威尼斯18世纪素描

The Biron Collection of Venetian Eighteenth-Century Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum J. BYAM SHAW Christ Church, Oxford IN AN ESSAY entitled The Classics, privately printed for Messrs. Knoedler in 1938 and not as well known as it should be, Campbell Dodgson recalled that he bought for the British Museum in I907, from a well- known London bookseller, the i775 edition of the oeuvre grave of the Tiepolo family for ?5- more than one hundred prints, including the original etching of The Adoration of the Magi by Giovanni Battista (an impression of which fetched over 4,oo000 at Sotheby's in 1968), as well as those of his sons, original or repro- ductive, in a contemporary folio binding, and in per- fect condition. Dodgson (so he told me himself) was careful to conclude his purchase at the price before asking the bookseller why it was so cheap, to which the bookseller answered: "Well you see, Sir, it was a bad period." Nothing seems to be reckoned a "bad period" now; the wheel of fashion spins more and more rapidly, and every style in the history of art takes a turn on it. But it is evident that in England at least, under Ruskin's influence, the distaste for Italian baroque and settecento art that was apparent throughout the second half of the nineteenth century continued into the twentieth. Two volumes from the Cheney sale, containing three hundred twenty-six Tiepolo drawings, mostly by Giambattista, many of them of great beauty and con- siderable size, cost the Victoria and Albert Museum LI I in I885; and all nine volumes in lot 1024 of that sale, to which those now in the Victoria and Albert belonged, cost the buyer ?I5.I A decade or so later, Herbert Horne bought in London, for an unrecorded but certainly trifling sum, the volume containing the beautiful series of forty-eight drawings by Giambattista that is now in the Museo Horne in Florence.2 By July 1914, three further volumes of the same sort containing three hundred Tiepolo drawings were bought at Chris- tie's by Messrs. E. Parsons for ?I20; but even then they were sold without the artist's name. It was only after the First World War that appreciation of one of i. On the volumes of Tiepolo drawings from the collection of Edward Cheney of Badger Hall, Shropshire, England, sold at Sotheby's on April 29, 1885, see George Knox, Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1960) pp. 3-9. To Mr. Knox is due the important discovery that lot 1024 contained nine volumes, not two as printed in Sotheby's catalogue. It seems likely that the lot was bought at the sale by the London dealers Messrs. E. Parsons, who sold the two volumes to the Vic- toria and Albert Museum two months later; also that the three volumes sold at Christie's in July I9I4 came from the same lot, and were recognized and repurchased by Messrs. Parsons on that occasion. 2. The late Gustavus Mayer, afterward of Colnaghi's, remem- bered meeting Hore in the King's Road, Chelsea, one night (probably on his way from Parsons' shop) with the parcel under his arm. He Vas much excited, and invited Mayer to dine with him and examine his bargain. 235 The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Metropolitan Museum Journal www.jstor.org® the greatest Italian draftsmen became general in Eng- land. The taste of Edward Cheney, from whose col- lection all those albums almost certainly came, and who bought these and many other Venetian treasures in the middle of the nineteenth century, was excep- tional for an Englishman. It was a little more characteristic, perhaps, in the second half of that century, of private collectors in France. Even there, recognition was not, so to speak, official: it is remarkable that until a few years ago the Cabinet de Dessins in the Louvre contained only four drawings attributed to Giambattista Tiepolo by Mari- ette-none of them by the master-and only one draw- ing by him from another source, classified until recently under the Tiepolo School.3 Mariette, admittedly, was no great admirer of Tiepolo. The fact is, as Mr. George Knox has recently pointed out, that until the rich con- tents of the Cheney albums came onto the market, much less was known of the elder Tiepolo as a drafts- man; and as late as I898, Henry de Chennevieres, writing the first substantial account of Tiepolo's art, saw fit to say: "Les dessins de Giambattista Tiepolo n'abondent ni dans les musees ni dans les cartons d'amateurs."4 Certain French connoisseurs, however- to whom, I suppose, the rococo style had always seemed more acceptable than it was to their English counterparts-had already been delighted by the then more accessible drawings of Giambattista's son Dome- nico: M. Fayet had acquired in Venice in 1833 the great Recueil of one hundred thirty-eight large biblical subjects by him, which he bequeathed to the Louvre in 1889 (representing thereby the essential "Tiepolo style"); M. Cormier of Tours had acquired eighty-two more, which were sold in 192 I. Of Giambattista him- self some fine occasional examples had found their way into the collections of Beurdeley, Rodrigues, and oth- ers, probably before the end of the nineteenth century. The taste for the drawings of Tiepolo's younger con- temporary and brother-in-law, Francesco Guardi, fol- lowed essentially the same course, with one difference: that drawings by Guardi had been acquired by Eng- 3. Inv. no. 5471, St. Jerome. This situation at the Louvre will be amply rectified if the acquisition is confirmed of the fine collec- tion of Venetian eighteenth-century drawings formed by the late Duc de Talleyrand, the catalogue of which was published by Antonio Morassi (Dessins v6nitiens du dix-huitieme sikcle de la collection du Duc de Talleyrand [Milan, I958]). lishmen during his lifetime or soon afterward, and many of them had remained in England until the re- vival of his reputation in the present century. And for this the reason was to some extent accidental: English collectors had bought them, as they bought his paint- ings, as the next best thing to their favorite, Canaletto, even supposing them to be by Canaletto himself-or in any case evocative souvenirs of Venice. By the beginning of the present century, fine collec- tions of Venetian eighteenth-century drawings-which means, of course, principally of Tiepolo and Guardi- had become very much the mode in France. The col- lection of Tiepolo drawings belonging to the Russian Prince Alexandre Orloffwas sold in Paris on April 30, 1920. According to the catalogue it had been preserved in an album until shortly before that date, perhaps in one of those albums that came from lot 1024 in the Cheney sale some thirty-five years earlier. Mme Dou- cet, Marius Paulme, Vicomte Bernard d'Hendecourt, and among the international dealers especially Messrs. Knoedler, paid what were then high prices, two or three hundred pounds sometimes for a single splendid example. Never, certainly, so much as a thousand; but yet, I suppose, it was the turning point in the market for Tiepolo's drawings. At what precise moment in this history the Marquis de Biron began to collect oil sketches and drawings by Tiepolo, and drawings by Guardi, as well as some fine examples of the French dix-huitieme, can no longer be determined. Very few who knew him in his collecting days are still alive. M. Jacques Mathey remembers seeing him before I9I4 in Paris, in the studio of his father, Paul Mathey, a distinguished artist and himself a discriminating collector of drawings; and Biron cer- tainly bought drawings from him. M. Frits Lugt tells me that he visited Biron in January I934, after he had removed from Paris to Geneva, where he died. He was, says M. Lugt, "just the type for a portrait by Boldini, whom he greatly admired, and by whose hand I saw some clever sketches, some of Biron himself." This was at 2, rue des Granges, " a big old house where the 4. Henry de Chennevieres, Les Tiepolo (Paris, 1898) p. 149. And yet Chennevieres seems to have known of the existence of the Algarotti-Corniani collection, from which the Victoria and Albert volumes came; for he says on the same page, speaking of Domenico Tiepolo's drawings: "La plupart des dessins de Domenico ont ete en la possession du Comte Cornignani Algarotti." 236 shutters were always closed to protect his Guardi and Tiepolo drawings hung all around."5 In I937 Biron was already in his eighties, and he had by then decided to negotiate the sale of his collection. In the summer of that year George Blumenthal, then president of the Metropolitan Museum (who had already in 1935 been largely responsible for obtaining for the Museum a fine album of Goya drawings), was traveling in France. Biron's intention was brought to his notice; and the story of the acquisition for the Metropolitan of this magnificent group of Venetian drawings, at a time when money was short and decisions involving large sums were not to be taken in a hurry, provides a re- markable example of public-spirited enterprise and enlightened trusteeship. On July 8 Blumenthal wrote about it to the director, Herbert E. Winlock; he wrote again on the following day and then cabled onJuly 26, suggesting that he should be empowered to act on the Museum's behalf in concluding the purchase if he thought it desirable after examining the material. Four days later, having had no definite reply from the Mu- seum, he cabled Winlock again, to say that he had seen the collection, thought it outstanding, and in- tended to buy it in its entirety on his own responsibility, but offering to the Museum the right to take over from him as much as was thought important. Winlock re- plied on the following day that he and his other trustees had full confidence in Blumenthal's judgment and would willingly share responsibility. On August 2 ar- rangements were made for payment, and the purchase was concluded on Blumenthal's terms. At a meeting of the Committee on Purchases on October I8 of the same year, the president, now re- turned to New York, formally reported his purchase of one hundred seventy-six drawings and nine paintings "by various Italian and French artists" from the Mar- quis de Biron, on the understanding that the Museum could retain what it needed and the rest could be sold. Harry Wehle, curator of paintings, whose office was then also responsible for the collection of drawings, submitted a list of his choices: only sixteen of the sev- enty drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo, five of twenty- two by Domenico Tiepolo, eleven of thirty-four by Francesco Guardi, seven of twenty-three by Constantin Guys, and ten of twenty-seven by various other French and Italian artists, besides four of the nine Tiepolo paintings. In the event, it is to the credit of the subcom- mittee of three trustees,6 appointed on that occasion to examine the material and make their own recom- mendation, that what was retained went far beyond Wehle's modest list, since they unanimously proposed (after further consultation with the staff) that the Mu- seum should keep one hundred five drawings in all, as well as the four oil sketches that Wehle had already preferred. So it was decided; and the remainder of the collection-five paintings and twenty drawings by or attributed to G. B. Tiepolo, seven drawings by Do- menico Tiepolo, thirteen drawings by F. Guardi, thir- teen by Guys, and eighteen other drawings-were taken over at an agreed price by Messrs. Seligmann, Rey and Co., who had already been concerned as intermediaries in the transaction. It would serve no purpose-it might even in some instances lead to recrimination-to attempt to trace the fish that escaped the net, or rather that were thrown back into the sea, on the occasion of this fine haul. Indeed it is impossible to identify most of the rejected drawings from the summary lists in the Museum file.7 Of the five rejected oil sketches, four have been almost certainly identified, and there it is safe to say that these would have added little to the Metropolitan collection and that the four selected were unquestionably the best. It will be more useful to concentrate attention upon these, and on the superb series of drawings by Tiepolo and Guardi, which so vastly enriched the Museum holdings in Venetian art of the period. It is probably fair to say that the total price then paid for the four oil sketches and one hundred five drawings would be in- sufficient to buy one-the least valuable one-of the oil sketches today. Of these four oil paintings-which, whether cor- rectly described as models or sketches, are all of rela- 5. In a recent letter M. Lugt has been kind enough to give me some further reminiscences and information. M. Lachenal of Ge- neva, the son of Biron's lawyer, says that the marquis used to visit his father every Sunday morning at ten o'clock, driving up in a caleche. Apparently he had left Paris because of some fiscal trouble -possibly, adds M. Lugt, connected with the sale of the fine Gothic sculptures from the Chateau de Gonthaud-Biron in the Dordogne. These sculptures were presented to the Metropolitan Museum byJ. P. Morgan in 1916. 6. Stephen C. Clark, Maitland Griggs, and R. T. Halsey. 7. Some, possibly a good many, were afterward the property of Biron's nephew, the Duc de Talleyrand: Morassi, Collection du Duc de Talleyrand, nos. 44 and 45, a Leopard and a Camel by Domenico Tiepolo, can be certainly identified; possibly also some Tiepolo head studies and several of the Guardis. 237 FIGURE I St. Thecla Interceding for the Plague-Stricken of Este, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Oil on can- vas. 32 x 17 % in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 37.165.2 tively small dimensions but of large and decorative design-the St. Thecla Interceding for the Plague- Stricken of Este (acc. no. 37. 65.2, Figure I) is surely the most beautiful; indeed, since such free sketches in oil were hardly produced before the seventeenth cen- tury in Flanders or the eighteenth century in France and Italy, and since Giambattista Tiepolo is second to none in this genre, I should say (not forgetting Rubens and Van Dyck and Boucher) that it is one of the most beautiful sketches ever painted. It is a preliminary for the great altarpiece in the Chiesa delle Grazie at Este that was unveiled at Christmas I759-probably a sketch rather than the final modello, for the variations from the finished work are considerable. Mr. Michael Levey tells me that in his view the altarpiece itself was largely executed by Domenico Tiepolo, and that he came to this conclusion by studying the Biron sketch in the Metropolitan Museum not long after a visit to Este, when he convinced himself of the superiority in quality, and more particularly in color, of the small canvas. I confess that on my own visit to Este some years ago, when I saw for the first and only time that vast, splendid painting (mounted on a slightly concave surface in the apse of the church), such a thought did not cross my mind; and I suppose it is not uncommon even for the greatest artists to reveal their highest qual- ities as executants on a small scale. Nevertheless, in one of the most strikingly successful systems of family collaboration in the whole history of art, this was the moment when Domenico was closest to his father-in the few years before the Tiepolos departed for Spain- and it would indeed be natural to suppose that he had a considerable part in so large an undertaking. Both Giambattista and Domenico were busy at Udine until the middle of the year in which the Este altarpiece was completed; time was therefore short, and Mr. Levey has some documentary evidence that Giambattista at that very time was suffering much from the gout. I am always respectful of Mr. Levey's opinions; and what- ever the truth of this may be, his reaction was a just compliment and appreciation of the supreme quality and exquisite color harmony of the sketch. The other three small canvases8-a rectangular Adoration of the Magi (acc. no. 37.165.1), an oval ceiling design with The Apotheosis of the Spanish Mon- archy (acc. no. 37.165.3), and a roundel, again for a ceiling, with Neptune and the Winds (acc. no.37.1 65.4) -are also all of masterly quality and all apparently well preserved. The Adoration is sometimes described as a sketch for the large altarpiece, now in the Munich 8. Antonio Morassi, G. B. Tiepolo, His Life and Work (London, 1955) fig. 40; Antonio Morassi, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings ofG. B. Tiepolo (London, 1962) figs. 320, 255. 238 Gallery, painted by Giambattista for the abbey of Schwarzach in Bavaria in 1752, when the Tiepolos were at Wurzburg. From the style I should guess it to be later, perhaps by as much as a decade; it is very different in shape from the Bavarian altarpiece, sim- pler and to my mind more effective in composition, with more classical architecture and less of the ruined rustic buildings. One of the two ceiling designs is for the Saleta in the royal palace at Madrid, painted in I764-I766, for which Mr. Charles Wrightsman has another brilliant oil sketch.9 In the latter the noble figure of Apollo is introduced as he appears in the fin- ished work; but in other respects, especially in the lower half of the composition, the Metropolitan sketch was followed more closely. Thus it is difficult to decide which of the two sketches preceded the other. But my concern here is more properly with the draw- ings, which are now incorporated into what is still a relatively new department of the Museum, and no longer within the province of the curator of paintings as they were when the Biron collection was acquired. Of one hundred five that then entered the Metropoli- tan, fifty were attributed to Giambattista Tiepolo, and of these one was afterward recognized as a fine example of Domenico adapting a composition of his father's,I1 while another is in my opinion no more than a "family copy" of a lost original.'I The remaining forty-eight are all of indisputable authenticity, for the most part in brilliant condition, and of the highest quality. With the splendid group of Tiepolo drawings at the Morgan 9. The two sketches are juxtaposed in reproduction in Morassi, Paintings of G. B. Tiepolo, figs. 320, 32I. The ceiling fresco is Morassi, Tiepolo, His Life and Work, fig. 59. Io. Ace. no. 37.I65.5, reproduced in my book The Drawings of Domenico Tiepolo (London, I962) pi. I2. The early original by Giambattista is at Bassano (L. Magagnato, I Disegni del Museo Civico di Bassano [I956] no. 53). A later drawing by Giambattista of similar composition is in the Morgan Library (J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters, IV [London, I912] pi. 133). I I. Acc. no. 37. 65.8, called The Elderly Couple. I understand that Mr. Knox shares my view. The reproduction in Otto Benesch, Venetian Drawings of the Eighteenth Century in America (New York, 1947) pl. 39, is flattering. The wash lacks the transparency of Giambattista's, and the penwork is scratchy and of indifferent quality. I suspect this may be a copy by Lorenzo Tiepolo, though the version in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Knox, Tiepolo Drawings, no. 31 1) is certainly inferior. The same two figures were repeated by Domenico in one of the famous Punchinello series, no. 93, now the property of Mr. George Cheston in Philadelphia. Library, those in the collection of the late Robert Lehman, and those now in the private collection of Dr. Rudolf Heinemann, they make New York an irresistible, indeed indispensable, field of research for any student