With respect to Marianna Carlevarijs, see Bottacin, 1996, 156–63. 85 Regarding the Terzi sisters, to whom Carriera left some money, accounted for in the post-mortem inventory of 1757, see Moretti, 2011b, 314–15. As far as Carriera’s testament is concerned, written on 18 February 1753, both Margherita and Maria were promised 200 ducats. In the same document, we find the names of Giulia and Felicita who ‘are at this moment in my services’, as specified by the artist; Sani, 1985, II, 727. It is reasonable to believe that the Terzi sisters also served in the household.

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and compliment Margherita for her, to whom she wanted to send some paper as soon as she had an occasion to do so.86 After the death of Giovanna, Angioletta, the younger sister of Felicita Sartori, became part of the workshop. It is equally significant that Carriera not only taught her own students in the workshop but sought out and supported female painters in Italy and abroad like Katherine Read, Angelica Le Gru Perotti (1719–1776) and Giovanna Fratellini Marmocchini Cortesi (1666–1731).87 It was a female world she was surrounded by. Another rather desperate way to explain her unusual lifestyle of remaining unwed was to use her physical appearance, her alleged lack of attractiveness. Evidently, Carriera’s personal appearance was so important to Dézallier d’Argenville that he opened his biography of 1762, with the following words: Beauty, which is usually the lot of women, was not at all that of Signora Rosa Alba Carriera. This shortcoming, if it is one, was well replaced in her, by qualities her mind & by the superior talents nature had provided her.88

Further on, he became even more explicit: ‘Moreover, love couldn’t divert her from her intended purpose; a woman, under the aegis of ugliness, is saved from lovers.’89 The following line was penned by the author and historian Edward Gibbon (1737– 1794) on 4 July 1764: ‘One must admit that she is not worshipped as are her companions, as far as beauty goes.’90 In a similar vein, Anton Maria Zanetti the Younger (1706–1778) wrote in 1771 that she was not pretty, but that she possessed inner values instead: ‘Just as nature was miserly in her external gifts all the more did she endow her with very rare internal talents which she cultivated with every care.’91 In a meeting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Padua on 6 December 1781, Girolamo Zanetti read out a eulogy in honour of Carriera, in which he focused primarily on her talent, recalling her success as an artist. The eulogy contained the following lines, and a further episode involving her appearance that has been handed down: 86 See Sani, 1985, II, 734. 87 Sani, 2007, 56. As far as her support of Fratellini is concerned, see the letter she wrote to Carriera on 12 March 1728, in Sani, 1985, II, 485–86. 88 Translation by Dabbs, 2009, 344. The original text reads: ‘La beauté qui est le partage ordinaire des femmes, ne fut point de la Signora Rosa Alba Carriera. Ce défaut, si c’en est us, fut bien remplacé en elle, par le qualités de l’ame, & par les talens supérieurs dont la nature l’avoit pourvûe.’ Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 314. 89 Translation by Dabbs, 2009, 344. The original text reads: ‘D’ailleurs, l’amour ne pouvoit la détourner de sa destination, une femme, sous l’égide de la laideur, est à l’abri des amans.’ Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 314. In a similarly denigrating way he also commented on the physical appearance of Elisabeth-Sophie Chéron (1648–1711) and Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717); see Dabbs, 2008, 39. 90 The original text reads, quoted by Pavanello, 2007a, 57: ‘Bisogna ammettere che non si è adulata come le sue compagne, per quanto riguarda la bellezza.’ 91 ‘Quanto avara le fu natura negli esterni doni tanto più colmolla d’interne doti rarissime; cui ella coltivò con ogni cura.’ A. Zanetti, vol. 5, 1771, 448.

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Nature is mother to us all, but she is not prodigal with all her gifts, and precisely for this she does not usually give everything to everybody. She gave Carriera sublime talent, beauty however she did not bestow upon her, indeed it seems that in exchange for her liberal gift of that, she deprived her altogether of this last. Thus did the Emperor Charles VI turn to his court painter, whose last name was Bertoli and whose homeland was Friuli – who was presenting her to him, She may be worthy, Bertoli mine, he said, this painter of yours, but she is very plain. Carriera, who knew her own physiognomy only too well, heard him, and discretely smiled, because she knew equally well the plainness of others and among these those of this august monarch, with whom in this matter of beauty Nature had been no less stingy, as everyone knows.92

Her colleague Giulia Lama was described by the scientist and intellectual, Abate Antonio Schinella Conti (1677–1749) with the same stereotypical and misogynistic approach: in one of his letters he wrote to Madame de Caylus, Marthe-Marguerite Le Valois de Villette de Mursay, Marquise de Caylus (1673–1729), dated 1 May 1728, describing the artist Giulia Lama as being as ugly as she was witty: I have just discovered a woman here who paints better than Rosalba, as far as large compositions go. […] her name is Giulia Lama […]. While true that her ugliness matches her wit, still she speaks with grace and refinement, so that her face is easily forgiven her.93

92 ‘La Natura è madre comune, ma non è prodiga di tutti i suoi doni, e per questo appunto dar tutto a tutti non suole. Diede alla Carriera sublime talento, bellezza però non le diede, anzi pare che in cambio del liberal dono di quelli, ne la privasse in tutto di questa. Rivoltosi però l’imperatore Carlo VI ad un suo pittore di corte, di cognome Bertoli e di patria friulano, che gliela presentava, Sarà valente, Bertoli mio, dissegli, questa tua pittrice, ma ella è molto brutta. La Carriera, che troppo conosceva la propria fisionomia, lo udì, e di soppiatto sorrise, perché molto bene conosceva del pari le altrui bruttezze, e fra queste quella ancora di quell’augusto monarca, cui in fatto di bellezza non era stata meno avara la Natura, come tutti sanno.’ G. Zanetti, 1818, 18–19. Also Fidière, who based his account of Carriera on Vianelli’s publication of her diaries, described the artist once more as not pretty at all but ‘sweet and nice’. According to him she was sought after everywhere thanks to her modesty and sympathy. The original reads: ‘Point jolie, mai d’une figure douce et sympathique, sa modestie et as grâce la faisaient partout rechercher.’ Fidière, 1885, 23. 93 Between 1727 and 1729, Conti held regular correspondence with Mme. de Caylus sending her almost ninety letters from Venice. The original text reads: ‘Je viens de decouvrir ici une femme qui peint mieux que Rosalba pour se qui regarde les grands compositions […] elle s’appelle Julia Lama […]. Il est vrai qu’elle a autant de laideur que d’esprit mais elle parle avec grâce et finesse, ainsi on lui pardonne aisement son visage.’ See Pallucchini, 1970, 161; Delpero, 2011, 85. Much later, we still find the following comments about Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1929) from contemporaries: ‘though she was not beautiful she produced the effect of beauty.’ One of her friends, Elsie de Wolffe, also expresses herself in a similar way: ‘one never heeded her lack of beauty because of the radiant mentality and understanding heart behind it.’ Quoted by Sidlauskas, 2008, 188. About the quest for beauty as an aesthetic-social system since the Renaissance, see Nahoum-Grappe, 1993.

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The same fate of an ‘unforgiving face’ befell Carriera’s younger colleague Katherine Read who was described by the author Fanny Burney (1752–1840) as follows: Miss Reid is shrewd and clever when she has any opportunity given her to make it known; […] She is most exceedingly ugly, and of a very melancholy, or rather discontented, humour.94

Likewise, Angelica Kauffmann, who was referred to by one of the most influential German writers and philosophers, Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), as an ‘extremely simple’ woman ‘without physical charms.’95 Even Malamani, who recounted at the beginning of the twentieth century the famous anecdote in which Emperor Charles VI had made rather disrespectful comments about the artist’s appearance, described Carriera thus: While her face is not beautiful and her form low and squat, her wide brow and her intelligent eye would emerge at a first meeting, and this impression would carve itself deeply in the mind of whoever conversed with her.96

And further on Malamani remarks: In spite of the exterior defects of her person, she arose true passions among men, which, far more than in the fleeting splendour of beauty, take hold and sustenance from the light of the soul and of vivacity of mind.97

These comments reiterate a stereotype already prevalent in the Renaissance and reflect certain helplessness on the part of some of her male observers as an intellectual difficulty dealing with an exceptional female and social anomaly such as Carriera, who continued to shake up her male observers’ world view.98 It is a helplessness that goes beyond their basic misogynistic tendencies. The artist’s lack of beauty apparently serves to lessen her exceptional abilities and talent and cut her success down to size, making her in their eyes more comprehensible and acceptable. Indirectly, the earlier passages I quoted reveal the tendency in the eighteenth century to

94 Greer, 2001 [1979], 278. 95 Quoted after Rosenthal, 2007, 13. 96 Malamani, 1910, 97. See also Malamani’s comments at the end of his book where he repeats the same stereotype himself; 97–98. Even Levey makes similar remarks on her physical appearance: ‘She was plain to the point of ugliness.’ Levey, 1959, 140. Or later on: ‘However disappointing she might be as an incarnation of a woman herself, she did not disappoint taste in the women of her pastels’; 145. 97 Malamani, 1910, 98. See also Viallet, 1923, 59. 98 Dabbs, 2008, 29–30; 2009, 340. With regard to the importance of the appearance of women between 1500 and 1800, see also Matthews-Grieco, 1993, 55–63; C. King, 1993, 381, 391 and 405.

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describe female artists as either chained to their homes, or in some ways masculine, in order to underscore the fact that they were different.99 Only a miracle seemed to offer Malamani a sufficient explanation for Carriera and her life. Given the universal ignorance of women of that century and of artists in every century, she, who spoke and wrote, beside her own, the Latin language and French, played the harpsichord and the violin rather well and sang sweetly; she, who was educated in the history of art and of literature, who spoke on any subject with judgment and a limber sense of humour – appeared to be a miracle.100

Inseparable from the dilemma of trying to explain her talent, her male observers were led by her physical appearance or some kind of supernatural condition of hers to actually compare her to a man, a strategy and trope that had traditionally been used in the context of women painters since the Renaissance.101 And the fact that Carriera was not married also helped in this context. As Katherine Rogers has pointed out, already in 1982 in her study of eighteenth-century feminism in England: ‘women could be strong and rational, therefore equal to men, only through rising above their sexual nature.’102 Artistic excellence and being a woman did create a paradox as far as gendered expectations were concerned. Also ffolliott confirms: cross-gender appraisals were employed to prove that certain women were ‘marvels’, outstripping expectations for their sex. […] Significantly, such remarks both maintain the status quo and create a special space for those women who are seen to transcend gender norms and display some of the male-associated virtues.103

Contemporaries of Carriera returned on several occasions to the same trope. On 6 January 1719, Crozat wrote about a possible journey of Carriera’s: It is true that this sort of voyage proves tiring for a lady. All the same, we have witnessed many who come and go from Paris to Italy without feeling inconvenienced. 99 Dabbs, 2009, 340. 100 Malamani, 1910, 97. 101 See for example Parker and Pollock, 2013, 8. Another famous example is the quote from one of Artemisia Gentileschi’s letters she sent to Don Antonio Ruffo in Messina: ‘I think […] you will find the spirit of Caesar in this soul of a woman.’ Garrard, 1989, 397. 102 Rogers, 1982, 216. And Greer noticed as early as in 1979: ‘To be truly excellent in art was to be de-sexed, to be a woman only in name, to inhabit a special realm that no other woman could enter, to be separated from all other women, or it was to express true femininity in grace, delicacy, sweetness and so forth, and be condemned to the second rank.’ Greer, 2001 [1979], 75. 103 ffolliott, 2013, 425.

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You have several of them in Venice, therefore, Mademoiselle, you, who show none of the weakness of women and who are worth more than a hundred men, I exhort you to make this trip even this year and to take advantage of the warm spring weather to start along the route of Loreto.104

Francesco Algarotti wrote a report on her paintings purchased on behalf of August III, in which he said: ‘[Her] works showed that in a female person there sometimes lies virile spirit.’105 Charles-Nicolas Cochin noted in his Voyage d’Italie, in 1773: Mademoiselle Rosalba having chosen to work in pastels and miniatures, has raised these to such a high degree of merit that not even the most celebrated men have surpassed her in these genres, but moreover that very few can even be compared to her.106

And at the beginning of the twentieth century, Malamani wrote about Carriera’s return to Venice and her exhausting time in Paris: Yet the painter had sensed that she could not bear much longer this extraordinary effort, capable of wearing down the fibre even of a hardy man, let alone that of a little lady like her, for all that she was healthy and strong.107

Even faced with her traumatic eye disease towards the end of her life, Malamani wrote, she was as strong as Hercules.108 It is worthwhile underlining again that the caricature of the artist by Anton Maria Zanetti (Figure 27) shows her with clearly stubble around her mouth.109 The drawing points at the same time to a more general tendency that went far beyond comparing talented and successful women with men. Female artists in the eighteenth century moved in a sort of social limbo that had a negative effect on the way in which others perceived them. As Ugo Foscolo wrote, they were regarded almost as ‘isolated freaks of nature’.110 104 ‘Il est vray que ces sortes de voyages sont fatigans pour une dame. Cependant, nous en voyons plusieurs qui vont et viennent de Paris en Italie sans en estre incomodées. Vous en avés plusieurs à Venise, aussy, Mademoiselle, vous, qui n’avez rien de la la foiblesse des femmes et qui valés mieux que cent hommes, je vous exorte à faire ce voyage dès cette année et de profiter de la belle saison du printemps en commensant par la route de Lorette.’ Sani, 1985, I, 345. 105 Malamani, 1910, 96. See also Dézallier d’Argenville, who wrote about her virile, elevated style; 1762, 316. 106 ‘Mademoiselle Rosalba s’étant attachée aux talens du pastel & de la miniature, les a portés à un si haut degree de mérite, que non seulement les homes les plus célebres dans ce genres ne l’ont point surpassée, mais même qu’ il en est bien peu qui puissent lui être comparés.’ Cochin, 1773, 160. 107 Malamani, 1910, 53. 108 Malamani, 1910, 94. 109 Concerning the relationship between the friends, see Barcham, 2009, 147–56. 110 Borzello, 1998, 32.

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Figure 27 Anton Maria Zanetti, Caricature of Rosalba Carriera 1720–30, brown ink on paper, 9 × 6.9 cm. Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini. © Fototeca della Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice/Matteo de Fina.

But women of such celebrity are rare in Italy, and are looked upon not so much with respect as with wonder, as monsters of talent, nor are they privileged against the inexorable pains and penalties of ridicule.111

Regarding public opinion of Carriera’s decision not to marry, it must be noted that although some regarded it with surprise and perplexity, others expressed their admiration and interest. Worthy of note in this respect is a letter of 5 June 1739, in which 111 The original text, available in the Biblioteca digitale Italiana, Università degli Studi di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, was published in English in the London Magazine with the title ‘The Women of Italy’ in 1826. See also Giuli, 2009.

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Rosana Pozzola wrote from Vicenza to Carriera and reported that she had begun working for Antonio Dei Pieri as an artist: as my demerits and bad fate, have not allowed me to come under Yr. Most Illustrious Ladyship, I have made every possible effort to submit myself to this Gentleman. Believe me that there has been no other motive, than that I have been persevering in drawing, that I have determined that I do not wish to marry, besides, having, up to now, such little fortune that I don’t know how I have stayed with this opinion, but considering my state, possessing but little fortune, I have devoted myself with every possible energy, if I can do so much as obtain some merit, without desiring that of my brother, having learned from experience that, over much time, we all get bored, even if we are siblings. I think you will take pleasure in this resolution of mine and will judge it excellent, my knowledge of the love and goodness you have shown me up to now has given me the courage to mention this household. Honour me with benign compassion while in saluting you devotedly I protest myself to be always, as I write below […].112

It is manifestly evident how much she saw Carriera as a role model, not only in her artistic career, but also in her decision not to marry, and how Rosana hoped for at least moral support in this respect.113 Something which met with spiritual opposition on the one hand was on the other expected to serve as a guiding light and role model for emancipated women. And Carriera must have been aware of some of her contemporaries taking her life and career as a guideline, and, surprisingly, not only women. Interestingly, many men seemed not to feel threatened by Carriera’s artistic mastery, neither did they find it humiliating to emulate a woman, or to have to ask for help from a woman regarding painting. What I mentioned above regarding her French colleagues who were more deeply impressed by her art than the other way round, was also noticed by Crozat. In a letter written in 1727 he mentioned various painters who imitated her, among whom he nominated nobody less than Antoine Coypel himself.114 And also Massé is known to have copied miniatures from Carriera.115 112 ‘già che il mio demerito e la mia cativa sorte, non [h]a volto che venchgi soto di V.S. Ill.ma, mi son sforzata di far tutto il posibile di andar almeno soto a questo Signor. Mi chreda che non è stato altro motivo, che son stata perseverante nel disigniare, che haver fisato, di non volermi maritare, per altro, [h]o avuto, sino ad ora, tanta poca fortuna, che non so come mi sii mantenuta in questa opinione, ma pensando al mio stato, esendo di povere fortune, mi son data con tuto il sforzo posibile, se poso far tanto di procaciarmi il merito, senza bramarlo dal fratelo, avendo imparato per esperienza, che, col lungo tempo, tutti si viene a stufar, ben che sii frateli. Chredo che lei averà piacere di questa mia risuluzione e la aproverà per otima, il saper l’amore e la bontà, che a autto sino adora per me, mi a dato il coragio di notificarli questa casa. Mi onori di un benigno compatimento e col riverirla divotamente mi protesto di eserli per sempre, qual mi soschrivo […].’ Sani, 1985, II, 648. See also Sama, 2009, 129. 113 See also Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Women Artists, 1976, 93. 114 Sani, 1985, II, 464 and 481. 115 Holck Colding, 1953, 129.

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In 1731, another ambitious artist from Paris, who signed his letters with ‘Gueffier’ and who had travelled to Venice, where he probably met Carriera, regretted that he could not stay longer in order to take advantage of her lessons.116 And the same year, in July, the artist received a letter from Vienna in which Johann Adam Wehrling expressed his wish to learn the technique of pastel painting from her.117 Furthermore, on various occasions Carriera’s correspondence proves that her pieces were copied by men, like the letter Pietro Petroni Caldana wrote on 9 August 1711 in which he let the painter know that he that he had copied some of her portraits to improve his own art.118 Ambitious painters regularly declared that they wanted to learn from her, that they copied her pieces, or they asked directly for professional advice. Carriera’s answers that have survived show an artist who seems to have been quite generous as far as the sharing of her knowledge is concerned. At the same time, based on personal experience she was well aware of the difficulties a woman had to face when trying to become an artist, which might have turned her into a helpful and available source of information for numerous females who met or who contacted her. In 1719, Margherita Bononcini, wife of the composer Giovanni Bononcini wrote from Rome asking Carriera for advice about the use of ivory for pastel paintings.119 The artist’s reply shows how generously she would share her knowledge and experience. She gave Bononcini advice on how to mix colours for the skin and included special paint brushes she could use for her miniatures.120 Another example is the Princess of Rocca Colonna in Palermo who received teachings from the Venetian expert.121 In April 1735, Carriera received a letter from Florence, written by the art historian and collector Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri (1676–1742) to thank her for having been so generous as to offer sound advice to Giovanna Messini (1717–1742) and to send an entire box of pastel sticks when he had asked only for some single pieces.122 About six weeks later, Gabburri sent some sketches of his protégée to Venice asking Carriera for her opinion and her professional expertise. As Messini would have desired to become a student of hers, he underlined; he also included a self-portrait by the young artist.123 Besides her personal decision to remain single, Carriera’s interest in emancipatory discourses might have played a role as well. That she was indeed curious about these debates, even familiar with some of the writings can be seen in the remarkable fact, already mentioned earlier, that she had read Judith Drake’s Essay in Defence of the 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123

Sani, 1985, II, 543. Sani, 1985, II, 555. Sani, 1985, I, 190. Sani, 1985, I, 351. See Sani, 1985, I, 354. See Sani, 1985, II, 454 and 501–2. Sani, 1985, II, 599. Sani, 1985, II, 601.

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Female Sex, published in 1669, and had even translated parts of it.124 Drake’s treatise is part of the querelle des femmes debate that by the end of the sixteenth century ‘had been consuming a steady stream of ink in Italy and Europe for over a hundred years’.125 And interestingly enough, since the late Middle Ages, Venetian women had been contributing a significant number of literary works to the debate.126 Two of the best known treatises and first substantial full-length works by Italian female writers on the intellectual and moral equality of women with men were both published in Venice in the year 1600. One is Modesta Pozzo’s (1555–1592) Il merito delle donne (The worth of women), which was published posthumously under the pseudonym Moderata Fonte, by Domenico Imberti. The other one was written by Lucrezia Marinella (1571–1653), daughter of Giovanni Marinelli, doctor and philosopher who himself had already been involved in the feminist discussions of his time.127 Lucrezia Marinella expressed her ideas in Le nobiltà e l’eccellenza delle donne co’ difetti e mancamenti di gli huomini (The nobility and excellence of women with the defects and deficiencies of men).128 These texts, which have received extensive scholarly attention, are considered to be the first substantial defences of women written by women in Italy.129 Another protagonist among the Venetian female authors who argued the case for the recognition of women’s intellectual and moral equality is Arcangela Tarabotti (1604–1652). From the walls of her convent, she addressed her contemporaries by writing a series of tracts and letters in which she discussed the condition of women and the new ideal of an uncloistered, sociable and creative single life for women.130 124 Del Negro, 2009, 83. Cole wrote the following lines to Carriera, which cannot be precisely dated and which probably refer to a copy of Drake’s Essay that he had given the artist: ‘Madam, when you shall well understand the book I send you, the world will say you are a good scholar, and I a good Master.’ Sani, 1985, II, 751. See also Del Negro, 2007, 38, n. 44. The notes written by Carriera, ‘A proposito degli studi femminili’ (Regarding feminine studies; in Sani, 1985, II, 738–39), are a translation of the first six pages of Drake’s Essay. Regarding the querelle des femmes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Italy, see Rebecca Messbarger’s introduction to Messbarger and Paula Findlen, eds., Contest for Knowledge (2005), as well as the first chapter of the same publication called ‘The Italian Enlightenment Reform of the Querelle des Femmes’, by Margaret King and Albert Rabil Jr., pp. 1–22. 125 V. Cox, 1995, 514. 126 See for example Maddalena Scrovegni (c.1356–1429) and the short treatise that Lombardo della Seta (d.1390) dedicated to her, De quibusdam memorandis mulieribus (Of some memorable women). Benussi, 2014, 16–19. 127 Her real name was Lucrezia Marinella Vacca; she worked under the pseudonym Lucrezia Marinelli. See also Patricia Labalme, ‘Venetian Women on Women: Three Early Modern Feminists’ (1981). 128 The first edition was revised and expanded in 1601 and 1621; V. Cox, 1995, 513. See also Paola Malpezzi Price and Christine Ristaino, Lucrezia Marinella and the ‘Querelle des Femmes’, in Seventeenth-Century Italy (2008). 129 In her revealing article ‘The Single Self: Feminist Thought and the Marriage Market in Early Modern Venice’ (1995), Virginia Cox points out the new approach of Lucrezia Marinella and Moderata Fonte: unlike their predecessors, the authors reflect not only upon the equality of men and women but contemplate ways in which women, seen as a sociological group, might free themselves from their dependence on men and extend their energy and talents into the public sphere. For the first time, the authors envision effective equality between the sexes. V. Cox, 1995, 513–81. See also Dialeti, 2011, 3–6. 130 V. Cox, 1995, 558–75.

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Six of her books were published during her lifetime among which La semplicità ingannata (Innocence betrayed) and L’Inferno monacala on forced claustration are probably the most memorable writings.131 Chiara Varotari, a painter herself, founded a school in Venice to train female artists and was also highly recognized as an advocate for women rights, which resulted in her feminist writings such as An Apology for the Female Sex.132 It is difficult to imagine that Carriera, a well-educated woman and a literate conversationalist who was surrounded by the intellectual elite of Venice and of all of Europe, would have remained untouched by the debate. She herself took part during this important transitional period in the discourse about women that ‘produced a uniquely large and commanding body of learned women active in every sphere of intellectual endeavour, she was a member of a female intelligentsia that was, remarkably, not limited to the aristocratic class’,133 which suggests not only her high cultural level but also a certain awareness of the feminist discourses of her time. Nonetheless, without more specific research or documentary proof, one can only speculate about the degree to which she was familiar with the pioneering full-length works and ideas of some of the numerous authors of texts regarding the querelle des femmes. Regarding a further hypothesis about Carriera’s decision not to marry, it is impossible to know, and fruitless to conjecture, whether she remained single more because of her desire to be an emancipated independent woman or because of her sexual orientation. Either conjecture would distract attention from one highly significant fact: marriage was never a real alternative for Carriera. For female artists of her time, marriage as a means of climbing the social ladder was only conditionally possible. Generally speaking, the professional career of the woman artist was hampered rather than helped by marriage, and as a consequence, as Modesti notes in her book on the Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani, ‘many women artists, once married, more often than not, abandoned their professions.’134 Carriera’s career would have been obstructed quite considerably. Actually, had she married, it would have been her husband, not her, who would have benefited from her fame, her success and her fortune.135 By renouncing marriage, on the other hand, she was able to safeguard her intellectual and artistic autonomy, which made up for the loss of social advancement.136 Simply put, as Chambers-Schiller’s book title suggests: ‘Liberty, a better husband’.137 131 Hufton, 1995, 372–73. 132 See also De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 79–80. 133 Messbarger, 2002, 7. 134 ‘Given the legal power of husbands over wives, spinsterhood combined with help from a father or sister was often a more productive option than marriage.’ Borzello, 1998, 30. Regarding Sirani, see Modesti, 2014, 33. 135 Johns, 2003, 27. In terms of marriage as an obstacle to a female artist’s career, see also Sutherland Harris, Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Le grandi pittrici (1979), 29. 136 Limentana Virdis, 1996, 22. 137 See Lee Virginia Chambers-Schiller, Liberty, a Better Husband: Single women in America; The Generation of 1780–1840 (1984).

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In point of fact, it seems that Carriera constructed for herself a functioning network of prominent men and women from all spheres of influence, including aristocrats, ambassadors, artists, intellectuals and businessmen and -women, using these contacts for the social leverage they offered, interacting with them on all levels and even exerting her own influence.138 Looking at the number of portraits of Venetians that Carriera executed, it is interesting to note that she painted more Venetian women than Venetian men.139 Until the end of the 1720s about ten to twelve portraits of patrician ladies can be found. In old age she added at least another seven to this list which reached a total of roughly twenty. As far as the likenesses of male patricians are concerned, we count only ten, which is about half of the number of women of the same social background in Venice that Carriera depicted. The discrepancy between her contacts with women and men looms larger in perspective if we look at the number of females with whom she shared a social life. Her life and success in Venice, in general, seems to have been more determined and influenced by her contacts with women than with men. Counting the portraits Carriera depicted from foreigners, the proportions change: forty-nine men to eight women.140 Carriera’s affective as well as professional collaborative links with her female circle correspond to what Luisa Moore observed in the context of the relationship between the English artist Mary Delany (1700–1788) and the aristocrat Margaret Bentinck, the Duchess of Richmond (1715–1785): One aspect of women’s increasing participation in art practices of all kinds from the end of the Renaissance onwards seems to be the creation of [female] networks. Women who in many cases denied formal training and professional opportunities shared resources […] and exchanged the products of their artistic labours.141

The links between Carriera, her pupil Felicita Sartori and Luisa Bergalli (1703–1779) reveal three interesting cases of female bonding, each of which exemplify these complexities as they pertained to eighteenth-century same-sex relationships. Both Tiziana Plebani in 2003 and especially Catherine M. Sama in 2008 and 2009 have elucidated the professional and personal relationship between the three as an important contribution to ‘women shaping culture in eighteenth-century Venice.’142 Thanks to the cultural situation in the lagoon – which prompted Caroli to call it the ‘Queen of the seventeenth century’143 – numerous Venetian women who were aware of their

138 139 140 141 142 143

Regarding the relationship with the aristocracy of her city, see Del Negro 2009, 56–66. Sani’s catalogue from 2009 is at the basis of the following observations by Del Negro. Del Negro, 2009, 66–73. L. Moore, 2011, 11. Plebani, 2003, 47–48; Sama, 2008, 59–75, Sama, 2009, 125–50. See also Oberer, 2014, 63–68. Caroli, 2003, 7.

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abilities and opportunities were able to distinguish themselves in various fields.144 This environment could only prove beneficial to the careers of people such as Luisa Bergalli, who made her mark as a poet, playwright and translator of classic and French literature. With respect to her personal and professional link to the Carriera family, suffice it say that her anthology of Italian authoresses was published in 1726, entitled Componimenti poetici delle più illustre rimatrici d’ogni secolo (Poetic compositions by the most illustrious poetesses of every century). At the time, this was the most comprehensive anthology of Italian female writers – as well as the first to be published by a woman.145 The volume comprises various works of 253 female poets, together with their biographies, including Rosalba’s sister, Giovanna Carriera.146 The ties between the painter, her student and the author also represent instances of female cooperation that these three women used strategically to achieve professional success, by means other than marriage in a public arena otherwise dominated by men.147 They are also a telling example of how these niches of mutual female support and intimate emotional bonds, turned into such a ‘powerful resource in the struggle of autonomy and authority.’148

144 See Lanaro, 1991, 129. 145 Sama, 2009, 130 146 Luisa chose two of Giovanna’s poems, both of which were composed with a strong religious undertone; see Bergalli, 1726, 224–25. After having been chosen by Recanati to be part of his publication on female poets, this was the second time that Giovanna was included in an anthology. 147 For a summary of the Venetian women who were part of the cultural life of the city, see Molmenti, 1908, III, 456–70. 148 Lanser, 1998–99, 180.

7

Carriera’s Last Journeys – The End of an E`nviable Career

Carriera in Modena Not long after her successful trip to France, by the end of June 1723, Carriera left Venice again to travel with her mother and Giovanna to Modena where, from July to November, she stayed at the court of Rinaldo III d’Este (1655–1737) to paint the portraits of his daughters.1 D’Este had met Carriera before: some time between 1710 and 1720 the duke himself had posed for the Venetian artist, and two years before Carriera’s arrival in Modena, while she was still in Paris, the envoy extraordinary and resident minister of France of the Modenese court, Giovanni Marquis Rangoni, had advised the duke to hire the one female artist whose ‘paintbrush would be able to raise the curiosity of the most distinguished people.’2 During her stay in Modena, which offered her little amusement, Carriera remained at the court of the Este family to complete the requested pastel portraits of Benedetta Ernestina (1697–1737), Anna Amalia Giuseppa (1699–1778) and Enrichetta Anna Sofia (1702–1777).3 A nun, named Sister Maria Beatrice Davia, seemed to have played the role of secretary and adviser of the princesses, that is, as an intermediary figure between the three young ladies and Carriera.4 Rinaldo’s intention for these portraits was to send them to various European courts in the hope of finding suitable husbands for the princesses. One of the recipients was Benedicte Henriette (1652–1730) in Paris, widow of Duke Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1625–1679) and grandmother of Rinaldo. Another recipient was Duchess Louise Françoise de Bourbon (1673–1743), whose son Louis Henri de Bourbon (1692–1740) was supposed to marry Enrichetta Anna Sofia, the youngest princess.5 Ultimately, these marriage 1 Around 1710–20 Carriera created a portrait of the duke himself, which was destroyed during World War II; Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 2, pp. 59–60. 2 ‘il credito del pennello moverebbe la curiosità delle persone più distinte’; see Malamani, 1910, 60 3 Concerning her portraits for Mantua see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 170–77, pp. 174–80, and cat. nos. 232–34, pp. 228–29. 4 Sani, 2007b, 174. See the correspondence in Sani, 1985, II, pp. 458–59, 471–72, 480, 486–87, and 541–42. 5 Henning and Marx, 2007, 35.

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plans were unsuccessful and in 1740 Enrichetta became the wife of the Duke of Parma, Antonio Farnese (1679–1731). Interestingly, Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, who was married to the Granprincipe Ferdinand de’ Medici (1663–1713), is known to have kept a series of portraits in the Villa Lapeggi that had undergone a noteworthy change of function from these dynastic portraits to gallery-of-beauty portraits. Her collection served to fulfil her ambition as a woman collector to present a series of pretty young women depicted by another woman.6 Owner, subjects and artist thus formed a rather exceptional triangle purely al feminile. The official portraits that Carriera executed in 1723 for Rinaldo III d’Este in Modena constituted one particular commission with a precise function. In the official court portrait of Enrichetta (Figure 28), of which various versions exist, the artist depicted her wearing a lavish white silk dress with light pink hues. One can also glimpse glittering crystal on a brooch or chain. An ermine cloak hanging loosely over her shoulders, leaving no doubt as to her noble origins. She looks directly at the observer with her brown warm eyes.7 A very slight hint of a smile plays on her lips while her calm face betrays no specifics regarding how her character underlines the official character of the painting. Despite the fact that both Giovanna and her mother kept Carriera company in Modena, she did not particularly enjoy her stay at that court. Completing copy after copy of the portraits, as demanded of her, was a process she found neither appealing nor varied;8 in addition, it appears that the princesses and the duke became a burden to her, as can be gathered from a letter to her sister Angela in October in which she wrote that she would have left after two months had it been possible.9 She was, however, able to find diversion in visits to the duke’s art collection.10 Following this commission, Carriera remained almost exclusively in Venice for some time. One exception was a trip in the autumn of 1728, the year in which her diary comes to an end: Carriera travelled to Gorizia in Friaul, where she attended the wedding festivities of Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) and his bride Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1691–1750) and was introduced to the royal couple. In Gorizia, where she was Count Lantieri’s guest, she also made portraits of the princes, including one for the high-ranking courtier Adam Franz Karl Eusebius von Schwarzenberg (1680–1732).11 And as early as in October the same year, the artist expressed the wish to go to Vienna, possibly in a nice season.12 6 Börsch-Supan, 1967, 97–102, and Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 173, pp. 176–77. See also Wenzel, 2001, 415. 7 Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 172, p. 176; Henning and Marx, 2007, 39. 8 The precise number of paintings and copies that Carriera made of the princesses cannot be established. The complete series of portraits of all three women can be found in Dresden (Gemäldegalerie), Florence (Uffizi Gallery) and Munich (Residence); see Henning and Marx, 2007, 39. 9 Sani, 1985, I, 440. 10 Ironically, in 1745 Rinaldo’s son, Francesco III d’Este (1700–1761), would sell a hundred paintings of this same collection to King Augustus III of Poland, a great admirer and collector of Carriera’s work. Today her paintings and the masterpieces she admired so much are on display in the same museum. 11 See Lucchese, 2006, 138. 12 See the letter she wrote to Francesca Fontanelli, 16 October 1728, in Sani, 1985, II, 490–91.

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Figure 28 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Enrichetta Anna Sofia d’Este 1723, pastel on paper, 55 × 42 cm. Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, inv. 1890:829. © Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence.

Carriera in Vienna In May 1730, Carriera embarked on her last trip abroad when she travelled to Vienna to the court of Charles VI, who by this time had acceded to the Habsburg throne following the death of his brother Joseph I. Life in Vienna at this time must have been fascinating and exhilarating for Carriera and her sisters. Under Charles VI, perhaps the most extravagant of Habsburg princes, court life had reached an unprecedented level of elaborate luxury.13 Despite 13 Sagarra, 2009, 26.

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being known for exhibiting a withdrawn and reserved character, the emperor nonetheless showed a pronounced predilection for pomp and ceremony.14 We can gather this by comparing the number of attendants hired for Charles VI with those who worked in the court of Rudolph II (1552–1612). In Prague Rudolph II surrounded himself with 531 people, whereas in Vienna Charles VI employed the astounding number of 2,175 courtly personnel.15 His keen patronage of the arts concentrated especially on architecture, which resulted in a virtual building boom with a number of eminent large-scale projects supervised by court architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723), who had also worked for Joseph I. The Carriera sisters must have been stunned by the ongoing construction of perhaps his most famous building, the imperial summer residence outside Vienna, Schönbrunn castle. The architect’s son, Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach (1693–1742), continued some of father’s building projects in the city, in particular the magnificent Karlskirche (St. Charles Church). The brilliant court library, which was open to the public, had been finished just four years before the arrival of the Carriera sisters and represented an excellent way of celebrating the emperor’s patronage of Vienna’s intellectual life.16 Charles VI himself was fluent in several languages and was a keen collector of objets d’art.17 He also reorganized the imperial collections bringing together in Vienna the Habsburg dynasty’s paintings from the various residences such as Prague and Innsbruck.18 Nevertheless, his primary interest was music, a common passion of many Habsburg rulers and a feature of everyday life at court. He himself was a talented, ambitious musician himself who spent endless hours practising: under his aegis the patronage and performance of music at Viennese court was to reach an impressive standard, an aspect the Carriera sisters would have certainly appreciated enormously. Huge sums were expended on concerts, ballets and opera, and like his brother Joseph I, Charles VI was himself a composer of opera, oratorio, church and chamber music.19 In his function as the imperial patron, he was also in the position to attract librettists such as Carriera’s friend Apostolo Zeno (1668–1750),20 Daniele Antonio Bertoli (1677–1743), who had been employed by Joseph I as court painter and later supervised 14 Braubach, 1977, Neue Deutsche Biographie online, www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118560107. htm#ndbcontent (accessed on 20 June 2018), and Mutschlechner, ‘Charles VI: The Last Habsburg’, in The World of the Habsburgs, https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/charles-vi-last-habsburg (accessed on 20 June 2018). 15 Sagarra, 2009, 26. 16 Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach was also the architect who designed the Schwarzenberg palace, which Giovanna mentioned in the letter to her mother, dated 19 August, 1730, in Sani, 1985, II, 529. 17 Wollenberg, 1991, 232. 18 Braubach, 1977, Neue Deutsche Biographie online, www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118560107. htm#ndbcontent (accessed on 20 June 2018), and Mutschlechner, ‘Charles VI: The Last Habsburg’, in The World of the Habsburgs, https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/charles-vi-last-habsburg (accessed on 20 June 2018). 19 He liked to direct operas from the harpsichord. Wollenberg, 1991, 232. 20 When Carriera arrived in Vienna, he had already left the city (in 1729) to return to Venice.

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the gallery of Charles VI, as well as poet laureate Abbé Pietro Antonio Metastasio (1698–1782). His real name was Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi but he worked under the pseudonym Metastasio. At the age of thirty-two he moved from Rome to Vienna where he stayed for over half a century making a name for himself primarily with opera librettos such as La Clemenza di Tito, which Mozart (1756–1791) later set to music.21 As far as the visual arts are concerned, the traditional links between the Habsburg court and Venice went all the way back to Charles V and Titian and had been picked up again by Joseph I by the end of the seventeenth century. First to arrive in Vienna was Sebastiano Ricci in 1702–3, in 1705 joined by Antonio Bellucci; and from 1716 onwards, Bencovich worked in the city.22 And with Carriera’s arrival, the current emperor continued the trend. This time, Carriera was accompanied only by her sister Giovanna, as travelling had become too arduous for their ageing mother Alba. Angela was already there, after her husband Antonio Pellegrini had begun working in the city in 1725, commissioned by Wilhelmine Amalie von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, the widow of Joseph I, to paint the convent of the Order of the Salesian Sisters which the empress had founded. Presumably it was thanks to Pellegrini’s influence that Carriera was invited to the court between May and October to paint the portraits of various members of the royal family and the nobility at court. We can only imagine how much the Carriera sisters must have enjoyed living in this sumptuous environment while they became involved in the rich cultural life of Vienna and its court. We have an indication of this in some of the letters the daughters sent to their mother in Venice. Carriera imagined, for example, once back in Venice, how long they would talk about the luxury and countless ceremonies they witnessed,23 and Giovanna described how on a Sunday morning they went to the convent of the Salesian sisters to witness the entrée of the former emperor’s widow Wilhelmine Amalie, her sister-in-law, the archduchess Maria Magdalena (1689–1743), and eighteen ladies from the court. She added a detailed description of the sumptuous clothes the women were wearing, including the jewellery that adorned them. Giovanna also described the apartments of the Wilhelmine Amalie inside the convent where she had been living since 1722, the paintings decorating the walls and various pieces of furniture, as well as the colours and fabrics that covered the walls.24 On 29 April 1730, Giovanna wrote to her mother in Venice that, despite Carriera’s heavy workload – she often worked until midnight – and her obligations to the ruler and his entourage, the sisters found time to accept invitations from 21 Regarding the portraits see Sani, 2007b cat. no. 312, pp. 281–82, and cat. no. 288, p. 264; Wollenberg, 1991, 232; Sagarra, 2009, 29. 22 See Becker et al., 1994, 46–48. 23 Sani, 1985, II, 512. 24 Sani, 1985, II, 513–15.

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aristocratic families and courtiers to enjoy the city and splendid palaces, like that of Prince Eugene,25 and to stroll through various parks. They were even able to see one of the palace hunts, the emperor’s favourite open-air pastime.26 On 19 August, in another letter from Vienna, Giovanna told her mother about her invitation to the Schwarzenberg palace, where she saw, in the company of other illustrious visitors, what was to be the first steam engine in Austria and maybe the first in continental Europe. Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach had by then installed this famous curiosity in the Schwarzenberg palace gardens, where it powered dynamic water fountains so as to surprise and enthuse his guests.27 This event occurred only two years before he was, as master of horses, accidentally killed by Emperor Charles VI during one of the famous hunts that the ruler so enjoyed.28 The majority of commissions that Carriera received during her stay in Austria was directly linked the Habsburg court, and the portrait of Wilhelmine Amalie, mother of archduchess Maria Josepha and of archduchess Maria Amalie widow, is probably one of the most impressive ones (Figure 29). Wilhelmine Amalie was widowed in 1711 at the age of 33 after twelve years of an eventful marriage to Emperor Joseph I. Her husband was not only a notorious womanizer – Amalie eventually protested against his continuous affairs together with the pope –, but also passed along a venereal disease to his wife, which might have prevented her from not having anymore children after the birth of her two daughters.29 Beginning in 1722 she lived in the aforementioned convent of the Salesian sisters, where Carriera and her sister first met, and it was during that period of her life that the Empress dowager had a particularly important impact on Viennese cultural life. Besides founding a boarding school and the city’s first orphanage for girls, she was well-known for her medical prescriptions. Carriera depicted Wilhelmine Amalia in her black mantua mourning dress with white trimming and a black mourning cap. Her dress is decorated with heavy silver jewellery embedded with precious stones and huge pearls, which underscore her royal status. Her royalty is indicated even more clearly by the ermine scarf that loosely covers Wilhelmine Amalie’s right shoulder. The way she is posing and the way her blue-grey eyes look attentively at the beholder: both denote a woman who is proud 25 Sani, 1985, II, 519. Giovanna most likely referred to the winter palace of Prince Eugene, another outstanding building designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, which had been finished by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (1668–1745) only a few years before the Carriera sisters arrived in Vienna. 26 Sani, 1985, II, 520. 27 See Sani, 1985, II, 529. 28 Sagarra, 2009, 33. For the invitation, see Giovanna’s letter dated 19 August 1730, in Sani, 1985, II, 529. The other likenesses represented Karl Maximilian von Diedrichstein (1702–1784) and Johann Leopold Paar (1693–1741). See Carriera’s diary entry in which she mentioned having begun the paintings; Sani, 1985, II, 795. Unfortunately, these paintings are all lost, see Pastels & Pastellists: The Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, ed. by Neil Jeffares, www.pastellists.com/articles/Carriera.pdf. (accessed on 5 November 2019). 29 https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/BLK%C3%96:Habsburg,_Amalie_Wilhelmine_von_BraunschweigL%C3%BCneburg (accessed on 16 December 2019).

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Figure 29 Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Empress Wilhelmine Amalie 1730, pastel on paper, 65.5 × 51.5 cm. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. P 20. © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

and self-assured. It is a pastel that shows Carriera’s approach when producing a representational likeness: Even though she respected the official character of the piece, her rendering of the empress widow clearly underlined her status and her role and her temporal power as sovereign, she nevertheless did not over-idealize her sitter. Among her illustrious Viennese clients was also the aforementioned archduchess Maria Josepha, who had been married since 1714 to the crown prince of Saxony, Frederick Augustus. Maria Josepha commissioned Carriera to execute her portrait, and it is probable that Empress Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

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(1691–1750) also posed for the Venetian artist.30 According to Mariette, Carriera even gave the empress lessons in pastel drawing.31 Carriera also painted the portraits of Bertoli, with whom the Carrieras spent some of their leisure time, as a letter proves that Giovanna wrote to her mother in Venice. On August 19, after having visited the Palais Schwarzenberg, they went for a twohour walk with Bertoli and other friends.32 Also the court poet Metastasio, discussed above, had his portrait done by Carriera.33

The End of an Enviable Career The sojourn in Austria was Carriera’s last experience outside of Venice. For the following twenty-seven years she stayed in her own city, working and maintaining an intense correspondence with her clients and friends all over Europe. Beginning with the year 1737, she had to learn to cope with some far-reaching and dramatic events: Giovanna, Carriera’s sister and closest confidant, died on 9 May, bringing the artist to the brink of collapse with severe depression. That same year, she lost her friend and colleague Nicolas Vleughels. In 1738, on 20 June, she was also forced to bear the death of her mother.34 The loss of her good friend Crozat in May 1740 was a further blow to Carriera, and when, in November 1741, the death of her brother-in-law, Antonio Pellegrini, occurred, only Angela remained to care for the discouraged and ailing artist.35 Moreover, an eye complaint, which had afflicted her for many years, at least from 1724, grew increasingly worse. Already in 1727 she felt like warning Mariette that it was very difficult (una difficoltà ben grande) to make miniatures for someone out of training.36 In July of the same year she also told Suor Maria Beatrice in Modena that even though she had stopped producing the small-scale paintings, she did accept a commission from a gentleman in Padua they both knew.37

30 Giovanna made reference to the portrait of the Imperatrice Regnante (reigning empress) in a letter from Vienna; see Sani, 1985, II, 514. With respect to Carriera’s portraits of the empress and her daughter Maria Josepha, see Henning and Marx, 2007, 72–75. According to Hoerschelmann, she also took painting lessons from the artist; 1908, 207 and 245. 31 See Henning and Marx, 2007, 76. Concerning eighteenth-century fashion of taking lessons in pastel painting see Sauvage, 2015, 125. 32 See Sani, 1985, II, 529. 33 Regarding the portraits see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 312, pp. 281–82, and cat. no. 288, p. 264. Metastasio had succeeded Apostolo Zeno to the position, an old friend of Carriera’s. 34 Alba was buried in the Pellegrini family chapel of the church of the Erimitani in Padua; see Zava Boccazzi, 1981, 218. 35 From a letter that Antonio dell’Agata wrote on 18 April 1741, we learn that Pellegrini was ill. According to the ideas of the dell’Agata, he might have had a stroke; see Sani, 1985, II, 668. 36 See Sani, 1985, II, 466. 37 Sani, 1985, II, 471.

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In a letter Carriera sent from Vienna in 1730, she asked her mother to do her the favour of writing in bigger letters to make it easier for her to read her handwriting.38 And in 1731 the artist once more had to explain that she was too old for the production of miniatures, it was too tiresome and bore the risk of not showing the same quality as before.39 Nonetheless, between 1744 and 1746 Carriera accepted a commission from Augustus III in Dresden to paint allegories of the four elements. These, however, proved to be most challenging.40 It was most likely due to her poor state of health contributed to Carriera’s falling behind with the commission – it appears from her letter that for three years beginning in 1746 her cataracts nearly or fully blinded her. Count Francesco Algarotti, who was acting then as middleman between the artist and the court in Dresden, began to push her, and Carriera apologized, promising ‘I shall obey as soon as I am able’.41 At this time she also wrote to him that this was going to be her last commitment. She told him that the pastel sticks she had received would not be used anymore.42 In the middle of 1746, Carriera submitted to an operation that initially seemed to provide relief.43 In April 1749, however, she subjected herself to a second operation that she hoped would further improve her condition.44 Full of optimism, she wrote to her friend Pierre-Jean Mariette on 23 August 1749: From the friend we share, Signor Zanetti, you will have understood how for the length of three years I was deprived of my sight and now you know from my very own hand how, thanks to divine grace I have recovered it. I can see, but in the manner one sees veiled by cataracts, I mean confusedly, which is all the same a great good to one who has experienced the great evil of blindness. While in that state I cared for nothing and now I wish to see everything although that is still forbidden to me even though on this May seventeenth the last operation took place. Because of my eyes little gives me pleasure at present nor do I count on much in the future.45 38 See Sani, 1985, II, 516. 39 See her letter to Elisabetta Sorgo in Vienna, dated 18 August 1731, in Sani, 1985, II, 558. 40 Regarding the letter with the request sent by Algarotti, see Mazza Boccazzi, 2010, 246. 41 ‘obbedirò il più presto che mi sarà possibile.’ Sani, 1985, II, 708. 42 Sani, 1985, II, 706. Another sign of her difficulties might be Carriera’s comment in a letter to Mariette of 5 February 1746, in which she apologized for the poor quality of a piece she had executed for him; see Sani, 1985, II, 706. 43 The doctor responsible for the operation was Francesco Benzi from Padua; Zava Boccazzi, 1981, 219. 44 Regarding Dr. Giano Reghellini’s report on the result of the operation, see Zava Boccazzi, 1981, 219–20. 45 ‘Dal nostro commune amico sig. Zanetti Ella avrà inteso come per lo spazio di tre anni fui priva di vista ed ora sapi ella dalla mia propria mano, come, mercè la bontà divina questa ho ricuperata. Vedo, ma di quella maniera, che può vedersi dopo abbattute le cateratte, voglio dire confuso, che tuttavia è un gran bene a chi ha provato il gran male della cecità. In questa di nulla mi curavo ed ora tutto vorrei vedere e ciò per anco m’è proibito, benché a chi dicci sette di Maggio sia seguita l’ultima operazione. Per via degli occhi poco piacere ho al presente e non molto ne spero in avvenire.’ Sani, 1985, II, 719.

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In August 1750, the surgeons made a third attempt to remove her cataracts, but on 2 January 1751 she admitted, resignedly, to Mariette: ‘[…] and I can no longer see anything, as though I were in the darkness of the night.’46 Nonetheless, Carriera Carriera lived seven more years, dying on 15 April 1757, at the age of eighty-four. She was buried according to her wishes in Santi Vito e Modesto.47 The Carriera family tomb, which lay in front of the altar of the Holy Virgin in Santi Vito e Modesto was demolished when the church was destroyed at the beginning of the nineteenth century.48 However, we know the text on the tombstone, which Carriera had ordered when Giovanna died, and which apparently read: To the greatest and the best God. For Giovanna Carriera and for themselves, Carriera, her living sister, and Alba, their mother, prepared this tomb in the year of the Lord 1738.49

46 ‘[…] e niente più vedo come s’io fossi del bugio della notte.’ Sani, 1985, II, 725. Only Anton Maria Zanetti reported in his brief Vita of the artist that Rosalba had suffered a total mental collapse before dying, which was uncritically echoed by a few later art historians even though her lucidity until the point of death can be demonstrated through her correspondence and testaments. A. Zanetti, vol. 5, 1771, 449. See also Dabbs, 2008, 48. 47 Every 15 June since 1311, on the saint’s feast day, the doge and a huge entourage consisting of the highest representatives of the Venetian state, ambassadors and other representatives of the city such as the Scuole Grandi have travelled in a procession called andata dogale from Saint Mark’s basilica to the church of Santi Vito e Modesto in commemoration of a thwarted conspiracy that Baiamonte Tiepolo, Marco Querini and Badoero Badoer attempted in 1310. See Urban, 1994–95. 48 Urban, 1994–95, 200–1. 49 The original reads, as quoted in an anonymous manuscript from 1758: ‘D.O.M. Joannae Carrerae, Rosalba Soror vivens, ac Alba earumque mater sibique hunc tumulum [sic] pararunt anno Domini 1738.’ See Zava Boccazzi, 1981, 221, n. 13, and Mehler, 2006, 32.

8 Carriera’s Ways of Self-Fashioning  arriera’s House on the Grand Canal, a Fashionable Space of Self-­ C Representation Houses and rooms are a reflection of the person who inhabits and works in them. They are semiotic spaces that reveal how the world constructs the subject and that also show how the subject constructs him/herself.1 Carriera’s residence on the Grand Canal represents a particularly interesting example of an aptly constructed space that can be read as a theatrical mise en scène of her desired identity and as her own, cleverly created image of herself. A crucial and contextual analysis and evidence of Carriera’s house serve as a basis to investigate the artist’s more direct representation of herself in her self-portraiture. The mere fact that this palazzo was the home and production site of an internationally renowned, unmarried, independent woman artist, where representatives of the entire European aristocracy often met, marked this hospitable palace as an exceptional place.2 Outside of the lagoon and during the same period, this integration of private and public sphere, of living space and workshop in a painter’s house could be more easily found. As Angela Rosenthal informs us: ‘From a variety of sources we can tell that during the eighteenth century in London, artists usually integrated the portrait studio with adjoining gallery into their homes.’3 And the house in Rome of Angelica Kauffmann, who lived a generation after Carriera, contained her studio and her salon, both of which attracted an international artistic crowd. In Paris, Rosenthal points out, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun described her house and studio as indistinct from one another.4 But in Venice it was truly exceptional that this same arrangement could be found in Carriera’s house. It was an external manifestation that, like clothes and social manners, served to promote her as a professional and virtuous producer and to target specific clients, both of which formed portions of a notable marketing strategy.5 The most captivating room inside the palazzo was the one that served as a living space, a salotto and, at the same time, as her own atelier, which fittingly faced north. This salon space was thus a casa-studio and in this respect comparable to the home 1 2 3 4 5

Rosenthal, 1996, 165. Groppi, 2005, 804. Rosenthal, 2006, 82. Rosenthal, 2006, 83. See also Goldthwaite, 2010, 288.

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of her predecessor in Bologna, Elisabetta Sirani.6 It was an atelier where Carriera painted and where she also sold some of her work, meaning it was a space where she produced her art and likewise carried out her financial negotiations and transactions;7 to add to this one room’s overlap of various functions, the inventory of her house contents mentions that this room was also called a galleria, which is further confirmation that it served as the artist’s place of public presentation. Thanks to the copies of Carriera’s pastels, often made by her sister Giovanna, the artist created this exceptional situation in Venice in which one space served for living, working, displaying her own works of art and receiving guests: salon, studio and gallery, her own domestico gabinetto (domestic gallery).8 Just as Rosenthal notes in the case of Angelica Kauffmann’s house in Rome, so I argue here that Carriera’s salotto should be considered as a place where the artist could stage […] her own persona and create an ambience that both suited and satisfied cultural expectations for sociable exchange and for the production of painted identities.9

The fact that the galleria also included works by Giovanna must have constituted an additional attraction. Considering the room’s predominant furniture and colour choices, which will be discussed below, I argue that it offered the sisters a well-designed, personalized space where two women put on display their work as well as their exceptional status as female artists.10 The salon’s multifarious situation precludes a simple definition or categorization of the space. Maybe the best, even if vague, way to describe the use of this specific room within the home of the Carrieras is to call it a space where the policy of an ‘open house’ ruled.11 In this sense, the artist’s atelier-galleria-salotto was an exceptionally hybrid locus of sociability, where its different functions brought together different people on different occasions.12 6 See Modesti’s article on the Sirani house and its equally hybrid character in Bologna; 2013, 47–63. 7 See also Sohm, 2010a, 13. 8 As to the terminology of ‘atelier’, ‘studio’, ‘workshop’ or ‘bottega’, see Burns, 2007, 26. 9 Rosenthal, 2006, 79. 10 See Moücke, 1762, 244, who mentioned approximately forty of her works put on display. 11 See the example of Carl (1850–1933) and Aniela Fürstenberg’s (1856–1915) place in Berlin, which was called an ‘open house’ in order to include functions that went beyond the salon meetings that were organized in the same space; Frevert, 1993, 129–32. 12 It was a domestic interior that displayed ‘a fluid organisation […] which is on continual flux, produced and transformed by the comings and goings of people and objects’, as Modesti puts it in the context of her study of Elisabetta Sirani’s house in Bologna. Modesti, 2013, 47. Regarding the salon as ‘a space of permeability between public and private’ see also Groppi, 2005, 804, and Zanini-Cordi, 2013, 42. On the hybrid character of salons in general, see Unfer Lukoschik, 2008, 53–58. She also analysed the specific examples of the Countess d’Albany (1752–1824) and Madame d’Epinay (1726–1783) from the perspective of their salons as places of feminocentric cultural transfer within an international area of tension; 219–41.

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Especially for a portraitist, the salon’s overlapping function as studio implied two different aspects. According to Rosenthal, the portraitist’s studio was in some ways a throwback to earlier domestic workshops and, in other ways, a forward-looking ‘homeoffice’, mingling privacy and publicity. The anomalous status of the studio was never clearer than in the portrait studio; for here, public relations were framed privately.13

In this sense, Carriera, within her domestic walls, lived a much more public life than most of her female contemporaries, and her salon represented one of the numerous examples of other new ‘public’ spaces in Venice around the turn of the century, where the idea of privacy played a minor role because of the way they were used. Just as Messbarger has observed, ‘the public arena was less a matter of place than a series of specific (masculine) activities and modes of exchange – social, discursive, economic, political and cultural.’14 Carriera’s salotto thus corresponds to a protected, cultivated, even culture-generating and feminocentric space15 within the public arena, a space of many facets that she created on the margins of an androcentric sphere.16

13 Rosenthal, 2006, 79–80. On the distinction between public and private sphere see Habermas’s fundamental study The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, which was published in German under the original title Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. Neuwied, 1962. In the context of Carriera’s house see Lawrence Klein’s ‘Gender and the Public/Private Distinction in the Eighteenth Century’ (1996). One of Klein’s major conclusions, which also illuminates the dichotomy of public/private within the permeable, fluid character of Carriera’s house, was: ‘Public’ referred to those matters that were open to participation by some others or by people in general, while ‘private’ matters, in some respect, restricted or closed. These lexical investigations, preliminary as they are, are revealing since it would seem that, generally in the eighteenth century, the distinction between the private and the public did not correspond to the distinction between home and not-home. Two implications result. First, privacy was ascribed to forms of life that we could consider public. Second and more importantly, people at home, both men and women, were not necessarily in a private space. Even if, then, women spent more time at home, they were not necessarily spending more time in private. Klein, 1996, 104–5. Regarding salons as new public spaces, see for example Plebani, 2003, 50. 14 Messbarger, 2002, 11. 15 See Unfer Lukoschik, who focuses on these aspects in her article published in 2008, 17–18. See also Salviati, 1996, 177, regarding the salon as a container of high culture, of the refined art of conversing. 16 Unfer Lukoschik compares the salon to Foucault’s idea of heterotopia, which constitutes another valid way of defining Carriera’s salon; see Unfer Lukoschik, 2008, 56. And more specifically, because of the use of Carriera’s salotto as a museum, it bears aspects of what Foucault called a ‘heterotopia of time […] in which time does not cease to accumulate, perching, so to speak, on its own summit.’ Foucault, 1997, 334. And, as the philosopher underlines, until the end of the seventeenth century, these were the expression of an individual choice; 333. Another prerequisite of heterotopias is, according to the author, that they ‘always presuppose a system of opening and closing that isolates them and makes them penetrable at one and the same time […]. One can enter only by special permission and after one has completed a certain number of gestures.’ Foucault, 1997, 335. This might not be too far-fetched considering the different ways Carriera’s guests entered her salon: as clients, as curious admirers, as colleagues, art connoisseurs, intellectuals, as regular members of her salon meetings, or as all of them together.

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Social activity depends on and is strongly influenced by the room in which private and public gatherings take place. And this space, distinguished from the room as a physical place, must be created in by means of a specific ‘scenography’, as Borelli calls it.17 By furnishing the room in a unique, customized, distinctive and recognizable way a host transforms a topological, geometric space into a cultural space. And Carriera encouraged interactions and conversation among the visitors to make them come more alive.18 In fact, the artist appeared to have loved and appreciated the benefits of conversation, as she emphasized in an undated letter to an anonymous addressee: As far as conversation is concerned, in my opinion, it is the best pleasure of life, it is the knot of society; and through conversation people communicate their thoughts; it is through conversation that hearts express their affection, and friendships begin and are maintained. Finally, if it is true that its study increases knowledge, then conversation is a gift of nature that uses knowledge and polishes it.19

So what did this salotto-galleria in the palace on the Grand Canal look like, what was the scenography of this ‘other’ place with respect to ordinary cultural spaces, where all her guests met? How did Carriera furnish and decorate this room that served more public functions than private ones, that juxtaposed ‘in a single real place different spaces and locations’?20 A post-mortem inventory proves to be extremely enlightening in exploring the way the artist created her culture-and-communication-generating room, and how her possessions combined to form an objectified image of herself.21 Immediately after the death of the artist on 15 April 1757, the executor of her testament created the list of her belongings in order to calculate the taxes that needed to be paid.22 The first part of this account of the objects inside the palace concentrates on furniture, 17 Groppi et al., 2005, 824. Regarding the theory of space, see the collection of publications from the seventeenth to the twentieth century in Raumtheorie: Grundlagentexte aus Philosophie und Kulturwissenschaften (2006), or Kuhn’s (2000) article entitled ‘Raum als Medium gesellschaftlicher Kommunikation’. 18 Unfer Lukoschik, 2008, 50. In terms of the furniture being an important factor within the definition and description of salons, see Salviati, 1996, 175–76. 19 Translation in Slatkin, 1993, 20. The original reads: ‘Come per conversatione, la è in mio animo il più piacevole godimento della vita; è il nodo della società; è per là, che animi comunica loro pensieri a un altro; che li cuori esprimono loro affetioni et che l’amicicie sono ambo cominciate e trattenute, finalmente se studio acrese il saper, dotamento di natura è conversatione, che usa e polisse quello.’ Sani, 1985, II, 743–44. 20 Foucault, 1997, 334. 21 See Ago, 2010, 270: ‘To give an impression of “mediocre” luxury of the “comfortable” (comodi), […] it was important to possess not just a single luxury item, but rather a group of household furnishings that together conveyed an image of luxury without excessive costs. Some books, together with a few paintings, some natural curiosities, a few pieces of silverware, possibly some porcelain, a fan, or snuffbox would be enough to create an impression of wealth for someone who could not afford a master painting or an illuminated manuscript. The owners of such domestic spaces acquired a different social physiognomy when surrounded by such objects.’ 22 L. Moretti, 2011b.

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followed by a list of clothes and a list of the jewellery that had remained in the various wardrobes, chests and other spaces. Also the amount of money was recorded that had been left behind, as well as the invested capital. At the very end of the inventory, an estimation was made of the total value of the belongings that amounted, as mentioned before, to the conspicuous sum of 24,556 ducats.23 Analysing the list of furniture is revealing from various points of view. The inventory’s topographic account starts with the description of the first room, the above-mentioned salotto, here called galleria. The green-damask-covered walls were decorated with thirty-one paintings: twenty-four of which were pastels with the seven others executed in oil.24 A large mirror with a golden frame hung on one side, while above a door and above the chimney four other mirrors reflected the daylight coming in through the window from the Grand Canal, also from the lit candles at night. The glittering light flooding into the room, as well as the reflections in the various gilded mirrors, must have given the room a special flair and created a festive and seductive atmosphere for receiving guests. At the same time was a perfect space to present Rosalba’s (and Giovanna’s) pastels, as well as to represent the illustrious artist.25 Carriera created a situation similar to that of Kauffmann’s studio in Rome: It was through this three-dimensional self-image that visitors and, especially, sitters could orient themselves toward the artist, mediating between their own public identities and those produced in the artist’s studio.26

In fact, as extant documents prove, the clients who came to the house on the Grand Canal both admired the exquisite collection on the walls and related in a personal way to the portraits of people they knew, of those ‘mediating presences.’27 As Martin Folkes, for example, described his visit to her studio in his travel journal from 1733: I went to Signora Rosalba’s whose pictures in crayon have been with Justice esteemed the most excellent pieces of art of that sort […]. I was here extremely well entertained with a great number of fine portraits some of my acquaintances very like.28

Some clients visited the Carrieras not only to commission a painting from the eldest daughter but also to admire her beautiful works, as Maria Soranzo Gradenigo shows 23 L. Moretti, 2011b, 308. 24 The inventory mentions another two pastels ‘sciolte’ (loose) and two extremely small ones, which perhaps means that they did not hang on the wall; see L. Moretti, 2011b, 315. 25 Regarding Carriera’s use of mirrors and attention to light see Sani, 2010, 208–16. As to the importance of seduction within the salotto of the eighteenth century, see D’Agliano, 2006, 119–27. 26 Rosenthal, 2006, 91. As to the terminology of ‘atelier’, ‘studio’, ‘workshop’ or ‘bottega’, see Burns, 2007, 26. 27 Rosenthal, 2006, 91. 28 Quoted in Burns, 2007, 85.

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in her letter to Giovanna of 3 December 1730.29 Indeed, de Beyer wrote to his mother that his visit in 1729 to Carriera’s galleria ‘alone was worth the trip to Venice.’30 As far as the space in the palace for teaching her students is concerned, no clear indications of this use are offered in the inventory’s description of the house. Unlike the case of Elisabetta Sirani’s house, where the casa-studio consisted of a number of rooms for giving lessons, including one for teaching theory and life-drawing, one for the painting studio, an extra space for the production of connoisseur works and another one for an avant-garde printmaking studio, the Carriera house inventory mentions only three rooms (camere) besides the galleria, the functions of which are not totally clear.31 These consisted of a camera verso corte (a room on the courtyard), a camera di sopra verso il canale (a room upstairs facing the canal) and a camera vicina alla cucina (a room close to the kitchen).32 Based on the description of the furniture and objects in the respective rooms it would appear that Carriera’s bedroom was the one upstairs verso il canale. The list mentions luxurious furniture that included one desk, two little wardrobes, a stool next to two chairs, two canapés or couches and an armchair, as well as a bed with two mattresses. The fact that this upstairs room verso il canale could seat at least eight people, also that this room housed six oil paintings and one drawing, suggests this bedroom was another space where the artist would have received guests.33 The room close to the kitchen seems to have served as a pantry or closet, taking into consideration its position and the fact that it housed five wardrobes, some clothes and twenty loose paintings.34 If we assume that Carriera would not have left her student’s tools and works lying around the salotto-galleria, it seems reasonable to believe that the third room, which was next to a courtyard, was reserved for the girls of her workshop; it is the only room which, up until the death of the artist, housed one bed with two mattresses and a wardrobe that could serve at the same time as a bed (armadio da letto), thus a space that offered enough room for at least three students. Further, no clothes are mentioned that were left behind, indicating that the people originally living there had at this point departed. Yet, it could have been the room where the girls were taught: with its location close to the main living and reception area, Carriera would have been able to oversee her students and also be available for visitors without having to constantly cross the entire palazzo. In all three of these rooms there were paintings: thirty-one in the salotto, fifteen in the portego, six in the room towards the courtyard, four in the room upstairs, and another twenty in the room next to the kitchen. Carriera did possess a considerable 29 ‘queque étranger qu’il viendra chés vous pour se faire peindre de Mademoiselle vôtre seur ou bien pour admirer ses belles ouvrages.’ Sani, 1985, II, 805. 30 Quoted in Burns, 2007, 85. 31 Modesti, 2013, 52. 32 L. Moretti, 2011b, 315–16. 33 L. Moretti, 2011b, 315. On the habit of French ladies of inviting guests into the bedroom, see Scipione Santacroce’s (1681–1747) travel account; Ago, 2013, 89.

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collection, the ownership of which conferred upon her a measure of social status and underscored her refined taste. Since the time of the late Renaissance, paintings were increasingly recognized as ‘honourable and ethical objects of entertainment’35 and so were put on display in the domestic environments, not only by artists but by other members of the cultivated higher class. Returning to the description of the salotto-galleria in the inventory, we learn that the room also housed what Ago has called ‘ritual accessories.’36 It was recorded as having twelve green damask chairs with armrests, with two other chairs covered with white embroidered wool recorded as well as a green damask canapé and a little table alla chinese – all of which indicate that the room was the main place where Carriera usually received her visitors.37 Also, this room offered space for about fifteen people to sit. Interestingly, no big table is mentioned which would have reflected a more conventional furnishing practice: the chairs would have been aligned along the wall, underneath paintings and mirrors, and the centre of the room would have remained empty.38 As for the choice of colours with which to furnish this room, green was the dominant hue, which is another interesting aspect of this unusual multifunctional space, especially if we remember that Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet (1588–1665), called her salon ‘la Chambre Bleue’, which is the space that scholars view as the first renowned and fashionable European salon, and was made famous with this name.39 When the marquise decided in 1604–8 to completely refurbish her palace close to the Louvre, she did not decorate her salon in red as was the norm of the time but designated her famed salon the ‘blue room’ as her space for gathering together her friends and acquaintances, and selected blue upholstery for its furniture.40 It is a tempting idea, even though pure speculation, to consider the possibility that Carriera followed the marquise’s French example, which had had a huge influence on taste during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and adorned her space and part of the furniture with one distinct colour.41 It is also entertaining to 34 See note 31. 35 Consavari, 2013, 146. 36 Ago, 2004, 177. 37 In terms of the function of specific furniture that turned an architectural space into a salon, see Ago, 2004, 176–77. More specifically, compare the inventory of Carriera’s salon to Scipione Santacroce’s diary entries in which he described the typical salon furniture he saw in France: mirrors, paintings, tables, various chairs; the presence of Chinese pieces and various types of porcelain, such as cups and vases of different shapes as well as small beds seems to have been the norm in these elegant environments. See Ago, 2013, 88–89. 38 See Spickernagel, 1996, 95. 39 See Von der Heyden-Rynsch, 1992, 38–42, and Craveri, 2001, 55–76. 40 Craveri, 2001, 56. Regarding the significance of the colour blue as a deliberate statement against red or gold/yellow, the colours preferred by the official court, see Unfer Lukoschik, 2008, 20. 41 Craveri, 2001, 55. And it is an equally entertaining, although unlikely thought to link the artist’s choice with the description of Conversazione by Cesare Ripa (c.1555–1622) in his Iconologia (first published in 1593): in the second volume of the 1765 edition, his emblem representing ‘Conversation’ consists of a young, happy,

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speculate that the rulers in Dresden were possibly influenced by Carriera’s original site on the Grand Canal when they decided to exhibit her artworks on green walls.42 Apart from the furniture (chairs, tables, canapés, etc.), the inventory reveals another aspect of the galleria’s hospitality and sociability by its list of the contents of the room’s three corner cupboards: there were no less than three fashionable Chinese trays, nineteen coffee cups, three porcelain teapots and ten cups with lids that the executor specified were for serving chocolate. Four smaller cups without lids and fourteen other pieces of Dutch porcelain that were not described in a precise way, constituted additional fancy dishes.43 It is noteworthy that Carriera owned so much porcelain, a modern product typically possessed by civilized households to mark their polite conduct and their salon’s unmistakable festive, elegant and hospitable character.44 What Sarah Richards points out about such households in England during the same period can easily be applied to those in Venice: The material refinement of artefacts was inseparable from the refinement of manners and the value placed on civil polite social conduct, most sharply visible in the centers of commerce and urban living in the first part of the [eighteenth] century.45

The Carriera’s household was one in which preparing elegant receptions in a sophisticated environment for a considerable number of guests played an important role in representing the artist and her family’s social and professional life in Venice; it also reflected a certain openness to international innovation.46 smiling man in pompous green clothes, wearing a laurel crown and holding a caduceus in his left hand and a scroll in his right with the inscription Veh soli (poor are those who are alone). Despite Ripa’s misogynist comments in which he insisted that conversation was a privilege reserved for men, his explanation of the colour green is worthy of quotation: ‘He presents himself as cheerful, laughing, dressed in green, this because in grasses, in trees, in meadows, in mountains, one cannot see a more happy thing, nor one more welcome to one’s sight than this colour which, for its agreeableness and playfulness moves even birds to cheerfulness, and suits a virtuous and honest use; with this significance we have bestowed a laurel wreath upon this figure, having intended to represent virtuous Conversation.’ See Ripa, 1765, 61. The emphasis on virtue would have certainly pleased the artist, even though the choice of green for her salon was most likely influenced by fashion and not by Ripa. Also Marco Boschini (1602–1681) had chosen the colour green for his imaginary gallery, ‘che sto color raliegra, e no’se perde’, because ‘this colour brightens up [the room] and does not get lost’; see Boschini, 1660, 576. 42 Moretti also noticed the curious similarity; see L. Moretti, 2011b, 317, n. 1. 43 L. Moretti, 2011b, 308 and 315. 44 See Santacroce’s account again in Ago, 2013, 90. A comparable document is Contarina Barbarigo’s postmortem inventory where small tables, coffee and chocolate cups are mentioned as well; Plebani, 2004, 165. For the discovery of porcelain by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651–1708) and Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719) c.1708–9, see W. Cox, 1949, II, 642–51. For a more general history of porcelain and its social implications in Europe, see chapters 22 and 23 of the same publication and chapter 4 in Richards, 1999. See also Baker, 2015, 16. 45 Richards, 1999, 95. 46 Considering the fact that the Carriera sisters loved music and played it as well, it is slightly surprising that the inventory does not mention any musical instruments, such as a harpsichord or a violin.

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And Richards affirms in her discussion of similar households in England: Many of the pleasures were ‘foreign’. To be polite meant that you readily accepted the pleasures and practises of ‘others’, whether of a geographically distant people or a superior social class within your own country. It meant a degree of flexibility and openness to new experiences which were the result of invention and innovation in a working life of leisure pursuits.47

It is therefore noteworthy that the inventory mentions both porcelain and a table alla chinese; these materially support the Carrieras’ refined consumption style and reinforce the politeness of their behaviour as hosts. The taste for Chinese artefacts was part of the aesthetics of exoticism, like the new stimulants coffee and tea that privileged Venetians learned about thanks to a Chinese visitor who had come to the city in 1652 and who had been taken all around to see the marvels Venice had to offer. Athanasius Kircher’s (1602–1680) book China illustrata (1667) further prepared the ground for the new trend of exoticism just as did the large literary and print production in France of artists like Watteau, Boucher and later Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728–1808).48 To buy and display Chinese products and furniture not only made a fashion statement but, according to David L. Porter’s analysis of the layers of meaning of Chinese objects in eighteenth-century England, became a marker of social distinction, a claim to high status. Interestingly enough, the same author points out, ‘the social division that [the chinoiserie style] marks is that of gender rather than class.’49 Chinese tea tables, porcelain, silk and other consumer goods remained predominantly objects of female consumption, especially in the ritual of serving and drinking tea.50 That Carriera offered refreshing drinks at her palace we know from her contemporary Moücke who specifically mentioned them. In his tropical account of the enormous pleasure the Danish king took in watching the artist Carriera at work, he added: ‘And on such occasions he would not disdain sometimes warmly appreciating those refreshments which Rosalba had prepared.’51 47 Richards, 1999, 99. 48 Favilla and Rugolo, 2011, 152. And there were other public events in which this exoticism became visible and part of the Venetian culture. In 1707, Teatro San Cassiano staged an opera entitled Tacian ré della Cina (Tacian, king of China) with music by Francesco Gasparini (1661–1727). And two plays followed by Piero Chiari, Alamena, Principessa delle Isole Fortunate (Alamena, princess of the Fortune Islands, 1749) and La schiava cinese e le sorelle cinesi (The Chinese slave and the Chinese sisters, 1752–53), only to mention a few of the spectacles that included Chinese characters. But the Venetians were also confronted with the exotic world of the Chinese when Prince Frederick Augustus of Saxony came to Venice in 1716 and festivities organized in his honour included a parade on the Grand Canal with a Chinese sailing ship, parasols and singers, dancers and Chinese musicians. See Favilla and Rugolo, 2011, 165. 49 Porter, 2002, 406. 50 Porter, 2002, 406 and 407. 51 ‘E in tali occasioni non isdegnò talvolta di benignamente gradir quei rinfreschi, che Rosalba aveagli preparato.’ Moücke, 1762, 242.

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Besides the palazzo’s active social life and elegant, sophisticated manners reflected by its furniture, tableware, conspicuous number of coffee and chocolate cups, it is important to mention that in 1714, Carriera received a set of tea cups from Düsseldorf.52 Europe had earlier begun drinking coffee, chocolate and tea, a fashion that was greatly propagated by publications such as the widely translated book De l’usage du caphé, du thé, et du chocolat (1671), also an enlarged version that came out in 1685 and was authored by the coffee merchant and philosopher Philippe Sylvestre Dufour (1622–1687) under the title Traitez nouveaux & curieux du café, du thé et du chocolate.53 That Carriera embraced the drinking of chocolate, coffee and tea is further proof of her cosmopolitan ways. Theobroma cacao, the ‘food of the Gods’ as the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl von Linné (1707–1778) baptized chocolate in 1735, had arrived from South America in Spain during the 1500s, from which its growing popularity spread to the courts and aristocrats of France, Flanders and Italy.54 At first it was not classified as ‘food’ but as a drug that could be prescribed by pharmacists and physicians. This confusion regarding chocolate’s unpredictable, quite mystical effects prevailed for some time, which provoked a series of treatises about it during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.55 Similar doubts and rumours existed regarding the unusual black beverage called the acqua negra (black water): coffee was introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century from the Arabic peninsula where its cultivation and trade began. The relationships that Venice cultivated early on with Muslims in north Africa, Egypt, Persia and Turkey brought a large variety of thus-far unknown goods to its international port, including coffee. By the eighteenth century, coffee managed to shed its negative connotations thanks also to a change in the idea of civility, which brought into favour 52 As two letters prove Hartzoeker sent them together with a box of tea, both from Düsseldorf on 4 March 1714; Sani, 1985, I, 266–67. 53 For a list of eighteenth-century treatises on tea, coffee and chocolate, see Wilson, 2012, 6. 54 In reference to the history of how chocolate conquered Europe see Coe and Coe, 1997, 117–61. Among the personal documents Carriera had conserved is also a sonnet celebrating the delights of chocolate; see Sani, 1985, II, 831–33. 55 The mixed ideas about the presumed pharmaceutical benefits of chocolate or its serious threats to the body are exemplified by an early medical essay written by the seventeenth-century Andalusian doctor Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, Curioso trattado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate, which was first published in Madrid in 1631. For an overview of the qualities ascribed to chocolate throughout the centuries, see Wilson’s article ‘Chocolate as Medicine’, 2012, 1–16. Already by 1640 Captain James Wadsworth (1604–1656) presented the first English translation of the treatise under the pseudonym Don Diego da Vadesforte. He probably chose this name as a metaphor for the drink: Vades forte (Latin), ‘you will go’. The treatise was also translated into French, Latin and Italian, which helped to spread its fame. Wilson, 2012, 4. The booklet was such a success that it was republished in 1652 under a long title which reflects the attitude towards the new so-called ‘drug’: Chocolate: or, an Indian Drinke: By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved, Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of the Guts; vulgarly called The New Disease; Fluxes, Consumptions, & Coughs of the Lungs, with sundry other desperate Diseases. By it also, Conception is Caused, the Birth Hastened and facilitated, Beauty Gain’d and continued.

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social rituals dominated by an alertness of mind as opposed to the stupor caused by alcohol.56 Coffee became fashionable and was adopted by all levels to replace the common breakfast-drink beverages of the time – beer and wine. As mentioned above, the first coffee house in the lagoon opened in Piazza San Marco in 1683.57 Tea also arrived in Europe at this time. At the beginning the high cost of the beverage limited its propagation and made tea a rich man’s drink, but by the end of seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, tea had become fashionable also in private, wealthy households all over Europe and was served as a sign of extravagant taste and social distinction.58 In light of these events, Carriera’s inventory proves that she and her family, besides appearing as avant-garde hosts who offered their guests all three of the relatively new and popular stimulant drinks, chose to participate in this modern refined practice of consumption because ‘the new hot liquors in novel and exotic containers also brought to mind their foreign origins.’59 Their taste for Chinese furniture or artefacts is seen as another sign of a civilized and rational lifestyle that equally represented a mentally geographical openness.60 The artist thus showed herself to be generous, open-minded and modern. 56 Zanini-Cordi, 2013, 29. 57 The beverage had become easily affordable: in eighteenth-century Venice a cup of coffee cost 5 Venetian lire, one-third of the cost of a cup of chocolate. See Plebani, 1991, 23–26. 58 Okakura, 2011, 45. The first Europeans to personally encounter tea and write about it in the mid-sixteenth century, were the Italian traveller Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485–1557), who published his Navigationi et viaggi (Navigations and travels) in three volumes (1550, 1559 and 1606), and the Portuguese missionaries Jasper de Cruz (1520–1570) and Louis Almeida (1525–1583). It was due to Dutch trade with the Orient that the new beverage (and the teapot) was introduced to Europe. Civitello, 2008, 85. With the help of the Dutch East India Company, based in Indonesia and Japan, Holland started to import tea, shipping its first tea leaves in 1610. Following suit in mid-century, the British East India Company had by the eighteenth century gained a monopoly on British commerce in China and India, which flourished due to the importation of tea. Lipp Rivers, 2005, 61. Introduced to the wider public through apothecaries and Europe’s newborn coffee houses, the soon fashionable, albeit expensive, drink immediately appeared, as in the cases of coffee and chocolate, in medical treatises that discussed its potentially bad effects. It is no coincidence that various treatises, such as that published by Dufour, discuss all three new beverages. In 1661, the Danish physician Doctor Simon Paulli (1603–1680) published a book against tobacco and tea (Commentarius de abusu tabaci americanorum veteri, et herbae thee asiaticorum in Europe Novo); see also the Encyclopedia of Cultivated Plants, 2013, III, 1047. Jonas Hanway also maintained in his Essay on Tea (1756) that it was a drug attacking the nervous system; Hanway, 1756, 29–38. At the same time, physicians like Nikolaus Dirx from Holland believed in the benefits of tea, arguing that the exotic medicine prolonged longevity and protected against illness. See also the Encyclopedia of Cultivated Plants, 2013, III, 1048. His colleague Cornelius Bontekoe (1647–1685), together with the aforementioned Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, who spoke of ‘miraculous qualities, which the Divine Providence has imparted to this leaf’, was probably the most tireless propagandist for the new beverage in the seventeenth century, advising in his Treatise on Tea, the Most Excellent Herb (Tractaat van het excellente kryud thee, 1678) to have up to fifty cups per day; see Schivelbusch, 1993, 80. 59 Richards, 1999, 94. 60 Plebani, 1991, 24. In many of the epistles conserved by Carriera, this acqua negra (black water) is mentioned in different circumstances, either as a requested gift to be sent, or as an allusion to stimulating and relaxing moments, see for example the letter the artist received from her father in which he asks her to

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One last aspect needs to be discussed in the context of Carriera’s home. This is the possibility that the artist ran her own salon de compagnie, if we consider the numerous guests recorded to have been inside the painter’s home where they met other people and participated in her house concerts.61 What made a typical salon de compagnie become something more than an architectural space was a distinguished and inspiring hostess, noble or non-noble, who conceived of her role as one that brought together female and male friends, many of them highly representative of the cultural world of her time. This hostess should then create an atmosphere of relative informality so that these friends could engage in refined, hopefully intelligent, witty and creative conversation, as well as enjoy the pleasures of music and games. This new kind of a salon was a way of expanding the intellectual horizon of men and women from different social strata. It helped them cross social barriers that, outside of that gathering, outside of that unique microcosm of society, were very strictly observed. In this sense, the salon meetings also served purposes of social mobility among classes and sexes.62 According to this definition, Carriera’s house served at the same time as a salon. And even if the many commissions the artist received would have made it difficult for the painter to organize the meetings herself, her mother and Giovanna would have been able to take on this task, the same way they helped the artist out in any other situation. However, if we also include another aspect of the definition of a true salon, this possibility diminishes. According to Ago, three main elements are necessary to constitute a salon: it has to be led by a woman, the receptions have to take place on a regular basis and, especially, the events usually build a certain reputation.63 I have not come across any document that could prove any regularity of Carriera’s gatherings, nor did I find any reference to a form of popularity or fame regarding the meetings at Carriera’s house. Each visitor talked about his personal experience, not about some celebrated social event in the city. Not even in the many letters that the painter received from her youngest sister Angela, who followed her husband during his visits to the different courts of Europe, is there any hint to be found regarding these meetings. Angela, a mundane, pleasure- and luxury-loving woman often talked about how send him more coffee; Sani, 1985, I, 61. Regarding the importance of coffee houses as places of sociability see for example the above-mentioned article by Zanini-Cordi, 2013. It is no coincidence that Scipione Santacroce described a special moment during the French ‘conversations’ as follows: ‘When it is time to take coffee, tea, or chocolate, they bring a little table into the room with the plates, cups, and other implements on top.’ See Ago, 2013, 90. 61 The expression salon de compagnie began to appear in France around 1650, enriching the significance of a salon by a social component that denoted a room for receiving friends. Von der Heyden-Rynsch, 1992, 11; Hertz, 1978, 97; Goodman, 1989, 329–30; Unfer Lukoschik, 2008, 17–18. Regarding the salon culture in Italy, see especially the summary of a conference held in Milan, Betri and Brambilla, eds., Salotti e ruolo femminile in Italia tra fine Seicento a primo Novecento, 2004. For the Venetian salons see the first publication on this subject, Molmenti, 1904. 62 Mori, 2004, 3. 63 Ago, 2004, 186.

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much she enjoyed the social events, parties and celebrations of any kind at the various courts where she often performed herself as a singer. Telling her elder sister as well, repeatedly, how much she missed her and other specific things in Venice, she certainly would have mentioned salon meetings in their home to look forward to participating in, once back in the city.64 Taking into account these qualifications that a salon must be regular and build upon its reputation, it seems less likely that the artist hosted gatherings acknowledged to be salons. In any case, Carriera did create an extraordinary woman artist’s situation in Venice where she managed to attract an impressive number of Venetians and foreigners alike, nobles and non-nobles, to come to her modern and elegantly furnished home. A continuous flux of visitors is documented by a letter that Pier Caterino Zeno wrote to Anton Francesco Marmi (1665–1739) in Florence, on 3 December 1729. Even Signora Rosalba speaks French and English fluently, and although of a rather melancholy temperament, both her features and her virtues make her very pleasing in honest conversation. […] this Lady is not only very honest, of excellent and most civil manners, but most Christian besides: of which she has given clear evidence when receiving guests in her home, all day long, both the most respected persons of this city, as well as very many distinguished foreigners.65

Zeno’s words reflect the image of Carriera which has over the centuries, consciously or subconsciously, shaped the mental picture that experts and admirers have had of her: that of a devout, honest and reticent woman, who remained modest despite the international fame that attracted visitors from all over Europe. They also resemble the later description by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) of noble Venetian women – even though Carriera was not part of the nobility. Montagu noted, in a letter to her daughter, that noble Venetian women received illustrious foreigners at all times of the day.66 Nevertheless, to give a more precise account of the reasons why numerous visitors presented themselves at Carriera’s palazzo is often difficult; the overlap of the salotto’s different functions makes it impossible to draw sharp distinctions between her clients, curious admirers, and friends. Nevertheless, the artist had managed to create what Rosenthal has called ‘a sensible space’67 that represented all of the artist’s facets and talents – a truly three-dimensional self-portrait. Her guests would find themselves in Carriera’s salotto, surrounded by images of the most famous people of their time, and they themselves, reflected in the mirrors in the room would become part of this gallery of celebrities, made by a woman who was an astonishing celebrity herself. 64 65 66 67

Regarding these aspects of Angela´s personality, see Oberer, 2014, 97–100. Sani, 1985, II, 803–4. Zanini-Cordi, 2013, 43. Rosenthal, 2006, 93.

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Self-Fashioning through Self-Portraits The fact that Carriera created more self-portraits than any other Venetian painter invites us to take a closer look at these works, which from the eighteenth century until today have fascinated many art historians and critics.68 One called her self-portraits her ‘psychologically most probing’69 pieces; others have expressed astonishment at how honestly she rendered her mirror images. Michael Levey described these portraits as the result of ‘an almost savage observation’.70 In a similar way, De Girolami Cheney et al. judged them as being almost brutally candid.71 According to Zava, Carriera aimed at a perfect resemblance when portraying herself, instead of seeking the passabile assomiglianza (vague similarity) characteristic of her clients’ portraits.72 In Zava’s own words, Carriera depicted herself not as how she would like to be but in the way ‘she knows she is’.73 The purpose of this part of the chapter is to review these general and sometimes hasty observations regarding Carriera’s self-portraits, while taking into account the startling intricacies that this kind of painting can present. In the introduction to the encyclopedic Self-Portraits by Women Painters by De Girolami Cheney et al., an important paragraph summarizes the fundamental characteristics and complexities of those works of art in which women artists depict themselves: The self-portrait is a unique work of art, an intimate record of a sitter’s personality. It is an acknowledgement of worth, an exercise in technique, a denominator of era, style and likeness. It is a revelation and confession. It can be study in expression or a document in a history of aging. In sum, the self-portrait is far more than a likeness, although that aspect is clearly important. It is a declaration of who the painters are and how they want to be seen: their persona, a personification by the depiction of attributes; and their occupation, demonstrated by the depiction of materials used in the profession – pencil, brushes, color pigments, a mirror.74

In acknowledging that female self-portraiture offers a widely diverse array of forms and functions, I limit my discussion to some of Carriera’s more captivating images of herself by asking the following questions: How did the artist reveal herself to the 68 Mariuz, 2007, 29. Sani’s catalogue of works mentions about a dozen examples in which Carriera is or was believed to have depicted herself; see Sani, 2007b, cat. nos. 13, 53, 130, 212, 313–18, 376, 420. For the tradition of female self-portraits in Venice from the Renaissance until the Baroque, see Brown, 2000, 98–102. 69 De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 102. 70 Levey, 1959, 141. 71 De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 105. 72 Zava, 2007, 22. 73 Zava, 2007, 22. 74 De Girolamo Cheney et al., 2009, p. xxii. Regarding the manipulative aspects of self-portraits, see also Milam in the context of Madame Adélaïde’s portraits; Milam, 2003, 115–16. The word ‘self-portrait’ was first coined in 1831; its Italian equivalent only at the beginning of the twentieth century. Before that, terms such as ‘by the artist’, ‘by his/her own hand’ and ‘by him- or herself’ were used; see A. Reynolds and Peter, 2016, 11.

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onlooker? Who were the presumed commissioners or recipients of these works? In which ways did she emphasize her role and position as a female artist? What persona did she assume and why? In which ways can some of her self-portraits be regarded as staged? Do these paintings provide new insights into her conception of herself as a woman, a professional painter, and private person with distinct character traits? Is there any other message she wanted to express through the portraits of herself?

Carriera’s Earliest Self-Portrait For her membership in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1705, Carriera was expected to submit a painted self-portrait as well as her reception piece, which was the miniature mentioned above, entitled Girl with a Dove (see Figure 3). For unknown reasons, Carriera never executed the requested self-portrait but left this task to her colleague Sebastiano Bombelli.75 Considering the complications and difficulties discussed above that Carriera faced in delivering the miniature that would have guaranteed her an Academy membership, it seems reasonable to believe that she might have felt even more intimidated by the challenge of delivering a full-sized self-portrait in oil. It would have meant producing a work on a different scale and using a technique not utterly familiar to her. In fact, until that year of 1705, only one self-portrait existed of Carriera; it is, according to Sani, a miniature with an unknown addressee that is now part of a private collection. On the back it bears the inscription, ‘The paintress/by herself’, above which appears the number 98, probably indicating the date of its execution, 1698.76 An elegantly dressed and bejewelled Carriera looks at the spectator with the hint of a smile while she presents the three paintbrushes that highlight her activity as a miniature painter. A somewhat forced gesture of her right hand could be the result of a common difficulty of making one’s self-portrait: that of recording the working hand depicting the self-image while looking in a mirror and simultaneously using this same hand to execute its image.77 The fact is that Carriera’s interest in the miniature at this time lay in the emphasis of her skill as an artist while still underlining her taste and grace as a stylish young lady. Considering all of her known self-portraits, it is particularly interesting that Carriera referred to both the mechanical aspects of her trade and her professional role as a female painter only in her two earliest self-portraits: in the above miniature and in the pastel she made for the grand-ducal collection of self-portraits in the Uffizi in Florence. Once she had established herself among the most celebrated artists of 75 See Cessi, 1965. 76 Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 13, p. 67. 77 See A. Reynolds and Peter, 2016, 21.

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her time, she apparently did not need to celebrate or legitimate her professional self in this way anymore. At the height of her success, she could use her self-portraits to send out different messages.

Carriera’s Self-Portrait in the Uffizi A woman, of about thirty years of age is depicted half-length against a neutral beige background (Plate 7). Her gaze appears to touch only lightly on the observer, while she holds a portrait of her younger sister in her left hand. No jewellery, no gold, no pearls – only a little lace adorns the plain clothing of the woman who displays herself as an artist. The flower in her pinned-up hair is not so much a sign of vanity as a key to her identity: a white rose, a rosa alba. Documents show that Carriera’s self-portrait with her sister has been hanging in the collection of artists’ self-portraits in Florence since 17 July 1714. However, it was most probably executed in conjunction with a commission which the artist received at a considerably earlier date, presumably from Gran Principe Ferdinando de’ ­Medici.78 The letter already quoted above, in which Christian Cole wrote to Carriera on 4 October 1708, and in which he mentions a ‘portrait for Florence’,79 is probably the first reference to this self-portrait by Carriera. Almost six months later, Baron Frederick de Walter sent a letter, on 24 March 1709, that includes another note referring to this work: ‘your portrait will also be most welcome in the gallery of His Highness.’80 In a missive to an unknown recipient, dated only with the year 1710, Carriera asked with rhetorical modesty where her painting had ended up: All of my little ability in working in pastels was not enough to spare me from the order to paint my portrait for the gallery and, once it was done, he who had brought me the commission and the measurements, ordered me to deliver it to Signor Variso Cast. So that he could send it to this court, which I did.81

In the same letter, she made mention of an ‘Ill.mo Inviato d’Inghilterra’ (Most illustrious envoy of England), probably a reference to John Molesworth (1679–1726), the English ambassador who had worked at the court in Florence since 1710.82 Molesworth 78 Pasian, in Pavanello, ed., Rosalba Carriera ‘prima pittrice de l’Europa’, 2007b, p. 86. 79 ‘Ritratto per Fiorenza’, Sani, 1985, I, 122. 80 ‘Aussi le votre sera le très bien venu dans la gallerie di S.A.R. le.’ Sani, 1985, I, 128. 81 ‘Tutta la mia poca abilità nell’operar in pastelle non fu bastante a sotrarmi dal ordine di fare il mio ritratto per la galeria e, fato che fu, chi m’havea portata la commissione e la misura, m’ordinò che dovessi consignarlo al Sig.r Variso Cast. perché lo spedisse a cotesta corte, come feci.’ Sani, 1985, I, 178. 82 Sani, 1985, I, 178, n. 3.

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wrote back to Carriera in response to this letter on 6 August 1712, expressing his regret as to where and how the picture was kept in Florence.83 At this point in time, it was hanging in the private rooms of Ferdinando in the Palazzo Pitti, in a dark place where it was hardly visible: I fear my letters got lost along the way because a good while has passed since I sent you word of the fate of your Portrait which is in no way proportionate to its merit or to yours. It lies hidden in the Grand Prince’s guardaroba who shows no sign of pulling it out of there: I have even hired some people to attempt its release from this obscurity, to place it in its rank. But I find the people of this country much readier to promise than to act.84

This unpropitious placement of the picture possibly resulted from Gran Principe Ferdinando’s failing health; he therefore was most likely unable to look after his treasured collection adequately.85 Three years later, however, Georg Schröder wrote, following a visit to the gallery in Florence from Sweden, that her portrait was now hung in a prominent place and did her all due respect: ‘I assure you it is well kept and will not cease to bring you honour for all the days to come.’86 In 1716, Crozat apparently received a copy of her painting and commented on it in a letter to Carriera of 22 December of the same year: one of which is your very lifelike portraits made with all possible art and very worthy of (being placed) with the most beautiful designs of our leading artists, masters of painting.87

If Carriera’s self-portrait really was commissioned by the gran principe, who was a genuine admirer of Venetian art among other things, it would have been ordered with the expressed intention of forming part of the Uffizi’s famous collection of artists’ self-portraits. The dimensions of the portrait also support this view.88 Unlike 83 Molesworth himself had his portrait painted by Carriera, which unfortunately has been lost. Whistler, 2009, 185. 84 ‘Je crains que mes lettres ne se soient perdus en chemin, puisqu’il y a déjà quelque tems, que je vous manday le sort de votre Portrait lequel n’est nullement proportioné à son mérite, ni au votre. Il demeure caché dans la Garderobe du Gr. Prince, sans qu’il-y ait de l’apparence de l’en tirer: j’ay bien engagé quelques personnes a tâcher de le délivrer de cette obscurité, pour le placer dans son rang. Mais je trouve les gens de ce païs bien plus prompts à promettre qu’à agir.’ Sani, 1985, I, 211. 85 Pasian, 2007, 86. 86 ‘je vous assure qu’il est bien conservé et ne laissera pas de vous faire honneur pour tous jour(s).’ Sani, 1985, I, 294. 87 ‘une desquelles est votre portrait très resemblant fait avec tout l’art possible et très digne d’être avec les plus beaux desseins de nos premiers maistres, chefs de la peinture.’ Sani, 1985, I, 314. 88 Pasian, 2007, 86.

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Carriera’s other works, these conform to the recommendations made for portraits in this collection by Cosimo III (1642–1723) at the beginning of the eighteenth century.89 There are four sketches, now in Vienna that date from 1753 to 1756 and show the rooms where Cosimo III’s collection was housed. By the time of Stefano Gaetano Neri’s sketch, its paintings had been reorganized and rehung, and Carriera’s self-portrait was now located in the bottom row of four paintings right underneath a lunette. Ultimately viewers had direct access to this important, favourably positioned work.90 Ferdinando’s sister may have played a part in this commission for Carriera. Settled in Düsseldorf following her marriage to Elector Johann Wilhelm, Electress Anna Maria Luisa de’Medici was highly pleased with Carriera’s works, and may thus have been instrumental in assigning this prestigious commission to the artist.91 From 1664, it had been a great honour for artists to have their self-portraits added to this collection. This was the year that Cardinal Leopold de’ Medici (1617–1675) founded a special department for artists’ self-portraits by commissioning Guercino (1591–1666) in Bologna to send his likeness to Florence.92 Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici also launched a systematic search for self-portraits so that the Medici family members could exhibit the faces of those artists whose works decorated the Medici houses, villas and chapels. The year 1681 is the official date; almost exactly 100 years after the Uffizi were born, Cosimo III hired the art historian Filippo Baldinucci (1625– 1697), whose job it was to collaborate with him and Cardinal Leopoldo, to compile a catalogue of the existing self-portraits in the Medici’s possession, as well as to draw up a plan to enlarge this collection.93 From that moment on, a spacious room almost precisely opposite the tribuna was reserved for displaying the unique collection of self-portraits.94 As Prinz has stated, this room became a temple of immortality for the arts, and any artist who was represented there during his lifetime could justifiably count himself among the elect. After all, the role models for the collection were Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo.95

89 72 × 58 cm and 30 × 35 cm. See Pasian, 2007, 86. 90 Sframeli, 2007, 33–34. 91 See also Mehler, 2006, 21. 92 Paolucci, 2007, 21. Presumably, the collection of Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria in Innsbruck represented the model for the initiative taken by the art-loving cardinal in Florence. Sframeli, 2007, 28. 93 It was also Baldinucci who advised Cosimo to pay particular attention to women painters: ‘I would recommend, if possible, not to miss the chance to include in the collection some celebrated female painters’; see Piccinelli, 2016, 152. The respective documents describe the furnishing of red velvet for the walls, three overdoors and the frames for the paintings; Piccinelli, 2016, 153. 94 Natali, 2008, 5. 95 Prinz, 1971, 14. Regarding the significance of female self-portraits in official portrait galleries and the importance of Elisabeth-Sophie Chéron’s gesture to submit a painting of herself to the Royal Academy in Paris in 1672, which represented the first female self-portrait in the prestigious institution; see Sheriff, 2017, 93.

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As evidence of how quickly the fame of this gallery and its portraits spread, one need only look at the number of publications about this collection that appeared from the eighteenth century onwards. The fact that artists and engravers copied these likenesses of their colleagues as early as the seventeenth century, either for professional reasons or for their own personal pleasure, is remarkable in this context as well. It was not unusual for the collection’s works to be lent to artists’ studios for such purposes.96 But by 1780, the demand had grown to such a degree that visitors had to arrange an appointment to visit the gallery, and artists had to make a reservation in order to copy a particular painting.97 Carriera’s portrait was not only noticed by visitors to the gallery but artists made various copies of it. From the list of their reservations, it is possible to see which artists copied Carriera’s work, and on which dates.98 On 7 May 1735, the Florentine courtier, art connoisseur, collector and intellectual Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri wrote to the Venetian artist notifying her of the impending arrival of Francesco Landi in Venice.99 Gabburri himself had built a vast cultural network all over Europe that included not only Carriera but also, among others, Mariette and Crozat, Antonio Balestra, Marco Ricci and Anton Maria Zanetti. Landi was the owner of two pastel paintings by Giovanna Messini, a young female protégé of his; one of these pictures was a copy of Carriera’s self-portrait, and the other a self-portrait of Messini herself.100 Carriera’s likeness in Florence also served as model for Francesco Moücke’s Serie di ritratti degli ecellenti pittori dipinti di propria mano (Series of portraits of excellent painters made with their own hands) which appeared in 1762.101 When Italian-born Giuseppe Mcpherson (1726–c.1780) copied Carriera’s pastel in Florence, he was in the process of studying the self-portraits of the grand-ducal collection over the course of more than fifteen years, in order to produce 224 miniature copies for the English earl George Clavering-Cowper (1738–1789). Cowper presented them, in a bid to the English court, as an extraordinary gift to King George III in 1773.102 To make Carriera’s image conform to the small format and also to integrate it with the other miniatures depicting head-and-shoulder likenesses, Mcpherson had to crop the original image so that it concentrated only on Carriera.

96 Borroni Salvadori, 1985, 11. 97 Borroni Salvadori, 1986a, 39–40. 98 On 2 December 1776, David Boudon (1748–1816) was listed; on 10 July 1780, we find the name of Carlo Lasinio (1759–1838) who copied the painting in a drawing (in disegno). On 31 December 1783, the documents again name Carlo Lasinio, and on 12 July 1788, Giuseppe Pera also copied the portrait in a drawing (in disegno). Borroni Salvadori, 1986b, 106. 99 See Sani, 1985, II, 601–2. 100 Sani, 2007a, 41. 101 Borroni Salvadori, 1985, 23. 102 A. Reynolds, 2016b, 246. See Layton Elwes’ article, 2000–1.

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In the painting in the Uffizi, the artist depicts herself in front of sheet of blue paper placed against a drawing board, holding her professional tool – a porte-crayon for pastel sticks – which she is using to complete a portrait. More crayons are lying on a table in front of her. In the background, her studio is alluded to simply by a neutral beige wall. In choosing this setting, Carriera basically follows traditional formal conventions for artists’ self-portraits.103 By 1790, male artists painting their likenesses could be seen experimenting with these traditions; they varied their figures’ poses, and they made their attributes less canonical. Meanwhile, the women artists appeared to be less innovative in representing themselves: Female artistic types are less entertaining, and stress the fact that a woman artist was both a deviant artist and a deviant woman, seen as at best pretentious and at worst a grotesque transgressor of womanliness.104

This sense of departing from dominant standards for representing artists and womanhood also serves to explain why self-portraits of female artists display a special level of complexity: They wanted to show they were as good as painters past and present, but dared not to look boastful. They wanted to show themselves at work but could not look peculiar – no dirty work clothes or untidiness, no overly dramatic self-presentation – because they could not risk comment on their appearance or their morality. […] Women artists could not afford to ignore the rules of acceptable female gestures and dress. The depiction of women in portraits is governed by convention and codified in art theory, and is never a simple matter.105

Such is the case even in recent decades, as Parker and Pollock have noticed in 1981: In the struggle to gain access to institutions and to acquire reputations women tend to focus on the status quo, on participating in the existing establishment from which they want and need recognition.106

This spirit of caution is reflected in Carriera’s decision to include a smaller picture in her self-portrait; interestingly Cosimo III not only specified the dimensions of the paintings for his collection but also expressed his wishes concerning certain details in the portraits. In a letter written by Apollonio Bassetti (1631–1699), the 103 104 105 106

Regarding the tradition of self-portraits that depict the artist at work, see also Hall, 2007, 133–61. Borzello, 1998, 30. Borzello, 1998, 32. Parker and Pollock, 2013, 33.

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duke’s secretary and counsellor, to the Italian businessman Giovacchino Guasconi in Amsterdam, dated 7 July 1676, it is specified in a commission for the collection that the artist should depict a figure either painting an artwork or holding a small ‘drawn figure’: The Most Serene Grand Duke […] that you should see to arranging for both of the aforementioned Painters each to paint a life-size self-portrait, Head and half bust, on canvas of the size corresponding to the measurements added herein, and it is desired that one and the other either be in the act of painting or should hold some drawn figure in miniature as it is customary to do, where this small work should show the strength and the perfection of their profession.107

Carriera was certainly aware of Cosimo III’s wishes, and deliberately took not one but two specified details into account.108 Not only does she present herself at work, but she also shows a pastel painting in the making, on which the half-length portrait of a female can be seen.109 The fact that this second woman, the ‘picture in the picture’, can be identified as Carriera’s sister Giovanna is based on the aforementioned article published in 1722 by the Mercure de France, which describes the second figure as ‘one of the sisters who boasts the same gift’.110 In the short biography of Carriera that D’Argenville published in 1762, he presumably made reference to this article when he described this self-portrait in almost the same words with the only difference being that he used the past instead of the present tense: The Grand Duke of Tuscany did her the honour of placing her portrait in his gallery: she had painted herself in pastels, with one of her sisters, who practised her same calling.111 107 ‘Il Ser. Mo Granduca ch’ella vedesse di disporre ambedue i prenominati Pittori a fare ciascuno il proprio ritratto in grande a naturale, la Testa con mezzo busto, sopra una tela dell’altezza corrispondente alla misura qui aggiunta, et si desiderebbe che tanto l’uno quanto l’altro o fusse in atto di dipingere, o havesse nella mano qualche operetta di figura in piccolo come soliti di fare ordinariamente, la quale operetta mostrasse il forte e lo squisito della loro professione.’ Langedijk, 1992, 88. 108 See her letter dated 1710, Sani, 1985, I, 178. 109 The self-portrait by Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670) dated 1660 and known in a copy of 1698 by Giuseppe Ghezzi (1634–1721), now in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Ascoli Piceno, in which she depicted herself with a miniature image of a young woman in her left hand, has been recognized as an anticipation of Carriera’s selfportrait in the Uffizi; see De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 84. 110 Sani, 1985, I, 365. 111 ‘Le Grand Duc de Toscane lui fit l’honneur de mettre son portrait dans sa galier; elle y étoit peinte en pastel, avec une de ses soeurs, qui excerçoit le même talent. Ce morceau fait le désespoit des gens de sa profession, on y trouve un style noble, mâle, soutenu; beaucoup de justesse dans les expression, des chairs d’une vérité surprenante; enfin, il n’y manqué qu’une ame.’ Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 316. Pasian also points out that at the time Angela is outside Venice. Pasian, 2007, 86.

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If Giovanna has been correctly identified, it begs the question as to how the portrait should be interpreted. Why did Carriera choose to include her sister Giovanna alongside herself in her self-portrait? A comparison between Carriera’s painting and other self-portraits by female artists from the fifteenth century onwards reveals that very few examples exist in which family members are included as ancillary figures next to the artist. It is even more difficult to find a female artist portraying herself with one or more sisters. Also the search for self-portraits in which female artists include their studio assistants reveals a meagre result. Not until the end of the eighteenth century did an increasing number of female artists include one or more of their pupils in their self-portraits; furthermore, this trend began in France.112 Throughout history female artists have predominantly been responsible for teaching other women to paint: artists such as Sofonisba Anguissola (1531/32–1625), Mary Beale (1632–1699), Elisabetta Sirani,113 or Angelica Kauffmann taught women from the nobility and aristocracy. They also taught their assistants and their own sisters to paint, as did Elisabetta Sirani, and Sofonisba Anguissola; and of course, Rosalba Carriera did as well. However, these female artists rarely included their assistants and sisters in their self-portraits.114 For this reason alone, Carriera’s painting in the Uffizi plays a special role among the women artists’ self-portraits. Not only does she portray a close relative by depicting Giovanna, but she emphasizes her sister as her most important assistant. However, Pavanello interprets this representation as ambivalent: A singular image, for that unusual choice, thus resulting in a double portrait familial and professional, to include her sister painter – and poet – as well, in the famous Florentine gallery of Self-Portraits, where her image would hang beside – but rising above them – those of few other women artists, including Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani and the Venetian Marietta Tintoretto and Chiara Varotari.115

112 Borzello, 1998, 82–86. See also De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 43, and the example of Adélaïde LabilleGuiard (1749–1803) and her self-portrait with two female students. She was another artist who ran a school for female painters; see De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 122. 113 Sirani accepted women of all ages into her studio and the large number of pupils who trained and painted there explains in part how more than two hundred works came out of a workshop whose maestra died at the tender age of twenty-six. See also Borzello, 2000, 68. 114 Borzello, 1998, 82. De Girolami Cheney et al. point out that the compositional arrangement of Sofonisba Anguissola’s work of the mid-sixteenth century, entitled Bernardo Campi Painting the Portrait of Sofonisba, which is conserved in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, prefigures the self-portraits of women painters as teachers in the eighteenth century. De Girolami Cheney et al., 2009, 54. 115 ‘Un’immagine singolare, per quella scelta inusitata, sicché ne risulta un doppio ritratto familiare e professionale al contempo, allo scopo di includere pure la sorella pittrice – e poetessa – nella famosa galleria fiorentina degli Autoritratti, dove la sua immagine veniva affiancarsi – ma sopravvanzandole – a quelle di poche altre donne artiste, fra cui Lavinia Fontana ed Elisabetta Sirani e le venete Marietta Tintoretto e Chiara Varotari.’ Pavanello, 2007a, 57. See also Borzello, ‘Behind the Image’, in Rideal, ed., Mirror Mirror, 2001, 30.

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At this point, one can ask if Carriera’s portrait in the Uffizi should be merely interpreted as documenting the professional cooperation between herself and her sister Giovanna?116 Or should it primarily be seen as reflecting the reality of the distribution of power in an artist’s studio, in which the mistress calls the tunes, and the assistants, in this case the younger sister, obeys her call? The mere fact that an assistant appears in her teacher and mentor’s painting underscores her importance and ennobles her position in the studio. However, the fact is that Giovanna’s role remains subordinate, which is reflected in the difference in size between the two women. On a different level of reality, the artist is also the mistress portrayed as standing at her work, while the assistant appears as a picture within a picture. If one recalls the relationship between the two women, beginning with Carriera’s role as her sister’s teacher, and moving on to their everyday life in Carriera’s Venetian studio, where the tasks that primarily fell to Giovanna were to complete or to copy her elder sister’s work,117 this portrait in the Uffizi acquires an even deeper significance: Carriera depicts herself not only as painting Giovanna, but as quite literally ‘creating’ her. It becomes difficult to avoid drawing this parallel between the painted reality and the actual reality as it was lived out in interactions between the two sisters. It is also interesting to note that in this work only Carriera shows her own hands, and it is also her only self-portrait that includes both hands, as though she were the only one to actually create anything. Considering the fact that it was Giovanna who generally completed the hands in her portraits, this detail seems rather ironic. Carriera frequently did the same with the lace that can often be seen adorning the clothes of her clients. She herself did not enjoy detailed work on decorative elements, and frequently left such work to her younger sister; in fact, it may well have been Giovanna herself who finished these details in this particular painting. If one interprets the portrait from the perspective of the blood ties between the two women, further aspects of interest come to light. The close personal ties between Rosalba and Giovanna are expressed in the mirror-image arrangement of the two heads, with Giovanna’s head, not unsurprisingly, set lower than that of her sister and cut. Their gaze avoids looking the observer in the eye; both Giovanna and Rosalba appear to be looking past the viewer. Another, possibly more emotionally motivated aspect is the fact that the two women look very much like one another. In the composition, they are so similar as to almost appear reflections of each other. This is hardly surprising when one 116 Moretti’s interpretation covers this aspect; V. Moretti, 1983, 99. 117 Giovanna helped to complete the numerous commissions, frequently taking over when it came to the decorative details of pastel paintings such as lace, flowers or the hands. She was also responsible for protecting the fragile pastel paintings behind glass and for producing copies of existing works of her older sister.

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considers the reports, observations and associations regarding the personal relationship between them. Their life together in the same house, their work together in the same studio, their mutual renunciation of marriage and their alter-ego moments in the way Rosalba regarded Giovanna – all of these aspects appear to have taken on artistic form in this portrait.118 In this painting, as in their everyday lives, Rosalba’s and Giovanna’s careers and the private lives of Rosalba and Giovanna cannot be separated; and, as in real life, Rosalba in this self-portrait clearly marks their different roles by positioning their figures on different levels (which would have been primarily from Rosalba’s point of view). Another question to raise in the analysis of this self-portrait in the Uffizi: which other moments and aspects of her persona are included that became visible at other times in her career?119 During an exhibition of Italian sketches in Berlin from 1997 to 1998, Schulze Altcappenberg published a sketch, which for the first time was identified as another self-portrait of Carriera dating from around 1708 (Figure 30).120 This shows Carriera looking intensely and self-confidently at the observer from an angle to the right; presumably, she painted her own likeness directly in front of a mirror, ‘capturing what [she] saw in a direct, non-idealised manner, almost like an uncensored visual diary entry.’121 Her dishevelled hair underscores the private nature of the moment. She has not set herself in a scene, nor does this sketch show even the slightest hint of Carriera trying to conform to the ideal of beauty in the eighteenth century.122 Mehler convincingly notes that here, in comparison to the portrait for the grand duke’s collection in Florence, we see a far more authentic version of Carriera.123 It was most likely a personal study, a personal record, produced for self-exploration and not a commissioned piece. It represents an image of spontaneous realism without artifice, pretence or specific message to send out even though her wild, uncombed hair and her eyebrows remind us of Cesare Ripa’s description of Pittura (Painting) and of the fact that the quality of hair often symbolized that of intellect: Beautiful woman, with black, thick hair, spread out and ringletted in various ways […]. The hair on her head is depicted black and thick because as the good painter is always thinking about the imitation of nature and about art as far as it creates 118 Giovanna regarded Rosalba as her closest confidant in the family and at the same time, she felt inferior not only to her elder sister but also to Angela. Trapped between two illustrious and prominent sisters, Giovanna must have suffered from her invisibility. Rosalba, on the other hand, behaved as the authoritative and controlling element in the family while stylizing more than once her relationship to Giovanna as though they were the same person. See Oberer, 2014, 83–110. 119 Henning and Marx, 2007, 19. 120 Schulze Altcappenberg, 1997, cat. no. 53, p. 86, fig. 50. 121 A. Reynolds and Peter, 2016, 15. See also Mehler, 2006, 68, and 2009, 173–76. 122 Henning and Marx, 2007, 19. 123 Rosenthal, 1996, 190, and Mehler, 2006, 72.

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Figure 30 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait c.1708, red chalk on paper, 35 × 26.6 cm. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. kdZ 28844. © bpk/Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Jörg P. Anders.

perspective and is the object of the eye, and for this reason he needs to almost continuously have in his fantasy all the visible effects of nature.124 124 See Ripa, 1603, 404: ‘Donna bella, con capelli neri, & grossi, sparsi, & ritorti in diverse maniere […]. I capelli della testa si fano neri, & grossi, perche stando il buon Pittore in pensieri continui dell’imitatione della natura, & dell’arte, in quanto di prospettica, & è oggetto dell’occhio, & per questo bisognandosi quasi continuamente have per la fantasica tutti gli effeti della natura’. Krellig considered the possibility of Carriera alluding to this symbolic meaning in the context of her self-portrait in Venice, discussed below; Krellig, 2017a, 91.

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Carriera possibly played with the idea of representing herself as Pittura for practice, experimentation or for the purpose of self-reflection. What has emerged from comparing this drawing with her pastel painting for the grand dukes is that for her official portrait, she obviously restrained her image of her persona.125 Pasian describes her in the Uffizi as follows: Bundled in her painter’s smock, ennobled by the darts of lace in her dress, Rosalba seems almost blocked, stiffened by the conventionality of her pose […]. One senses a mixture of timidity and of professional pride, derived perhaps from the programmatic official character of the painting.126

Her eyes do not look radiant or self-confident in the grand duke’s portrait. With a touch of melancholy and restraint, she appears to look straight through the observer, beyond the mundane world of everyday life.127 The fact that she wears no jewellery in this painting is also noteworthy. The white rose in her hair is an immediate clue to her identity; it is not vanity, rather a reference to the name of the artist, and so not necessarily intended as an embellishing detail.128 By contrast, the miniature self-portrait I mentioned earlier, shows herself in her mid-twenties holding up paintbrushes as a clear attribute of her profession but also wearing elegant clothes with large and glamorous sleeves as well as a dark necklace and pendant earrings.129 When we further compare the Florentine painting with another self-portrait of Carriera, dated c.1730–31, which is a small pastel painting now kept at Casteldelpiano, we see her in everyday clothes, with a cuffietta da casa (bonnet) but at the same time, with pearl earrings and a necklace of pearls.130 Also in a similar portrait in a private collection in Milan131 and in her self-portrait ‘as Winter’ in Dresden, which I discuss below, Carriera chose to depict herself with pearls. Two other paintings listed by Sani in which Carriera, the artist herself, is the main subject matter, show the painter adorned (at least) with pearl earrings.132 Only in the painting in the Uffizi and in her last self-portrait in Venice, which will be discussed later in this chapter, does she 125 Mehler, 2006, 72. 126 ‘Infagottata nel giubbone da pittore, ingentilito dagli inserti in pizzo del vestito, Rosalba pare quasi bloccata, irrigidita nella convenzionalità della posa […] Vi si coglie un misto di timidezza e di orgoglio professionale, forse dovuto all’ufficialità programmatica del dipinto.’ Pasian, 2007, 86. 127 See Sheriff, 1996, 206–7, who describes this glance as one typical of self-portraits of the seventeenth century. 128 Allusions to her name Rosalba (by a rose) can be found in different contexts; see Pierre-Jean Mariette’s poem quoted above in Chapter 5. 129 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 13, p. 67. 130 See Sani, 1977, 122–25; 2007b, cat. no. 313, p. 282. 131 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 314, pp. 284–85. 132 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 317, p. 286, and cat. no. 318, p. 287.

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eschew allusions to luxury or financial well-being, as if she wanted to downplay this part of her success. These unusually austere choices correspond to how in her letters she hardly ever talked about money, whereas in her diary she kept precise accounts of her earnings. Still, this decision at two important moments in her life to present herself without any jewellery and even more so, in comparatively simple clothes, represented a choice that would go against her contemporaries and clients’ expectation to see her dressed respectably and elegantly: it would seem to be part of Carriera’s wisely applied artistic rhetoric: Carriera’s intention, it would appear, was to underline her artistic self as one who privileges art over decorum.133 And this specific emphasis on the superiority of her refined artistic activity over societal expectations goes hand in hand with another interesting aspect of this artist that should be underlined. When looking again at her portrait in the Uffizi, one realizes that the artist does not embellish her own physiognomy; almost brutally she copies a rather non-feminine face. Interestingly, this self-portrait conforms precisely to the picture which Carriera so cleverly painted of herself for her contemporaries to interpret: that of a modest, reserved spinster, uninterested in worldly matters.134 The way in which she decided to depict herself for the world to see was intentional. It is the result of a thought-out tactic, an elaborate and subtle strategy, the outcome of an original and efficient self-enactment.135 Carriera did not express rebellion against the social conventions and ideas of her day, but she was able to instrumentalize both by using these very conventions to her own advantage in ways that possibly went over the heads of her contemporaries. And I am wondering if D’Argenville, who generally praised her portraits for being ‘perfect resemblances [...] that express feeling’, did not catch exactly this kind of artificiality of the painting when he wrote: This piece made people of her profession despair, as they found a noble, virile, elevated style; much aptness in the expressions, [and] the flesh surprisingly lifelike; ultimately, the only thing missing was a soul.136

Interestingly, this is the last time that Carriera discussed her professional role by presenting herself at work with her clearly visible tools. Apparently, apart from the requirements given by the grand duke, she herself still considered it to be a necessity 133 I follow Angela Rosenthal who has convincingly interpreted one of Angelica Kauffmann’s self-portraits in the same way; see Rosenthal, 2006, 85. See also Modesti, 2014, 77, as to the societal expectations regarding how female artists were supposed to be dressed. 134 This is also how de Gaetani interprets her self-portrait; De Gaetani, 2015, 69. 135 See also Sutherland Harris and Nochlin, eds., Women Artists, 1976, 162, who point out Carriera’s power of observation and understanding of human character in her self-portraits. 136 Translation, Dabbs, 2009, 346. The original reads: ‘Ce morceau fait le désespoir des gens de sa profession, on y trouve un style noble, mâle, soutenu; beaucoup de justesse dans les expressions, des chairs d’une vérité surprenante; enfin, in n’y manqué qu’une ame.’ Dézallier D’Argenville, 1762, 316.

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to define herself in this way. The active part highlighted the dilemma or paradox that women were closed in an ideal of female passivity and private virtue while they were confronted with an art market that required visibility and public representation.137 In the following depictions of herself she seems to have grown beyond this urge to underline her professionality, concentrating on other aspects of herself.

Carriera’s Self-Portrait as Winter in Dresden, 1730–31 In this celebrated and captivating portrait (Plate 8), executed over twenty years after her official and staged self-portrait for the grand-ducal collection in Florence, Carriera shows herself as a self-assured, confident woman, dressed in sumptuous blue velvet clothes, who is calmly looking out at the observer.138 Her fur-trimmed, gleaming cloak, the ermine-trimmed cap made of the same fabric, and two large pearl earrings that are glittering in the light emphasize the lavishness of her appearance.139 Yet, her face is depicted in an unidealized, plain way, with a hint of a smile playing around her eyes and on her lips. A clear emphasis is laid on the comfortable position she seems to be in, or a mental state or, what Dabbs called, an ‘unaffected satisfaction’.140 This self-portrait is known to represent the artist as a personification of Winter the reasons for which, however, are not completely clear. Did Carriera call this painting Winter or was the title attributed to the pastel in another moment, for example when the Venetian noblewoman Maria Manini Bragadin mentioned it as a ‘portrait in the form of winter’ in a letter she wrote to Carriera from Vienna on 11 March 1731?141 If we accept the traditional identification of the painting as a representation of Winter, it is interesting to notice that none of the existing examples of the same theme, which are part of Carriera’s popular cycles of the four seasons, resemble this self-portrait in Dresden. In her version in Saint Petersburg, also in the pastel nowadays part of the Royal Collections in Windsor, for example, these two works depict Winter either as a young woman who is only slightly covered by some fur or one who wears a fur-trimmed mantle wrapped around her shoulders while looking at the spectator with an alluring glance.142 Borzello described the difference between the painting in Dresden and Carriera’s other versions of Winter in the following way: 137 Rosenthal, 1996, 307. 138 Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 315, p. 285. 139 For to the significance of clothing in female portraits, see Collier Frick, 2007, 63–73. 140 Dabbs, 2012, 8. Regarding the unusual feature of a smile in female self-portraits before the example of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, see A. Reynolds and Peter, 2016, 19. 141 Sani, 1985, II, 545. 142 See Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 123, p. 131, and cat. no. 130, p. 137.

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Pastels of Winter, personified by a pretty young girl swathed in ermine, were part of [Rosalba’s] standard repertory, but when the ermine is placed round an older face it suggests that age has whitened her hair and that she is in the final season of her life. It seems unlikely that this portraitist of the grand and the great forgot that ermine is also the badge of royalty.143

After centuries of critics portraying Carriera as a tender female, Borzello highlighted how she made an enormous claim for herself through this extravagant rendering of herself in this glamorous work. She argued that it would be a welcome correction to see this self-portrait as proof that Carriera considered herself to be queen of all artists.144 Indeed, her pastel in Dresden represents a very particular kind of an image that encompasses other important aspects. In combining a clearly identifiable self-portrait with an allegory of the seasons, she turned this painting into an interesting example of her artist’s ‘fantasy portraits that blurred the boundaries between reality and ideality through role-playing, in this case presenting herself as an allegorical figure of Winter’. According to Julia Dabbs, Carriera emphasized the texture and lavishness of the clothes by ‘deftly merging the season’s duality of cold harshness with the soft beauty of the snowy ermine’ in order to present ‘a complex portrayal of a woman who was herself approaching the “winter” of her life’.145 This pastel is in fact one in a group of self-portraits the artist executed as an ‘old woman’ according to early modern standards, that is, of any woman older than forty years of age.146 In her revealing article about portraits of aged women artists, Dabbs pointed out that that this particular subject matter is a crucial one in any time period not only because these women call ‘attention to the simultaneous weakness and magnification of vision’, but also because they use these images to convey the essential significance of an artist’s identity in general.147 In this work, Carriera created an identity not so much by exalting her artistic activity, as she had done earlier in the portrait for the Uffizi, but by emphasizing her social status as nobility.

143 Borzello, 1998, 71. The author refers to earlier works by Carriera named above. 144 Borzello, 1998, 71. 145 Dabbs, 2012, 8. 146 Campbell, 2010, 809. See also Dabbs, 2012, 7. Regarding the question ‘how old is old?’ and the various answers given by the different disciplines such as art history, sociology or cultural history, see Botelho, 2013, 300–1. 147 Dabbs, 2012, 2. Another interesting example of the depiction of an elderly lady – which in my opinion is linked to Carriera’s self-portrait in Dresden – is Liotard’s aforementioned pastel portrait Madame Tronchin – Dressed for the Cold, which is still lacking a more profound interpretation. Liotard, who was strongly influenced by Carriera’s art, executed this pastel in 1758, which is today conserved in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. See fig. 4 in Baker, 2015, 19.

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In this way, Carriera converted the development of Italian self-portraits since the fifteenth century into something new. As Woods Marsden clearly showed in her influential, insightful study of Renaissance self-portraiture published in 1998, this specific art form was designed in Italy at the beginning of the 1400s specifically to affirm the artist’s social status. An individual’s standing in society depended mostly on the rank attached to their occupation; in turn the latter was evaluated on the basis of either its distance from or proximity to physical labour. The main difficulty at that time was how to elevate the artist from the status of a purely manual worker to a member of the world of liberal arts.148 Only at the end of the sixteenth century did the artistic and intellectual community succeed in renegotiating the intellectual components of the creative process and consequentially find a way to elevate the standing of both the makers and their artefacts. The development of self-portraiture bears visual witness to the struggle for social acceptance in that there was an inverse relationship between the extent of self-revelation as practicing artist, and the degree to which the case for the intellectual foundation of art had been won. Put very briefly, it was not until the late sixteenth century that artists felt sufficient confidence in their standing in society to acknowledge that they were indeed skilled manual workers for whom easel, palette, and brush represented attributes that could be embraced with pride.149

Considering the fact that for women painters in the late sixteenth century it was an accomplishment on its own to represent themselves as practitioners of the visual arts in the act of painting or with their respective tools, it is not surprising that the majority of autonomous female self-portraits until the late eighteenth century did, indeed, show the pride of women artists in that way. It is also for this reason that Carriera’s self-portrait as Winter is so fascinating: here, the artist seems to have done the opposite. She has risen beyond those debates and suppressed completely any visual evidence of her artistic or professional life by highlighting instead well-known ennobling signs of an elevated social rank such as lavish, even royal clothing, as well as an elegant noblewoman’s self-assured pose. Another aspect of this painting needs to be taken into account which is the fact that her self-portrait as Winter was dedicated to the Austrian court. During Carriera’s stay in Vienna, her main activity as artist was to portray some members of the imperial court, among whom was Wilhelmine Amalie, wife of Emperor Joseph I (see ­Figure 29).150 Her likeness is not merely stylistically similar to the image of Carriera. Both depict elderly women, both were born in the same year, which meant that in 148 Woods-Marsden, 1998, 3. 149 Woods-Marsden, 1998, 5. 150 The pastel was sent to Dresden in 1730, see Henning, 2007, 86.

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1730–31 they were almost sixty years old, and both women held the most powerful and the most successful positions in their field. I wonder, therefore, if the combination of the display of royal status in both pastels was purely coincidental, especially as, according to Maria Manini Bragadin, Carriera sent her self-portrait to the empress dowager herself.151 It seems to me that Carriera, well-aware of her unique status in Europe, tried to underline these parallels with the empress in her self-portrait and especially in how she avoided any reference to her activity as a painter and used instead what Frick called, the ‘passive eloquence of clothing’ to create her self-image.152 By eliminating any indication of her creative profession and by stressing her royal status in lavish, ennobling and at the same time allegorical disguise, she elevated herself to the positive vision of an ageing ‘empress of painting’ as analogous to the positive vision of her contemporary, the ageing empress dowager of the Habsburg family. If this reading is correct, her self-portrait in Dresden fostered a quite grandiose, innovative and probably provocative idea of the prominent role and social position of herself and possibly of women artists in general.153 By doing so, she took the pastel portrait to a higher level. As a younger woman in Paris, she had managed to transform the genre into what Jeffares called ‘an expression of élite aspiration that appealed to those with recently acquired wealth who sought acceptance in aristocratic circles’.154 At old age, she turned her own person into an aristocrat herself. In a second phase of this pastel’s history, when it arrived in Dresden in the mid-eighteenth century to be part of the vast collection of Carriera’s works at court, it took up a special place in the Kabinett der Rosalba (Rosalba gallery). According to Giovanni Lodovico Bianconi’s description of the general layout of this room, quoted before, Carriera’s pastel series hung along the wall facing the windows. An extraordinary effect on visitors of her portraits would have been created by the light streaming in and the reflections from the floor-to-ceiling French mirrors positioned between the windows.155 Spectators would have found themselves among the prominent heads depicted by Carriera, and in the middle of these splendours, been struck by how her self-portrait could be admired as ‘overshadowing the rest around it’.156 This final setting for her work at court also guaranteed Carriera a truly royal position. This token of enormous pride, confidence and self-consciousness in which Carriera mixed the genres of allegory and portrait, intrinsically challenges how social identities have been looked at; clearly those of female artists need to be further 151 Sani, 1985, II, 545. 152 Frick, 2007, 71. 153 This innovative approach of challenging social identities would go hand in hand with Walther’s observation that Wilhelmine Amalie’s portrait betrays a revolutionary ‘bourgeois conception of portraiture’ (bürgerliche Porträtauffassung); see Walther, 1972–75, 84. 154 Jeffares, 2015, 27. 155 See also Henning, 2007, 81. 156 Bianconi, 1780, 12.

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examined from another point of view. In depicting Carriera as an elderly artist without alluding at all to the burden of her age, this Dresden self-portrait can also be read as an interesting statement regarding elderly artists or elderly women in general. In the eighteenth century a negative attitude towards old age was widespread, especially as it appears in the cultural stereotype that described it as ‘an abject and humiliated state, a fallen state of lost grace, beauty, and power.’157 And artist and women were particularly susceptible to gerontophobia. There were those who risked infirmity that rendered them incapable of working and led them to inevitable decline, and others who lost their beauty, an aspect conventionally associated with the female gender.158 Even worse, the old woman was generally described as physically impaired, simple, unintelligent and with a tendency towards emotional vulnerability, depression or melancholy.159 Their depiction oscillated between parody, dignity and tragedy.160 At the same time, early modern writings reveal positive tropes regarding the last phase of human life. They allude to exemplary or heroic reactions, to intellectual competence and acuity, or emotional and spiritual strength that grow over the years.161 Campbell observed that, as in literature, a number of examples in art actually counteract the generally negative view of age and, ‘establish [instead] the visible signs of female old age as the visible signs of virtue’.162 Following Dabbs, I am inclined to believe that for this self-portrait in Dresden Carriera had it in mind to overcome the hurdle of denigrating stereotypes by adding more positive aspects to her image as a liberating promotion of the female capacity for virtue in all ages, but especially in old age. Her self-portrait can be understood as being deliberately charged with the ‘symbolic power of old women as moral exemplars.’163 It shows the last phase in a woman’s life ‘in a positive and powerful new light […], as a proud witness to the more lasting virtues of experience, wisdom, and penetrating intellectual vision’.164

Carriera’s Self-Portrait in Old Age in Windsor Castle, c.1744 In the following years, Carriera continued to depict herself as if dissociated from her artistic profession and with strong implications, instead, of her own social identity.165 Around 1744, when she was now nearing the end of a prolific career as the leading 157 Sohm, 2007, 21. Regarding an overview of this negative attitude towards old age see Sohm’s chapter on ‘Gerontophobia and Anxiety of Obsolescence’, in Sohm, 2007, 19–36. 158 Sohm, 2007, 24–26. 159 For old-age tropes regarding female artists, see Dabbs, 2017, 28–32. 160 Sohm, 2007, 21. 161 Dabbs, 2017, 34. 162 Campbell, 2010, 830. 163 Campbell, 2010, 843. 164 Dabbs, 2012, 15. 165 On self-portraiture, gender and social identity see also West, 2004, 165–73.

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Figure 31 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait in Old Age c.1744, pastel on paper, 56.7 × 45.8 cm. Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 452375. © Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II 2018.

female painter both in Venice and abroad, the artist chose to depict herself again as self-assured and dignified (Figure 31). This late painting is probably the second-to-last self-portrait Carriera made in her life. The elderly artist is shown as an elegant lady in a low-cut fur-trimmed dress, in three-quarters, turned to her right, conforming, as in the Dresden painting discussed above, to standard portraiture conventions. Except for her thinning, curled hair, the artist avoided almost completely any humbling marks of ageing, neither did she allude to the terrifying signs of the vision loss from which she suffered. Again with a hint of a smile on her lips and without any affectation she looks calmly at the

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spectator.166 The lace on her blouse and her cap as well as the glittering earrings underline the refined taste of the artist. A blue mantle that seemed to have slid down her shoulders picks up the hues of the blue ribbons on her head, which must be part of the black lace cap she is wearing, the blue shiny eyes and the blue shading around her neck complete a perfect balance of colours in this high-quality piece. Aged around seventy, Carriera gave it as a gift to Joseph Smith, whom she had met some twenty years earlier probably on the occasion of the consulship which he received in 1744.167 While we have many examples of female artists who created self-portraits as excellent gifts to seek a market, making use of the double phenomenon of being pictures of and by women,168 Carriera executed this portrait in pursuit of a different goal: The Windsor pastel offers an interesting view on how the artist related as herself to Smith and to European high society in general. It would appear that in this painting, a gift to an old, wellknown client and friend she had served for over twenty years, Carriera chose to place herself socially again, as discussed above, on the same level as her illustrious client and acquaintance. We are not merely looking at an artist but at an accomplished, self-assured and elegant woman of the European nobility who is challenging in a nonchalant way and one more time the social conventions of the eighteenth century. And as in the pastel in Dresden, Carriera appears free of any form of physical or mental suffering that old age can bring. Apart from her visibly thinner, white hair, the artist avoided clear references an elderly woman’s noticeable changes. In this aspect, her artistic and philosophical approach is similar to that in her self-portrait in Dresden. Both versions represent pictorial expressions of a woman who is fully confident and aware of who she is and who also makes a revolutionary claim on two levels: as female artist occupying noble social standing and an exemplary moral role that she extends to ageing women artists altogether.

Carriera’s Self-Portrait in the Accademia in Venice, c.1746 It is in the final period of her life, around 1746, that Carriera painted her last self-portrait, which she presumably gave as a present to Giambattista Sartori, brother of her beloved ex-student Felicita Sartori, and which is today kept in the Accademia in Venice (Figure 32).169

166 Reynolds and Peter point out that in most self-portraits where the artists do not allude to their profession by depicting themselves in the act of painting, their pose is relatively formal and traditional; see A. Reynolds and Peter, 2016, 22. 167 It arrived in England from Venice via King George’s acquisition of Smith’s collection. See Razzall, 2017, 314–15. Giuseppe (Joseph) Wagner (1706–1780) engraved the pastel in reverse which records the pastel being a gift for Smith; Levey, 1991, 64; see also Roberts, ed., Treasures, 2008, 244–45. Sani dates the pastel earlier; see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 376, pp. 331–32. 168 ffolliott, 2016, 429. 169 For the discussion of this portrait see Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 420, p. 368.

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Figure 32 Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait c.1746, pastel on paper, 31 × 25 cm. Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia. © Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

Carriera depicted herself at a time when she was over seventy years old, wearing simple, brown clothes. Her thin white hair is crowned with laurel, while her face has a sad, tired and pensive expression. The artist looks to her right side, avoiding direct eye contact with the spectator. She does not enter in direct communication with the outside world, it is the onlooker who scrutinizes her. Mariuz felt that she appears as

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if she has summoned forth a ghost within herself,170 whereas I think she consciously chose to leave behind an image that reflects what her life was about. This self-portrait has been, and still is, referred to as a depiction of Tragedy, the title and comment which, according to Zanetti in his Della pittura veneziana, was given by Carriera herself. A few years before [she lost her eyesight] she made her own portrait with a garland of leaves, and having been asked what she meant to signify with that, she responded that it was Tragedy, and that must end tragically, as it was in real life.171

I am wondering how reliable this account is, especially as the same author maintained in the same paragraph that Carriera ‘fell into a complete eclipse of reason’172 in old age, which cannot be confirmed by other documents or reports. On the contrary, years later in her testament dated 19 December 1756, Carriera affirmed she was ‘healthy in the spirit, the intellect and the body’.173 As Zanetti’s account seems to be the only one to give an explanation of why the painting was allegedly called Tragedy’, the question is whether there were any other hints that could explain the painting better. As I pointed out earlier, Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia was a textual source that Carriera relied on in various of her paintings,174 and in this case it could indicate a different reading of the portrait under discussion. While Ripa describes ‘Tragedy’ (Tragedia) in a way that does not reveal any relationship or similarity to Carriera’s work,175 he presents ‘Old Age’ (Vecchiezza) and especially ‘Melancholy’ (Malinconia) as states of being and images that offer instead interesting insights.

170 Mariuz, 1995, 289; 2007, 31. 171 Translation by Dabbs, 2012, 11. The original reads: ‘Pochi anni prima fec’ella il proprio ritratto con una ghirlanda di foglie; e venendole chiesto che volesse significare per ciò, rispose, ch’era qualla Tragedia; e che Rosalba doveva finire tragicamente, come fu in verita.’ Dabbs, 2012, 11, n. 27; A. Zanetti, vol. 5, 1771, 449. The episode is also repeated by Girolamo Zanetti; see G. Zanetti, 1818, 19, n. 5. See also Sani, 2007b, 366. 172 A. Zanetti, 1771, 449. See also Dabbs, 2008, 48, who regrets that the claim of her mental insanity has been repeated uncritically by other authors. 173 ‘sana di mente, intelletto e corpo.’; see Sani, 1985, II, 735. Early on Moschini Marconi expressed doubts regarding the reliability of Zanetti’s account in the context of the provenance of the painting (Moschini Marconi, 1970, 16), and Zava Boccazzi published a document dated 15 November 1748, in which Gabriele Gabrieli, Carriera’s notary, officially declared the artist to be mentally healthy (Zava Boccazzi, 1981, 219). 174 If we take the example of Carriera’s allegory of ‘Air’ in Dresden, which shows a lightly dressed women in white looking at a dove flying next to her, or the depiction of a woman holding a rooster (Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie), Sani noticed similarities to Ripa’s description of Aria (Air) and of Vigilanza (Vigilance); see Sani, 1991, 82. For ‘Air’ see Ripa, 1603, 121; regarding the rooster, see Ripa, 1603, 50 and 181. See also Carriera’s pastel of a Lady with a Parrot in Dresden, where the attribute of the bird most likely refers to Eloquenza (Eloquence), based on Ripa’s description; see Ripa, 1603, 128. 175 See Ripa, 1603, 489–91.

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A pale, thin white-haired woman with wrinkles on her face, wearing clothes the colour that leaves take on after having lost their strength, and without ornament, is the prescription that Ripa recommends for representing Old Age. And he continues that during any age between fifty and seventy years, human beings suffer a decline because of their cold blood. Weakening senses bring about difficulties with physical effort and mental exercises. Old Age, he adds, diminishes the eyesight, the strength and the ambition, also reducing beauty and hope. Its colours resemble the leaves in autumn, or of the pit one will fall into after death.176 The fact that Ripa mentions how eyesight suffers in old age is particularly noteworthy if we remember that Carriera executed this self-portrait when she was slowly turning blind. It grows all the more striking that in this late work, the artist depicted herself with one eye different from the other.177 Theoretically, the change of the colour of one of them could be the result of siderosis after a cataract surgery using a traditional couching procedure.178 It might be a telling detail that Carriera changed, in her last self-portrait, the colour of her right eye from grey-blue to brown. Among the documents edited by Sani, an undated record has survived which describes the state of the cataracts which at that point were disturbing her vision especially in her right eye, although her left eye was already suffering as well.179 To put a special emphasis on her eyes by zooming into her face as she has hardly ever done in other portraits, at a moment when her eyesight had practically left her, is striking. She might have been compelled to move the mirror so close to her eyes that she saw herself from close up or she deliberately chose to focus on what a visual artist was about: the act of seeing, the act of observing and transforming the scrutinized object onto paper. Reading Ripa’s description of Malinconia (Melancholy), the analogies become even more compelling. Again he talks about an old woman, sad and sorrowful, poorly dressed without any ornament. Melancholy, according to Ripa, has the same effects on human beings as winter has on trees and on plants. Wind, low temperatures and snow make them look dry, sterile, naked and of little value. The author states that melancholic human beings always think of difficult things which, they make 176 ‘Donna con la testa canuta, macilente, & con molte crespe per la faccia, vestita di quel colore de le foglie, quando hanno perduto il vigore, senza ornamento […]. Vecchiezza è quella età dell’huomo, che tiene da cinquanta sino à settanta anni, nella quale l’huomo, che và in declinatione per la freddezza del sangue, deviene inhabile alle fatiche corporale, & essercitij mentali, i quali per la debolezza de sensi, non può fare senza difficultà, & questa età è tutta declinatione. Che la vecchiezza diminuisca la vista, le forze, l’ambitione, le bellezze, & le speranze si mostra col […] vestimento, con la faccia […], overo il color della veste somigliante à quello delle frondi de gl’alberi nell’Autunno, overo dalla fossa quale stà per cadere.’ Ripa, 1603, 493–94. 177 As far as the date after 1746 is concerned, see Sani 2007b, cat. no. 420, pp. 367–69. 178 I thank Dr. Angelika Linke for confirming the fact that an operation of this type may have these results. And perhaps it is neither a coincidence that the pastel in the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo, which is believed to be another self-portrait by Carriera, reveals a similar fact: Carriera’s right eye is less blue, tending to brown. 179 Sani, 1985, II, 715–16.

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themselves believe, are present and real, causing them sadness and pain. Their simple, plain clothes, he repeats, resemble trees without leaves and without fruit. But, he adds at the end, melancholics are endowed with great experience and wisdom, which turns them into persons with an enormous capacity for judgement.180 In fact, since the Renaissance, the melancholic (male) artist was associated with an intellectual, art-stimulating, positive force that was recognized as a main characteristic of a genius.181 Looking again at the pastel in Venice and considering the reflections above, one can justifiably assume that Carriera depicted herself as both a representation of Old Age and one of Melancholy, an accurate image of what she was living through at that time. One last aspect needs to be highlighted. The laurel wreath of fame which she had used in the past as an attribute of her depictions of Poetry182 or of her series of Muses183 underlines, in this case, her professional achievement and success as an internationally renowned artist as well as an attribute of divine origin. It encompasses the capacities gained in old age, the life of a genius and the wisdom and acuteness described by Ripa. And even more so, she raised the claim of being recognized as a genius herself. It might not even be a coincidence that this positive aspect of melancholy mentioned in the Iconologia corresponds to the positive aspects that Carriera associated with old age in her earlier self-portraits. The fact that Carriera does not engage with the viewer but turns to one side, just like almost all of her Muses do, was perhaps meant to underline the allegorical content of this most particular and final example of her self-portraits. Most likely the painter mingled her artistic and creative inspiration with her professional and personal triumph in this image as a final proof of her self-realization and self-glorification. She clearly shows her suffering but she still manages to crown herself while at the same time crowning her melancholy and old age.

180 ‘Donna vecchia, mesta, & dogliosa, di brutti panni vestita, senza alcun’ornamento […]. Fà la malinconia nell’huomo quegli effetti istessi che fà la forza del verno ne gl’alberi; & nelle piante, li quali agitati da diversi venti, tormentati dal freddo, & ricoperti dalle nevi, appariscono secchi, sterili, nudi, & di vilissimo prezzo […] gl’huomini malinconici, vanno essi sempre col pensiero nelle cose difficili li quali se gli fingono presenti, & reali, il che mostrano i segni della mestitia, e del dolore. […] E mal vestita senza ornamento, per la conformità de gl’alberi senza foglie, & senza frutti. […] i malenconiosi sono trovati, & esperimentati sapientissimi, & giuditiosissimi.’ Ripa, 1603, 303. 181 See the fundamental study by Klibansky et al., 1964. 182 See for example her painting of a lady, which is kept in Dresden and has been identified by Sani as a possible portrait of Luisa Bergalli (Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 419, p. 366), or the allegories of Poetry in Karlsruhe (Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 374, p. 331) and Windsor (Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 376, p. 331). 183 See for example her Muse with a red dress in Dresden (Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 252, p. 242,), or another head depicting a Muse also in Dresden (Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 254, p. 242) or in Los Angeles (Sani, 2007b, cat. no. 255, p. 242).

Conclusion Here, we have met Rosalba Carriera and revealed the clever ways and tactics this outstanding artist used to build a unique career as an independent female painter. With her astute inventions – including erudite references to Venetian great masters and to ancient and early modern literature – Carriera proved to be an exceptionally talented woman early in her career, highly aware of her singular role in the art world, and unwilling to shy away from displaying her capacities. Not even theoretically problematic themes for a female painter such as eroticizing or purely erotic paintings were an obstacle or a taboo for Carriera whose clients and admirers greatly appreciated these works without reservations or scruples of any shape or form. It was Carriera’s preference for pastel painting which guaranteed her international fame and made her a leading figure in the development and spread of the pastel portrait as a new fashion. Moreover, with what I called the ‘Carriera mask’, the artist created a market for a specific type of female pastel portrait that offered her clients a particular identity, based on being a recognizable Carriera painting of a beautiful woman. These uniformed works coexist with portraits that reflect a strong sense of humanity and psychological truth. The artist’s outstanding capacity to imitate nature while also capturing every nuance of expression or state of mind, and every hint of the physical or mental well-being of her sitter, was another novelty within the realm of pastel portraits that was enormously successful and that found numerous followers. In exploring some of her allegorical or mythological pastels, we once again meet an artist whose inventions and iconography proved to be original and the fruit of a witty and courageous painter who, like in the genre of miniature painting, enthusiastically tackled titillating, erotic images. And none of these accomplishments can be underestimated for a woman artist in the eighteenth century. The mere fact that Carriera owned and ran her own workshop was an extraordinary success, not to mention the regular presence of the local and international aristocracy and intellectual elite. Remaining unmarried, independent of any personal emotional conditions, could only be of help. As a foresighted strategist, Carriera cunningly blended her behaviour and conduct, frequently marked by ingenious tactics and precise calculation, with the image of a highly intelligent woman who did not openly rebel against the social norms of her day but, on the contrary, knew how to use them skilfully to her advantage. In addition, the way in which Carriera was perceived by the world around her – a world that endowed her with religious attributes and virtually regarded her as a saint – beautifully suited her and her purpose. And Carriera was able to sell this: a carefully crafted image of herself as a saintly, innocent, modest old spinster, an image that she propagated thanks to her work, to her lifestyle and the environment she lived in.

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The Carriera house on the Grand Canal represents a fascinating example of how a person’s environment can be used in the creation of a persona. It was a hybrid space where the private domain, workshop, personal art gallery mingle in, for Venice, a most unprecedented manner to become a three-dimensional self-portrait. Her palazzo offered Carriera a perfect platform from which to direct her performance as an intellectual artist, to serve as a perfect and modern hostess and to propagate her chosen image. Administering and conducting such a place required the organizational, social and tactical skills that Carriera had been endowed with, on top of her exceptional capacities as an artist. In some of the self-portraits, she styled herself in ways that helped her to live her own life within her chosen parameters – quite literally as a ‘free’-lance artist. Some of the artist’s most famous self-portraits turn out to be particularly fascinating as expressions of her specific ideas regarding self-fashioning, self-advertising, the social role of a woman artist or the moral exemplarity of the image. With mimicry at work, Carriera flaunted conventions, playing the proper feminine role that corresponded to societal expectations. She acted out the silent, modest pure, saintly woman who paints but not necessarily for money. Only at the end of her life would she ostentatiously defend her role as an intelligent, rational and professional artist who could look back on a unique career openly questioning the dominant discourse regarding men and women. My attempt to contextualize Carriera’s life and her art in a more detailed way was not only undertaken to present this outstanding painter to a wider, English-speaking public, but also to offer scholars in art history, gender studies, sociology, psychology and material culture a broader base for more in-depth research on the various themes I have discussed in this study. Thanks to the upcoming translation of the existing documents regarding this exceptional woman, I am confident that we will soon have the pleasure of reading new and inspiring articles and books focusing on Carriera. My hope is that her work itself, especially the captivating miniatures and fascinating pastels I have presented, will serve to inspire further investigation and new insightful writings on one of the most intriguing, most surprising, and most underestimated and overlooked artists in modern times, ‘the white rose of Venice’, Rosalba Carriera.

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Index of Names Acciaiuoli, Alessandro 176 Agricola, Christoph Ludwig 50–51 Albani, Alessandro 118, 130, 204 n.154, 222 n.25 Alberti, Leon Battista 212 Alexander the Great 126, 150–51 Algarotti, Francesco 122, 122 n.36, 240, 257, 257 n.40, 308–09 Almeida, Luis de 269 n.58 Andrea del Sarto 71 Anguissola, Sofonisba 30 n.19, 280 Anna Karolina from Holstein, Countess Orzelska 121 n.31 Antinous 9, 203–04, 204 n.153, 204 n.154, 205, 316 Apelles 126, 150–51, 210, 210 n.175 Aristotle 211 Arlaud, Antoine 146 Augustus II the Strong 120, 122, 181, 197 Augustus III of Poland 41 n.71, 123, 128, 140 n.33, 250 n.10 Badoer, Badoero 258 n.47 Baldinucci, Filippo 276 Balestra, Antonio 38, 41, 53, 94, 277 Barbarigo, Gregorio 184 Mocenigo, Lucrezia 8, 179–81, 181 n.77–78 Bassetti, Apollonio 278 Beale, Mary 235 n.83, 280 Bellini, Giovanni 71, 86, 170, 195, 303–04 Bellotti, Pietro 104, 110 Bellucci, Antonio 125, 179 n.74, 229, 253 Bencovic, Federico 8, 19, 41, 78–82, 84, 253 Bentinck, Margaret, Duchess of Richmond 246 Benzi, Francesco 257 n.43 Bergalli, Luisa 34 n.36, 34 n.41, 159 n.109, 246–47, 296 n.182, 300, 307, 310, 314 Bertoli, Daniele Antonio 237, 252, 256 Bianconi, Giovanni Ludovico 123, 124 n.37, 289, 289 n.156, 300 Bombelli, Sebastiano 38, 41, 57 n.148, 59, 273, 301 Bononcini, Giovanni 118 n.18, 138 n.17, 196, 243 Bononcini, Margherita 243 Bontekoe, Cornelius 269 n.58 Bordon, Paris 86 Bordoni, Faustina 9, 22, 118, 128 n.52, 132 n.67, 175, 196–99 Boschini, Marco 111, 113, 266 n.41, 300 Boswell, James 227 Böttger, Johann Friedrich 266 n.44 Boucher, François 65, 81 n.232, 172, 174, 267, 306 Boudon, David 277 n.98 Boyle, Richard, Earl of Burlington 78 n.227, 117–18, 177, 318 Brosses, Charles de see De Brosses, Charles Burney, Charles 124 n.37, 301 Burney, Fanny 238 Caffi, Lodovico 35 n.43 Caffi, Margherita 35, 312, 316

Cagnacci, Guido 157 n.105 Caminer Turra, Elisabetta 34 n.41 Caminer, Domenico 33 n.34, 35 n.41 Canaletto, Antonio 37 n.49, 105 n.60, 106, 108, 116–17, 299, 308, 312, 316–18 Carl Ludwig von Pöllnitz see Von Pöllnitz Carlevarijs, Luca 116 Carlevarijs, Marianna 116, 235, 235 n.84, 300 Caroline Louise of Hessen-Darmstadt 98 n.8 Carracci, Annibale 80, 85 n.239, 213, 307 Carriera, Andrea 27–28, 29 n.17, 30, 136–37 Carriera, Angela 30, 38, 121 n.30, 137 n.10, 138, 145, 232–33, 235, 250, 253, 256, 270, 271 n.64, 279 n.111, 282 n.118 Carriera, Giovanna 29, 45 n.90, 48, 51, 131, 145 n.60, 150, 159, 221, 228, 232, 235–36, 247, 249–50, 252 n.16, 253–54, 256, 258, 260, 263, 270, 279–82 Carriera, Pasqualino 40 Cartari, Vincenzo 194, 194 n.126–27, 195, 301 Casanova, Giacomo 33, 116 n.9, 315 Casotti, Giovambattista 102, 107 n.72 Charles Albert von Wittelsbach see Charles I of Bavaria, Charles VII, Emperor Charles I, King of England 43 n.77, 107 n.71 Charles I of Bavaria, Charles VII, Emperor, Charles Albert von Wittelsbach 128 Charles V, Emperor 126, 151 Charles VI, Emperor 140, 237–38, 250–52, 252 n.18, 253–54, 310 Chéron, Elisabeth-Sophie 139 n.26, 210 n.173, 236 n.89, 276 n.95 Chiari, Pietro 34, 267 n.48 Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg 49–51, 125, 178, 181 Chute, John 117 Clavering-Cowper, George 277 Clemens August of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne 8, 126–28, 312 Celement XI, Albani, Pope 228 n.59 Clinton, Henry Fiennes, Count of Lincoln 117 Cobert, Pierre 178 Cochin, Charles-Nicolas 27, 27 n.4, 169, 169 n.18, 240, 240 n.106, 301 Cole, Christian 52–53, 53 n.136–37, 54–55, 57, 59, 60 n.166, 90, 98–99, 101, 101 n.33, 102 n.38, 115, 219–20, 244 n.124, 274 Colmenero de Ledesma, Antonio 268 n.55 Cornaro (Corner), Pisana 179 Cornaro Piscopia, Elena Lucrezia 34 n.41 Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria 48, 48 n.107, 52, 52 n.130, 61, 302 Correggio, Antonio da 106, 130, 213, 213 n.191, 214–15, 215 n.193 Corsi, Jacopo 34 n.38 Cosimo III de’ Medici see Medici Courbet, Gustave 193 Cowper, George see Clavering-Cowper

320  Coypel, Antoine 147, 147 n.68, 148–50, 153 Coypel, Charles-Antoine 147, 214–15 Crozat, Pierre 40, 119, 119 n.22, 132, 132 n.69, 135, 135 n.1–2, 136–37, 137 n.10, 138, 138 n.17, 139, 139 n.21, 141, 141 n.38, 141 n.40, 144, 152–53, 162, 168–69, 211, 213–15, 219 n.8, 223–24, 227, 231, 231 n.68, 233, 239, 242, 256, 275, 277, 305, 307 Cuzzoni, Francesca 196 D’Albany, Countess 260 n.12 D’Epinay, Madame 260 n.12 D’Este, Anna Amalia Giuseppa 249 D’Este, Benedetta Ernestina 249 D’Este, Enrichetta Anna Sofia 10, 249, 251 D’Este, Francesco III 250 n.3 D’Este, Rinaldo III 249–50 Da Udine, Giovanni 68 Da Vinci, Leonardo see Leonardo Dall´Agata, Antonio 185, 256 n. 35 Dall’Agata, Pietro 104 Dalla Costa, Felice 211–12, 223 n.31 Davia, Maria Beatrice 223, 249, 256 De Bourbon, Françoise-Marie de 139 De Bourbon, Louis-Armand II, Prince of Conti 139 n.24 De Bourbon, Louis Henri 249 De Bourbon, Louise Anne 139 n.24 De Bourbon, Louise Élisabeth 139 n.24 De Bourbon, Louise Françoise 249 De Bourbon, Marie Anne, Princess of Condé 139 n.24 De Brosses, Charles 105–06, 214 De Caylus, Anne-Claude Philippe 140, 171 De Caylus, Marthe-Marguerite Le Valois de Villette de Mursay 48, 237 De Cruz, Jasper 269 n.58 De Hase, Maximilian102 De la Fosse, Charles 135, 135 n.2, 138 De la Tour, Maurice Quentin 16, 63 n.179, 98, 214, 315 De Largillère, Nicolas 9, 99, 145, 191–93, 193 n.118, 313 De Passe, Crispin 177 De Piles, Roger 139 n.26, 173, 302 De Polignac, Melchior, Cardinal 140, 211 De Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise 265 De Sepmanville, Cyprien-Antoine Liuede 168 De Troy, Jean-Francois 99, 145 De Walter, Frederik 28 n.12, 29 n.14, 44, 73, 274 De’ Medici see Medici Delacroix, Eugène 193 Delany, Mary 246 Dell’Agata Antonio 185, 256 n.35 Dézailler d’Argenville, Antoine Joseph 14, 40, 40 n.62, 47, 47 n.102, 139, 168, 168 n.17, 169, 178, 178 n.69, 186, 186 n.91, 187, 187 n.93, 222, 222 n.22, 236 n.88–89, 240 n.105, 279, 279 n.111, 285, 285 n.136, 302 Diamantini, Giuseppe 41 Diderot, Denis 170 Dirx, Nicolas 269, n.58 Domenichino 80 n.232 Drake, Judith 23, 53, 53 n.137, 243–44, 244 n.124 Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre 268, 269 n.58, 303 Dürer, Albrecht 126 n.47, 151 n.86

Index of Names

Elisabeth Christine von BraunschweigWolfenbüttel 250, 255 Empedocles 209 Eugene of Savoy, Prince 140 Farnese, Antonio 250 Félibien, André 155, 159 Ferdinand II de’ Medici see Medici Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria 176 Ferdinand Maria Innocenz of Bavaria 128 Firenzuola, Agnolo 77, 303 Fischer von Erlach, Johann Bernhard 252, 252 n.16, 254 n.25 Fischer von Erlach, Joseph Emanuel 252, 254 Foggini, Giovanni Battista 125 Folkes, Martin 196, 263 Fontana, Lavinia 40 n.61, 59, 210 n.173, 280, 280 n.115 Fonte, Moderata 23, 244 n.129 Foresti, Alba 27, Prince 28, 29 n.17, 31, 41–42, 135, 145 n.60, 151–52, 218–19, 228, 231, 233, 249–50, 252 n.16, 253–54, 256–58, 264, 270 Foresti, Don Anzolo 28 Foscolo, Ugo 240 Fragonard, Jean-Honoré 20, 66, 88, 207, 315 Francis I, King 176 Fratellini Marmocchini Cortesi, Giovanna 206, 236, 236 n.87 Frederick Augustus II of Saxony 120–21, 140 n.33, 179 n.72, 255, 267 n.48, see also Augustus III Frederick Christian of Saxony 8, 10, 121, 121 n.34, 122–23, 187 Frederick IV, King of Denmark 28, 28 n.12, 73, 126, 129, 178 Frederick the Great 140 n.31 Fürstenberg, Aniela 260 n.11 Fürstenberg, Carl 260 n.11 Gabburri, Maria Niccolò 243, 277 Gabrieli, Carlo 29, 29 n.17, 115, 115 n.1, 119, 230–31, 294 n.173 Galizia, Fede 40 n.61 Gardner, Isabella Stewart 237 n.93 Garzoni, Giovanna 279 n.109 Gasparini, Francesco 267 n.48 Gentileschi, Artemisia 40 n.61, 239 n.101, 304 George III, King 117, 277, 292 n.167, 302 Gérard, Marguerite 207, 315 Ghezzi, Giuseppe (Joseph) 54, 57 n.149, 59, 279 n.109 Gibbon, Edward 236 Giorgione 71, 303 Giovanni da Udine 68 Girardon, Catherine 148 n.71 Girardon, François 8, 157 58, 161 Goethe, Johann Caspar 15, 27 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 15, 27 Goldoni, Carlo 33, 218 n.6, 317 Gonzaga, Ferdinando Carlo 69, 157 n.107 Gonzaga, Vincenzo I 176 Gozzi, Carlo 34, 34 n.36 Gozzi, Gasparo 34 n.36 Gozzi, Maria Maddalena 206 Grimani, Cecilia 182

Index of Names

Grua, Carlo Luigi 125 Guercino 80 n.232 Hadrian 204 Hamilton Gustav 117 n.15, 166 Handel, George Friedrich 118 n.18, 138 n.17, 196 Hanway, Jonas 124, 269 n.58, 305 Hartsoeker, Theodor 102 n.38 Hasse, Johann Adolf 128 n.52, 197 Havermann, Margarethe 148 Hemessen, Caterina van 40 n.61 Henriette Adelaide of Savoy 178 Henriette, Benedicte 249 Henry VIII, King 126 n.47, 151 n.86 Herder, Johann Gottfried 238 Hiarca, Maria 107 n.75 Hilliard, Nicholas 43, 43 n.78, 303, 305 Hoffmann, Franz Joseph von 187, 314 Hogarth, William 21, 193, 317 Holbein the Younger, Hans 126 n.47, 151 n.86 Imberti, Domenico 244 Jabach, Gerhard Michael 91, 129 Jacobaea of Baden-Sponheim 178 James V, Duke of Hamilton 44 Jeanne Agnès Berthelot de Pléneuf, Madame de Prie 140 Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Duke 249 Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine 38, 45, 86, 106, 107 n.70, 124, 131, 229, 276 Johnson, Samuel 227 Jordaens, Jacob 117 Joseph I, Emperor 121, 128, 251, 252–54, 288 Kauffmann, Angelika 21, 24, 49, 190 n.107, 232, 232 n.71, 238, 259–60, 280, 285 n.133, 299, 313, 317 Kircher, Athanasius 267 Kindermann, Andreas Philipp 122 n.36 Kneller, Godfrey 22, 173–74, 177 Kreysler, Johann Georg 103 Labille-Guillard, Adélaide 227, 280 n.112, 306, 309 La Font de Saint`Yenne, Étienne 100, 100 n.24, 307 La Fontaine, Jean de 159, 304, 310 Lama, Agostino 35 n.42 Lama, Giulia 35, 48, 218, 232, 237, 237 n.93, 311, 313 Lanzi, Luigi 111, 169 n.19, 307 Lasinio, Carlo 277 n.98 Lavrillière, Madame, Marchioness of Alincourt 139 Law, John 115 n.1, 137, 137 n.15, 138, 138 n.16–17, 138 n.18, 140, 303 Lazzari, Antonio 41 Lazzarini, Elisabetta 35, 310 Lazzarini, Gregorio 35 Le Gru Perotti, Angelica 236 Lely, Peter 177, 317 Lennox, Charles, Second Duke of Richmond 118 Leonardo da Vinci 8, 159–61, 212, 276 Leoni, Giovanni Battista 108 Libri, Guglielmo 15 n.11

321 Lieude de Sepmanville, Cyprien-Antoine 168 Liotard, Jean-Étienne 16, 63 n.179, 98 n.8, 123, 124 n.37, 169, 287 n.147, 299, 305–06, 314 Lippi, Lorenzo 189, 307 Litterini, Agostino 48 n.108 Litterini, Caterina 48 n.108 Locatelli, Tommaso 126 Longhi, Barbara 40 n.61 Longhi, Pietro 182, 312 Louis XIV, King of France 61, 137, 139 n.24, 144 n.50, 155, 157, 157 n.105, 159 Louis XV, King of France 8, 10, 44, 137, 139, 141–42, 142 n.47, 143, 148, 151 Loth, Johann Carl 108 Løvendal, Ulrik Frederik Valdemar 121 n.31, 129, 169 Lubomirska, Ursula Katharina 120 n.28 Luti, Benedetto 41, 59, 98 Manet, Edouard 193 Manini Bragadin, Maria 286, 289 Maratta, Carlo 54, 54 n.143, 55, 57, 59–60 Maratta, Faustina 60 Maria Amalia of Austria 121, 128 Maria Josepha, Archduchess of Austria 121, 254–55, 256 n.30 Maria Magdalena, Archduchess of Austria 253 Marie Antoniette, Queen of France 232 Marie Madeleine, Duchess of Parabère, Madame Parabère 140, 144 Mariette, Pierre-Jean 41, 41 n.64, 41 n.67, 71, 79, 101, 120, 120 n.27, 130, 132, 140, 140 n.30, 148, 162, 163 n.118, 168, 168 n.15, 210, 214, 223, 256–57, 257 n.42, 258, 277, 284 n.128, 308, 316 Marinella Vacca, Lucrezia 23, 244, 308 Marinelli, Giovanni 244 Marmi, Anton Francesco 115 n.2, 131, 271 Maron, Therese Concordia 16 Massé, Jean Baptiste 146, 242 Maurits Lodwijk of Nassau-Bevereed 177 Maximilian I, Emperor 126 n.47, 151 n.86 Maximilian II Emanuel of Wittelsbach Bavaria 178 McPherson, Giuseppe 277, 307 McSwiny, Owen 116, 116 n.6, 308 Medici, Anna Maria Luisa de’ 124, 124 n.39, 179, 181, 276 Medici, Cosimo III 13 n.1, 98, 176, 206, 276, 278–79, 311 Medici, Ferdinando, Granprincipe 274–76 Medici, Leopoldo, Cardinal 276, 315 Mengs, Anton Raphael 8, 16, 40 n.61, 63 n.179, 122–23, 124 n.37, 300 Merian, Maria Sibylla 139 n.26, 236 n.89 Messini, Giovanna 243, 277 Metastasio, Pietro Antonio 253, 256, 256 n.33 Meyberg, Frederick 126 n.45 Middleton, Alan Brodrick 117 n.15, 118 n.17 Mignard, Pierre 76 n.218, 157 Minelli, Giovanni Pietro 105, 122 Mocenigo Corner (Cornaro), Pisana 179 Mocenigo, Alvise IV Antonio 179 Mocenigo, Lucrezia 8, 179 n.72, 180–81, 181 n.76–78 Molesworth, John 274, 275 n.83 Molière 157 n.105 Molinari, Antonio 35 n.42

322  Montagu, Charles 116 Montagu, Mary Wortley 184, 271 Monteverdi, Claudio 34 n.37 Moore, John 47, 48 n.106, 310 Moücke, Francesco 41 n.66, 99 n.14, 105 n.59, 99 n.14, 105 n.59, 105 n.63, 125 n.44, 206 n.10, 267, 277, 310 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 253 Nanteuil, Robert 98 Nati, Camilla Guerrieri 13 n.1 Nattier, Jean-Marc 100, 170 Nelli, Plautilla 30 n.19 Neri, Stefano Gaetano 276 Nicoli, Ferdinando Maria 92–93, 212, 217, 223, 230 Norgate, Edward 43 n.77 Ovid 68, 74, 76, 76 n.220, 203 Paar, Johann Leopold 254 n.28 Pallavicini, Stefano Benedetto 125 Palma il Vecchio 195 Paulli, Simon 269 n.58 Pavona, Francesco 28, 28 n.12 Pellegrini, Giovanni Antonio 38, 39 n.57, 104–05, 107–08, 110, 116, 118 n.18, 125, 131, 138, 138 n.16–17, 150, 152, 190 n.110, 230, 231 n.67–68, 253, 256 n.34–35, 307 Pellegrini, Valeriano 52, 61, 125 Pera, Giuseppe 277 n.98 Peri, Jacopo 34 n.38 Pesaro, Antonio 182 Petrina, Gabriel 212–13 Philippe II, Duke of Orléans 119, 137, 140, 140 n.33, 141, 149 Piazzetta, Giovanni Battista 35 n.42, 80 n.232, 104–05, 105 n.60, 106, 110, 117, 187 n.92, 306, 312–13 Piccini, Isabella 186 n.87 Pieri, Antonio dei 242 Pietro da Cortona 80 n.232 Pillement, Jean-Baptiste 267 Pollaroli, Giuseppe 232 Poussin, Nicolas 71 Pozzo, Modesta see Fonte, Moderata Pozzola, Rosana 242 Priuli, Elena 32 Querini, Marco 258 n.47 Ramelli, Felice 29 n.14, 38, 38 n.51, 41, 51 n.129, 53, 60 n.165, 99 n.14, 101, 102 n.38, 104, 125, 125 n.40, 218, 228, 228 n.59, 229 Ramusio, Giovanni Battista 269 n.58 Rangoni, Giovanni, Marquis 249 Raphael Sanzio 68, 124 n.37, 204 n.153, 276 Rapparini, Giorgio Maria 45, 45 n.89–90, 52, 60–61, 65–67, 71, 86, 93–94, 104, 106, 125, 129, 132, 180, 208–10, 223 n.31, 233–34 Read, Katherine 47, 118, 222, 222 n.25, 227, 235–36, 238–39 Recanati, Giovanni Battista 37, 105, 232, 247 n.146, 308, 311 Regnaudin, Thomas 157, 157 n.105, 161 Rénard, Henriette 121 n.31

Index of Names

Reni, Guido 57, 57 n.149, 217, 226 n.46 Reynolds, Joshua 232, 315 Ricci, Marco 116–17, 152, 277 Ricci, Sebastiano 53, 105, 108, 110, 139, 253 Riesener, Louis Antoine 68 n.194 Rigaud, Hyacinthe 8, 99, 142–45, 145 n.62, 314 Rinaldo III d’Este see d’Este Ripa, Cesare 26, 73, 73 n.212, 74, 74 n.213, 74 n.215, 76, 87, 189, 189 n.101, 191, 191 n.115, 265 n.41, 282, 283 n.124, 294, 294 n.174, 295, 295 n.176, 296, 296 n.180, 313 Robusti, Marietta see Tintoretto, Marietta Romanelli, Giovanni Francesco 117 Rubens, Peter Paul 71, 117, 187 n.92 Rudolph II, Emperor 252 Ruysch, Rachel 125 Sackville, Charles, second Duke of Dorset 62 n.175, 116, 116 n.6, 167 Sagredo Barbarigo, Caterina 9, 32, 167, 175, 182–84, 308 Sampellegrini, Bartolomeo 45 n.91, 224 Sartori, Felicita 6, 11, 22, 186, 186 n.91, 187, 187 n.92–93, 188–90, 196 n.135, 235–36, 246, 292, 314 Sartori, Giambattista 292 Schinella Conti, Antonio 48, 237 Schöpfer, Hans the Elder 178 Schröder, Georg 99, 275 Schwarzenberg, Adam Franz Karl Eusebius von 250 Scrovegni, Maddalena 244 n.126, 300 Sforza, Antonio 212–13 Sirani, Elisabetta 24, 30 n.19, 35, 40 n.61, 59, 206, 210 n.173, 218, 224, 235 n.83, 245, 245 n.134, 260, 260 n.6, 260 n.11, 264, 280, 280 n.112, 280 n.115, 309 Smith, Joseph 116, 116 n.9, 117, 117 n.11, 187 n.95, 292, 292 n.167, 302, 312, 316 Sobieska, Maria Clementina 64 n.181 Sobieska, Theresa Kunigunde 126, 178 Sophie Charlotte of Brandenburg 116, 178, 317 Sophie Dorothea of Hannover 177 Soranzo Gradenigo, Maria 263 Spence, Joseph 53, 53 n.139, 117, 228, 228 n.55, 315 Spilimbergo, Irene di 210 Stève, Jean 40 Stiparoli, Francesco 91, 129 Stoupan, Bernard Augustin 98 n.8, 101 Strozzi, Barbara 35 n.41 Stuart, Charles Edward 117 Stuart, James Francis Edward 61 Stuart, James II, King 61, 63 Stuart, Mary II, Queen 177 Tarabotti, Arcangela 244 Tasso, Torquato 68, 80, 80 n.232, 81, 81 n.234, 82–85, 85 n.239, 307, 316 Terzi, Margherita 235, 235 n.85 Terzi, Maria 235, 235 n.85 Therbusch, Dorothea 227 Tiepolo, Baiamonte 258 n.47 Tiepolo, Giambattista 37 n.49, 80 n.232, 85 n.242, 104–05, 110, 182, 193–94, 301–02, 306–08, 315–16 Tintoretto 108, 307, 313 Tintoretto, Marietta 40 n.61, 139 n.26, 280 Tron, Francesco 110

Index of Names

Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther von see Von Tschirnhaus Van Oosterwijck, Maria 218 Varotari, Chiara 40 n.61, 218, 245, 280, 280 n.114 Vatin, Louis 52 n.132, 94–95, 119 Vinci, Leonardo da see Leonardo Violante Beatrice of Bavaria 176, 178 n.66, 250 Vivaldi, Antonio 34, 36 n.41 Vivien, Joseph 98–99, 99 n.19, 146, 168 Vleughels, Nicolas 69, 118, 119, 136, 146, 148 n.69, 152, 162, 214, 256 Volpi, Giovanni Antonio 191 Von Diedrichstein, Karl Maximilian 254 n.28 Von Hildebrandt, Lukas 254 n.25 Von Laroche, Sophie 169 Von Linné, Carl 268 Von Moron, Theresa 40 n.61 Von Pöllnitz, Karl Ludwig 121 n.33, 181 Von Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther 266 n.44 Wadsworth, James 268 n.55 Walpole, Edward 117, 117 n.13, 117 n.15, 308 Walpole, Horace 117

323 Walpole, Horace Robert 117, 117 n.145 Walpole, Robert 117, 200 Watteau, Jean-Antoine 8, 87 n.246, 119, 136, 138 n.16, 139, 146, 146 n. 67, 147, 153, 267, 305, 311, 318 Wehrling, Johann Adam 243 Weiberg, Frederik von 45, 129, 169, 181 Whithed, Francis 117 Wilhelm VIII, Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel 177 Wilhelmine Amalie von Braunschweig-Lüneburg 10, 121, 128, 175, 253–54, 254 n.29, 255, 288, 289 n.153 William IV, Duke of Bavaria 178 Zambelli, Matteo 30 Zamboni, Giovanni Francesco 124 n.39, 222 Zanetti, Anton Maria 7, 9, 36, 36 n.46–47, 37, 41, 107 n.70, 110–11, 119, 137, 175, 218–19, 240–41, 257, 277, 299–300, 308 Zanetti, Anton Maria the Younger 236, 258 n.46, 294, 294 n.171–73, 318 Zanetti, Girolamo 236, 237 n.92, 318 Zelotti, Giovanni Battista 69, 69 n.198 Zeno, Apostolo 252, 256 n.33 Zeno, Pier Caterino 64 n.182, 115 n.2, 131, 271 Zuccari, Federico 54 n.141, 109