Page 66 - Revolution Republique Empire Restauration

and continued exhibiting such works in the Salons
well into the 1830’s. His speciality appears to have
been ‘fly-on-the-wall’ narratives involving old mas-
ters, such as Poussin, Rembrandt, Michelangelo,
Titian, and, as in the present picture, Tintoretto.
Similar examples include Bergeret’s 1806 Salon tri-
umph Les Honneurs rendu à Raphaël après sa mort2 (now
in the Allen Memorial Art Museum of Oberlin
College, Ohio), followed in 1807 with Francis I in
Titian’s Studio, 1807 (le Puy-en-Velay, Musée
Crozatier), and his 1808 canvas Charles V and Titian
(Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts). Other contem-
porary works by artists in his circle include The Blind
Michelangelo3 by Révoil, possibly based on Bergeret’s
earlier version (now lost), and what is arguable the
masterpiece of the genre, Ingres’ Don Pedro of Toledo
kissing the sword of Henry IV (versions formerly
London, Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd., now in Abu Dhabi
and Paris, Musée du Louvre).4

For the present picture, Bergeret was probably

inspired by Ingres’ 1815 version of the subject,

which was exhibited in the 1816 Salon ( Fig.1)

alongside his Aretino and the envoy of Charles V5 and

Fig 1. Raphael and ‘La Fornarina’.6 Pietro Aretino (1492-
1556) was one of the most celebrated (and notori-

ous) figures of the Italian renaissance. A playwright,

poet and satirist, he is also credited with the revival

of literary pornography. Of questionable birth,

Aretino styled himself as an aristocrat, but nonethe-

2.The picture in Ohio is the recently re-discovered original of this subject.The picture in Malmaison, which had been in the collection since it was pre-
sented by Napoleon, is a slightly later autograph copy.
3. M.-Claude Chaudonneret, La Peinture Troubadour- deux artistes Lyonnais Pierre Révoil (1776-1842) and Fleury Richard (1777-1852), Paris, 1980, p. 136, no.
17, illus. Bergeret painted another version of the same subject, which he exhibited in the 1817 Salon.
4. See ‘Notable Past Sales of French Paintings 1789-1824’ in this catalogue (Fig…XXXX..). See also Paris, Musée du Louvre, Ingres 1780-1867, exhib.
cat., no 67, pp. 214-215, illus; and ill. 158
5. Both formerly London, Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd., and NewYork, Stair Sainty Matthiesen Inc., by whom sold to the Fondazione Agnelli,Turin.
6. Paris, op. cit., p. 216, illus. 157 and 158; and p. 218, ill. 160.

66