This painting by the little-known French artist Charles Swagers depicts the cenotaph that Prince Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen commissioned from Antonio Canova as a memorial to his wife, born Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, who died in 1798. The monument, which stands in the Augustinian Church - part of the Hofburg Palace complex in Vienna - was completed in 1805 and was a strikingly modern interpretation of a figural tomb. The deceased appears only in a portrait medallion, and Christian imagery has been eliminated. It seems the Duke had envisioned a traditional homage to the deceased, but Canova created a new kind of monument, in which the theme of death itself was emphasized: the angel of death, the mourning lion, the cortège of figures - young and old, male and female - entering the doorway of the royal tomb, which has become a portal into the afterlife.
The painting, thought to have been completed in the 1820s but only submitted to the Paris Salon in 1833, differs in one significant way from the actual monument: the inscription on the lintel reads MARIAE CHRISTINAE AVSTRIACAE/ ALBERTI SAXONIAE PRINCIPIS CONIVCI (To Maria Christina of Austria/ Wife of Albert, Prince of Saxony), while in Canova's composition it reads simply VXORI OPTIMAE /ALBERTVS (To the Best Wife/Albert).
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| Drawing by Domenico del Frate, engraved by Pietro Bonato, 1805. |
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Watercolor by an unknown artist, French School, circa first quarter of the nineteenth century.
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Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (Maria Christina Johanna Josepha Antonia; 13 May 1742 - 24 June 1798), the fifth and favorite child of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Married in 1766 to Prince Albert of Saxony - a rare love match - the couple received the Duchy of Teschen. Jointly with her husband, she was appointed Governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1781 to 1789 and from 1791 to 1792. After expulsions from the Netherlands in 1789 and 1792, during unrest spurred on by the revolution in France, she and her husband eventually returned Vienna where, not long after, she would die at the age of fifty-six. Her bereaved husband commissioned an impressive monument to his wife in the Augustinian Church, the work of the famous neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. The Duchess is actually buried in the in the Tuscan Vault of the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. When Prince Albert died in 1822 he was buried next to his wife and their daughter, their only child, who had been born fifty-five years before, and only lived for a day.
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| Attributed to Martin van Meytens, circa 1765. |
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By Johan Zoffany, 1776.
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By Alexandre Roslin, 1778.
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Charles Swagers (1792-after 1849), French painter, primarily of historical subjects, active in the early nineteenth century. He studied under his father, Franz Swagers, a landscape and marine painter from Utrecht who had settled in Paris. His mother, Elisa, née Méri, was a miniature painter and the professor of drawing at Écouen. His best known work is the painting of Canova's Tomb of Maria Christina of Austria which he exhibited at the Paris
Salon of 1833. In 1840 he was appointed professor of drawing and composition in Dieppe. His sister, Caroline, also a student of their father's, practiced in Paris and frequently exhibited at the
Salon. Swagers' son, Édouard, was a painter and lithographer who also practiced in Paris.
This is an amazing tomb. The skill of Canova is evident in his angel of death as the long and elegant leg hangs off the edge. The other aspect that caught my eye is the drape of the mourners' clothing and the foot of the leading figure walking into the crypt - the sense of suspended movement is palpable.
ReplyDeleteYes, all that! Well said.
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