Video: How a talented artist ruined his muse, with whom he painted 28 portraits: Anselm von Feuerbach and Anna Risi
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The beauty of a woman is a fragile and short-lived gift. The fate of one of the most striking women of the 19th century is a perfect example of this. However, the artist who caused her misfortune nevertheless immortalized the image of this classic Roman woman and gave her beauty eternity. In ancient paintings almost 200 years ago, the burning beauty is still good, as if life's difficulties had not yet touched her.
Anna was born around 1835 in the old Roman handicraft quarter of Trastevere on the west bank of the Tiber. The ancient city, in which dozens of races and nationalities have mixed, created this miracle in its depths - a woman with incredible, memorable beauty, who seemed to have been born to pose for portraits of noble Roman women. However, all this happened much later. At first she lived the life of an ordinary city woman. Parents gave Anna to a shoemaker, she gave birth to a child. A few more years, and the woman would have turned into an ordinary matron, but it so happened that the English painter Frederick Leighton noticed her. He painted several paintings with flamboyant Italian and they were a huge success. However, Anna did not fly high in dreams - she remained a faithful wife and a devoted mother. She posed for the artist only for the sake of replenishing the family budget.
The beautiful Italian woman has become a sought-after model. Rome in the middle of the 19th century was considered a real Mecca for artists. Romantic and at the same time colorful paintings were popular with customers, so many painters painted Anna. In 1855, an aspiring German artist Anselm von Feuerbach came to Rome. The scholarship holder of the Grand Duke of Baden dreamed of painting on historical and mythological themes. Anna surprisingly accurately fell into the type that he needed for such canvases: white skin, burning black hair, classic facial features - she was an almost ideal model, could serve as a standard of beauty of her time and at the same time, it seemed that this was a revived ancient Roman statue - so much its profile corresponded to the ancient canons.
Judging by the surviving portraits, Anselm was a real handsome man. The young talented artist managed to captivate his model so much that Anna left the family, abandoned her husband and child and turned into a kept woman. From a modern point of view, one could blame this woman for her irresponsible attitude towards her little son, but we must not forget that in those days even the concept of divorce did not exist for ordinary people, and according to the laws, children always remained with their father if a woman suddenly decided to change your destiny. Therefore, Anna, like the famous heroine of the Russian classics, made this difficult choice - between love for a man and a child.
The painter and his muse were inseparable for six years. During this time, Feuerbach created 28 canvases, and each of them was attended by Anna Risi: Medea, Iphigenia, Laura, Miriam, Bianchi Cappello, or just a noble Roman woman - she tried on many images and even changed her name - her name was now Nana. Thanks to these canvases, Anselm von Feuerbach really ascended to the top of the picturesque Olympus, today this artist is considered one of the most significant German historical painters of the 19th century, but he quickly got fed up with his first Roman muse.
Today it is difficult to say whether this couple was really cloudlessly happy, and for what reason they broke up. Six years later, Anselm continued his stellar journey - he had a new model, but for Anna it was all over. Probably, she perfectly understood what she was dooming herself, leaving her husband - in those days, such a step unambiguously and irrevocably separated a woman from a decent society, even if this society was just ordinary citizens. Anna could continue to exist only at the expense of men. She contacted a wealthy Englishman for a while, but this relationship did not last long. It is known that several years later she came to her first lover, asked him for help, but he refused. What happened to her next is unknown. Most likely, Anna posed for some time for artists, until she lost her only, but short-lived gift - beauty. Her days probably ended in poverty.
In the paintings of great artists, women usually look fragile and delicate, but the models who posed for well-behaved ladies were not always the same in life. Renoir's scandalous muse was even called "Scary Marie".
Recommended:
How Stas Piekha's drug addiction ruined his life, and whom he blamed for his addiction
He was born into a stellar family and, as it might seem, grew up as a completely prosperous child. Stas Piekha in childhood often appeared on television with his star grandmother, went on tour with her while his mother, Ilona Bronevitskaya, was building her career. No one could even imagine that already in adolescence he was a deeply dependent person. However, Stas Piekha admits today - his addiction has not gone anywhere, because the former fans of prohibited substances
What is famous for the most expensive self-portrait of Rembrandt, and why the artist painted a huge number of his portraits
Yes, Rembrandt can be called an artist who doesn't need models. The master painted a huge number of portraits of his wife Saskia and even more self-portraits (over 80!). One of the latter was named the most expensive work of Rembrandt. Self-portrait went under the hammer for a record $ 18.7 million. There is an interesting theory as to why the artist actually created so many personal portraits
The Secret Life of the Windsors: How Prince George Gave Up Love to Please His Parents and Ruined His Life
The most incredible rumors circulated about Prince George (George) in Great Britain, and his life resembled a famously twisted plot of not the best series. He fell in love with both women and men, did not hide his addiction to drugs, had illegitimate children, and his death in a plane crash still causes many rumors and speculation. His fate could have turned out differently if he had not once renounced his love at the insistence of his parents
"Kissed, bewitched": to whom the poet confessed his love, to whom the lyrics were alien
The history of the creation of the poem "Kissed, bewitched …", which has become a popular romance, is very curious. After reading it, it may seem that it was written by a young man in love with an ardent gaze. But in fact it was written by a serious 54-year-old serious pedant with the manners and appearance of an accountant. In addition, until 1957, it was in that year that Zabolotsky created his "Last Love" cycle, intimate lyrics were completely alien to him. And suddenly, at the end of life, this wondrous lyric cycle
Why Repin's son took his own life, and his grandson was shot for his dream of becoming an artist
There is such a concept: “in children is our continuation” and, of course, every parent wants it, this continuation, to be worthy and far-reaching. About how the fate of the heirs of the master of Russian painting Ilya Repin developed, namely the only son of Yuri, who became an artist, and one of the grandchildren, who had only dreamed of becoming one all his short life, further in the review