Notice de l'oeuvre :
Our Triumph of Galatea is a rare example of the sumptuous scenes that Élie Honoré Montagny designed in Naples for Caroline Murat in the early 1810s.
Napoleon’s sister, Maria-Annunziata Bonaparte, known as Caroline (1770-1837), was the third and last daughter of Charles Bonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino, and their penultimate child (ill. 1). On 20 January 1800 she married Joachim Murat, the Divisional General and former first aide-de-camp of her brother during the first Campaign in Italy. This marriage enabled her to enter the most prestigious social and political sphere of the State. Caroline obtained the title of Imperial Highness in 1804, while Murat was promoted to marshall, grand admiral and Prince of the Empire. As their social, political and dynastic value grew, so did their properties: while they obtained control over the Kingdom of Naples in 1808, the Murat family in France were in possession of the châteaux de Villiers-la-Garenne and de Neuilly and of the private mansion of Thélusson and the Élysée Palace, which housed remarkable art collections. The Queen of Naples, who cultivated an interest in politics, economics and art, tried to revamp the economy of the Kingdom by helping textile manufacturers, by facilitating the education of young girls and by encouraging the archaeological excavations at Pompeii. She also endeavoured in the refurbishment of the luxurious apartments in her Neapolitan residences and commissioned the extremely famous Odalisque to Ingres in 1814.
Even though she only spent seven years on the throne of Naples, Caroline Murat rearranged her palaces so well that they still bear her signature to this day. She was particularly fond of Palazzo of Portici, a leisure house situated on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Built in 1738 as summer residence of the Bourbons (ill. 2), it was situated right in front of the sea. Perfectly located between the city and the countryside, Portici offered a very soft and relaxed atmosphere: it displayed a unique luxury and an incredibly artistic modernity thanks to the artwork it housed and its sophisticated design. In a letter dated 18 October 1809 and addressed to Queen Hortense, Caroline made explicit her appreciation of this palace, in which she resided for half of the year: ‘‘At the moment I am at Portici and, as you can see, very close to Mount Vesuvius, whose eruptions change form every day. …From my room I have the most joyful and at the same time magnificent view of the entire universe. From my bed I can see the famous Capri; to the left arises the Sorrento Coast, Ischia and Procida are just slightly further away and to the right, standing as an amphitheatre on the banks of the gulf, there is Naples, which concludes this beautiful painting. Just like you, I do not see many people, I read and work a lot. I have commissioned some excavations. These are my means of relaxation”.
In order to make the most of the sea air, Caroline commissioned the installation of a pavilion right by the water within the park situated by the Granatello marina. As confirmed by a painting by Jean Rebell that the painter created not long after the pavilion was built (ill. 3), as well as by the surviving remains of the structure, the site chosen was situated by the stairs of Villa d’Elboeuf. This “Bagno della Regina” was designed by Gennaro Lojacono and built in 1813. It was made of wood and was said to be “portable”. It was constituted by a central plan of Palladian inspiration and a four-column pronaos, which was decorated with stuccos of tritons and sirens (ill. 4).
The interior, which has not survived to this day, was composed of a vestibule and two rooms, one of which was an office, and was embellished by frescos of mythological and marine inspiration. The centre was occupied by a sweet chestnut table, a drier type of wood that facilitated the dehumidification of the moist marine air. Today we are capable of picturing the decor of the pavilion thanks to a few archival references which mention compositions depicting ‘‘Thetis on a marine chariot pulled by dolphins and surrounded by Nereids presenting the weapons fabricated by Vulcan to Achilles’’, ‘‘the birth of Venus, who emerges from a shell that is opened up by two tritons’’ and ‘‘a Nereid crossing the sea on a marine bull while offering it an invigorating drink”. The different scenes were surrounded by the representation of fish, shells, coral branches, cupids with wreaths and flowers, and monochrome bands decorated with sirens, tritons, nymphs and seahorses. Our Triumph of Galatea, whose marine theme is in perfect harmony with this iconographic programme, is in all likelihood a modello for a lost composition that was part of the pavilion decor.
The subject of our painting takes inspiration from Antiquity. Galatea is often confused with Venus or Amphitrite. In our Triumph of Galatea it is possible to identify the Nereid with certitude thanks to the presence of the cyclops Polyphemus sitting on a rock in the top-left corner of the composition: in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the giant, who sings his love for Galatea, angered by her rejection throws a rock collected from Mount Etna towards Acis, her lover. The nymph, however, promptly transforms Acis in a river in order to to save him. The motif of a moaning Polyphemus playing a syrinx on a mountain while Galatea, carried by dolphins, moves away, finds its origin in Pompeian painting, where it is usually integrated within marine landscapes and remote architectural structures. The figure of Polyphemus appears in a fresco in the House of the Coloured Capitals (1st century BC), now in the National Museum of Naples. The taste for marine allegories is confirmed further by the c. 1760 discovery in Pompeii of a fresco in the House of Venus. In 1769 Piranese used it as inspiration for the creation of an engraving displaying a relief which was meant to ornate the exterior of a chimney ‘à l’Antique’ (ill. 5). The pose of Venus, who extens her body, raises her torso and leans on her right arm while outstretching her left alongside her body, has been readopted by the artist behind our painting. The discovery of the Esquiline Treasure in 1793, which included a silver patera in the shape of a scallop shell displaying Venus at her toilet, intensified the interest of neoclassical painters in this subject. The motif of the coat that blows up in the wind, which was already present in Pompeian scenes, was an undeniably popular one. Indeed, this theme was often appropriated by modern artists within scenes displaying the birth of Venus, the abduction of Europa and the triumph of Galatea. Raphael’s famous fresco, whose popularity was fuelled by the engraving, has equally stimulated the imagination of artists who have often depicted Venus and Galatea presiding on a throne in a boat or a shell, transported by the winds on a ship and in the company of a profusion of marine, celestial and often disruptive mythological creatures.
Our painting belongs to the artistic production of Élie Honoré Montagny (1782-1864), a French painter who worked in Naples in the 1810s. Born in a family of artists, he started his training in David’s studio in 1794, only aged twelve. His copies of ancient sculptures from the Louvre attracted the attention of Visconti, who was looking for drawers to illustrate his Iconographie ancienne, which at the time was still in preparation. Montagny, who was consequently required to go to Italy, was welcomed to Rome by Suvée, the director of Villa Medici, in 1804. In order to complete his commission he also travelled to Naples and Sicily. Soon after he was summoned by Caroline Murat, who promoted him to official painter of the Kingdom of Naples. In 1809 he painted Jupiter and Mercury reveal themselves to Philemon and Baucis. In 1811 he painted a view from one of the rooms of the Royal Palace (ill. 6). This short period corresponds to the apogee of his career. In 1815, however, a series of political events forced him to return to Paris, where he opened a studio.
Élie Honoré Montagny is the painter behind a large canvas illustrating The Triumph of Galatea, signed and dated 1812, which is now in the Royal Palace of Naples (ill. 7). Ornella Scognamiglio identified the painting thanks to an archival document which mentioned an ‘‘oil painting displaying Galatea, surrounded by cupids and nymphs” that was on display in the ‘‘Gabinetto del Bagno’’ of the Royal Palace of Portici in 1817. Our painting cannot be considered a preparatory work for this specific atwork, since there are not any detectable compositional similarities in the arrangement of the figures in these two paintings. Nevertheless, the iconographic coherence of the two works suggests that they were made by the same artist, Montagny: the harmony between the colours and the stylistic characteristics of the Galatea in Naples can be clearly seen in our painting. In both works the painter clearly combined neoclassical canons (Greek profiles and slender bodies) with lighter and joyful themes which were recurrently explored by Rococo artists.
Our sketch could be linked to two more that display similar compositions and that were attributed to different artists when they were sold. Our painting is probably the first version made for the pavilion which was presented to the Queen for approval (ill. 8). Thereafter Montagny painted a second version: this is a painting whose dimensions are similar to those of ours, and which was first presented at Tajan in 2000 as attributed to ‘‘a follower of Léopold Robert’’ and then sold in the United States as ‘‘by Felice Giani’’ (ill. 9). In this version the artist readopted the motif of the group of rising Nereids who surround Galatea on a marine chariot pulled by two dolphins and added the representation of a putto standing on the heads of the two animals. The painter covered the Nereids in jewels, gave them elaborate hairdos and flower crowns and, for the sake of decency, covered partially the nude bodies of the young women with brightly coloured drapery. In the background on the right he added the depiction of a nymph riding a dolphin and that of Polyphemus who faces the picture plane while holding a rock. Mount Vesuvius, which was depicted on the right in the background in the first painting of the series, becomes more prominent in the subsequent versions of the scene and appears on the right in the second version. In doing so the painter reinforced the importance of the volcano, veritable symbol of the new local dynasty, which is also visible in the background of the official portrait of Caroline Murat and of her children by Gérard (ill. 1).
The final composition, which has been either lost or destroyed, was revealed to us by an ancient copy (ill. 10) of poor quality (wrongly attributed to Jean Monanteuil), but which has the merit of showing the outcome of the thinking process of the artist. He finally synthesised the two former versions by combining the key motifs which characterised each of them: he reintegrated, for instance, the infant covering his ears on the right that had been excluded in the second version of the scene. The painter finally opted for a larger composition and moved the volcano towards the centre of the canvas. He balanced the composition by placing the triton, who in the second version appears to the right of the central group while blowing in a horn, to the left of Galatea. He also enhanced the rendering of perspective by reducing the size of both the nymph riding a dolphin and Polyphemus, who sits on his rock in the background.
The work in our possession is a perfect example of Montagny’s sophisticated, light-hearted and feminine art. It shows his loyalty to the Queen of Naples’ interest in Pompeian art. Our composition, which possibly acted as a preparatory work, stands out from the other versions discussed above, which appear somehow more confused and overloaded with details. With this painting the artist delivered a particularly seductive scene by focusing on the representation of the essential and by emphasising the readability and balance of the composition. The nude bodies, stripped of all unnecessary details, are enhanced by the depiction of the drapery, whose curves and folds are elegantly rendered. The blue and pink sails which blow in the wind are in perfect harmony with the marine environment and the complexion of the young women. The gracious features of the figures, the vivacity of the flying putti arranged around the group of Nereids and the marine breeze that animates the drapery, unties the hairdos and moves the sea foam, all convey a joyful and charming atmosphere. Ultimately, the painting is in perfect harmony with the hedonist character of the site of Granatello, which was dedicated to pleasure and to the relaxation deriving from the sea.
Amélie du Closel
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