Well - the first thing to say about this week's challenge is that it's NOT a painting - so nobody painted it.
I've removed the 'dead giveaway' from the bottom - but will show you this next week.
See if you can work out who created this, what it's of and where it is! (Right click on the pic to open in a new tab and see a slightly larger image)
Hint: it's topical....
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| Who "created" this #69? |
Below you can find
- The details of how to participate in this art history challenge
- the rules of the challenge
- the answer to last week re. Who Painted this #68?
- the names of all the people who got most or all of the answer correct
- who provided the best answer last week - which gives you an idea of what a good answer looks like
How to participate in "Who painted this? #69
Tell me the story of this painting as best you can!
This is how "Who painted this?" works.
This is about using brains not technology - so please do NOT "cheat"Briefly, in your comment ON THIS POST you must tell me ALL or as many of the following as you can:
- the title of the artwork
- the name of the artist who created this artwork
- the date it was created
- the media used
- where it lives now
- how you know all this eg how did you do your search
- anything else you can find out about the artwork and/or artist - tell its story!
- the first person to get to the answer by fair means
- AND provides the best quality answer in terms of added details about the artwork and artist
- no use of "Google Image Search" or "Tineye" to find the image allowed
- this is a traditional web search of images using words only plus "hit the books" time
- I don't publish the comments until next week's post.
Comments on this blog post will only be published once a week - on
the following Sunday.
Who Painted This #68?
Title of the artwork: The Tribuna of the Uffizi
Alternative titles are:
Interior of the Florence Gallery
The Interior of the Grand Duke's Gallery at Florence.
The Interior of the Grand Duke's Gallery at Florence.
Name of the artist who created this artwork: Johan Joseph Zoffany (Frankfurt 1733-London 1810) (artist)
Date it was created: 1772-77
Date it was created: 1772-77
Commissioned by: Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom (1744-1818)
Media used: oil paint on lined canvas
Dimensions:
Support: 123.5 x 155.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external)
Frame: 157.7 x 183.2 x 11.1 cm (frame, external)
Where it lives now: Royal Collection
Where it lives now: Royal Collection
A 'tribune' (tribuna in Italian) is the semicircular (or semi-polygonal) domed end of a basilican church; the Tribuna is the hexagonal domed room created in 1585-9 by Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608) at the Uffizi palace for the display of the masterpieces in the Medici collection.
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The Tribuna of the Uffizi by Johan Zoffany Exhibited in the Prince and Patron exhibition (2018) |
Zoffany's main claim to fame is that he was the master of the theatrics of "the conversation piece" - which always includes lots of recognisable people and lots of detail. It's the sort of painting which can be very popular of its time but loses some meaning once those who recognise who are portrayed are no longer alive.
- born in Germany and died in the UK. Did you know that Zoffany is buried in the churchyard on Kew Green? (I've got a pic of his grave somewhere!)
- He trained in Germany and Rome - and knew Piranesi
- His came to the UK in 1760.
- His first major patron in the UK was the actor David Garrick - which might account for the development of the theatrical quality of his paintings of conversation paintings - most of which were painted for the wealthy middle classes. He certainly painted scenes from dramas for Garrick.
- In 1768 he became a founder member of the Royal Academy of Arts.
- Queen Charlotte - wife of the Hanoverian King George III - became his patron. Sharing a German heritage with the King would undoubtedly have helped. That by the way is the Queen Charlotte who stars in Bridgerton!
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| Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Electress of Hanover (as wife of King George III) portrait by Thomas Gainsborough |
- Zoffany was nominated by George III for membership in the Royal Academy in 1769, exhibiting there from 1770 to 1800.
- Between 1772 and 1778 he worked primarily in Florence, where he painted The Interior of the Tribuna at Florence. The general consensus was that he'd included too many people and too many things.
- He subsequently fell out with Queen Charlotte over the painting
'The King spoke of Zoffany's picture of the Florentine Gallery painted for him, & expressed wonder at Zoffany having done so improper a thing as to introduce the portraits of Sir Horace Man — Patch, & others. — He sd. The Queen wd. not suffer the picture to be placed in any of her apartments.' (Diary for 15 December 1804)
Zoffany was certainly paid handsomely for the work and to cover his stay in Florence (though the actual sum is disputed) however he never again worked for the Royal Family. The painting hung briefly at Kew Palace and is recorded, with The Academicians at the Upper Library at Buckingham House in 1819.
Royal Collection
- He left the UK to work in India in 1783 but returned to the UK in 1789 and lived at Strand on the Green - next to the River Thames.
- It'a apparent from contemporary that he suffered from sort of mental ill health prior to his death.
You can find out more about Zoffany on the following links
- Johan Zoffany | Wikipedia
- Johan Zoffany | Tate
- The quirky side of Johann Zoffany | ART UK - which provides a detailed and very interesting account of his life with lots of images from collections around the UK.
Who guessed correct?
My apologies first to those who started to have go at this - and then noticed that the comments had already been published. I hit the wrong button my mistake when moderating all the spam!
The first person to provide a complete answer was
Carol Edan
- for the second week running!
The exhibition of the royal academy, 1787, engraving by Martini from an original attributed to Johan Ramberg. Printed in brown ink, part of a portfolio of engravings concerning the history of the RA, and now in its collection. It's a view of the 'Great Room ' in Somerset House, which is apparently the oldest purpose designed exhibition space in London, and the largest space in Somerset House, and is now a centrepiece room of the cortauld gallery, showing impressionist art, but was then the home of the RA. Topical because this year's summer exhibition opens in a couple of weeks. I got it from the room really - it's very distinctive. I was there in December. It looks as though your copy of the engraving has seen better days!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was searching for #68 remembered seeing a similar photo among the results of images of Academy exhibitions. Your copy may be a poster or photograph from a newspaper seeing the sections. This is an engraving by the artist Pietro Antonio Martini, 1738–1797. It also mentioned another artist on the site, Ramberg, Johann Heinrich. He may have painted the engraved print. Engraving of a crowded scene at the Royal Academy 1787 Summer Exhibition at Somerset House. The Prince of Wales is being shown around.
ReplyDeleteThis annual exhibition presented work by contemporary artists. It began in 1769 and became a major fixture in London's artistic and social life - an opportunity to buy art, exercise taste and be seen.
Engraving on paper
Height: 36.1cm
Width: 49.9cm
Housed at Victoria and Albert Museum, London On display V&A South Kensington
I first found a coloured version on https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-exhibition-of-the-royal-academy-1787-pietro-antonio-martini.html and using that title and artist information found it here https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/the-exhibition-of-the-royal-academy-1787
ReplyDeleteI used similar search terms to last week as I was fairly certain I'd spotted this in the image search, "painting with many paintings", chose one that wasn't it, but the "images like this" brought up the target picture.
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787, 1 July 1787
After Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763 - 1840)
RA Collection: Art
Title The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1787
Artist/designer After Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763 - 1840)
Engraved by Pietro Antonio Martini (1739 - 1797)
Published by Anthony Poggi (fl. 1769 - post-1805)
Date 1 July 1787
Object type Print
Medium Line engraving
Dimensions 320 mm x 491 mm
Collection Royal Academy of Arts
Acquisition Given by Anthony Poggi 1787
Title The Exhibition of the Royal Academy 1787
ReplyDeleteArtist Johann Heinrich Ramberg
Date 1787
Medium Line Etching
Where it Lives The RA have a copy in a portfolio of170 prints titled The British School II containing works from 1730 to 1810. The British Museum also have a copy.
Ramberg also did a print of the1788 exhibition.
This one shows Joshua Reynolds with his arm raised in the centre of the picture with The Prince of Wales standing next to him.
Ramberg lived from 1763 to 1840. He was born in Hannover and spent most of his life in Germany. He studied at RA in 1781 and returned to Germany via the Netherlands in 1788 and became one of the best known illustrators in Germany.
Sorry forgot to include details of the search. As with last week's painting I thought this might be the RA summer exhibition and this time I was right. I Googled drawing of the RA summer exhibition and the first hit was this picture.
ReplyDelete