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Angelica Kauffmann
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures, 1785
According to an anecdote by Valerius Maximus, the Roman heroine Cornelia, widow of Titus Sempronius Grocchus, was asked to display her most beautiful treasures. Pointing to her sons and daughter she said simply, "These are my most precious jewels." The subject became popular during the Neoclassical period because Cornelia seemed to embody 18th-century virtues of feminine modesty, matronly honor, and tasteful simplicity.
Angelica Kauffmann painted this picture in Naples during the summer and autumn of 1785 for her English patron George Bowles. She has arranged the figures in a friezelike composition within austere classical architecture, which was the Neoclassical style of history painters of her time. To these elements, however, she has added her own ingredient such as rich color, warm light, and a touch of grace, delicacy, and feeling. An example of the latter is the touching differentiation of the three children. While the sons indicate their differentiation of the three children. While the sons indicate their preparation for public life -- one carries books, the other a scroll -- the young girl delights in pulling jewels from a casket. Kauffmann leaves us to ponder whether she will grow up to follow her mother's dignified example and rhetorical finesse. Such virtues seem to be similarly exemplified by Kauffmann's austere and subtle style.
Kauffmann's successful portraits and use of classical subjects made her one of the first women artists to enter the ranks of academic history painters. The daughter of an Austrian painter, she was born in Switzerland and studied art in Italy. At the Royal Academy in London, she associated with Sir Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin West, the foremost painters of her day, whose works are also represented in the museum's collection. |