Portrait of Giovanni Battista Sommariva
Technical Details
-
Title
Portrait of Giovanni Battista Sommariva -
Author
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon -
Year
1813 -
Dimensions
cm 210 x 156 -
Inventory
950 -
Room
XXXVII -
Signature
P P Prud'hon g bat
Sommariva, a politician who had acquired considerable wealth under the Cisalpine Republic, quit politics to becomethe greatest collector of modern art of his day thanks to the huge fortune he had built up. A patron of the most celebrated painters at Napoleon’s court, he also enjoyed close ties with the sculptors Canova and Thorvaldsen. In this portrait, set in an ideal landscape in the English fashion, we see Canova’s masterpieces Palamedes and Terpsichore, which were Sommariva’s property.
