.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Giovanni Battista Amendola established a close friendship with Alma-Tadema who made extended vists to Naples to study the remains at nearby Pompei and Herculaneaum. Although Amendola later moved to Rome and Paris, before spending several years in London from 1878 until his death in 1887, this picture was executed in Naples as a stamp on the canvas stretcher testifies. Professor Swanson dates the work to 1883.
Although Amendola was fêted for his independent compositions, he is probably best known in a British context for the sculptures he created after figures in the paintings of his friends. Those who viewed the sale of the Forbes collection (Christie's, London, 19 and 20 February 2003) will remember the clever juxtaposition at Old Battersea House of Thomas Maclean's bronze figure group The Spring Festival, (lot 152), against Alma-Tadema's On the Road to the Temple of Ceres (lot 25), which had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and in which the figures were repeated. Amendola was aware of the commercial possibilities inherent in producing multiples of figure groups that had enjoyed popular acclaim at the RA. Through his friendship with Alma-Tadema he was introduced to Frederic, Lord Leighton. One of his most celebrated compositions was commissioned by the Fine Art Society and executed in 1885. It depicted the two figures in Wedded, Leighton's Royal Academy exhibit of 1882, now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The sculpture was commended for its ability to convey emotion, without sacrificing attention to detail.
Alma-Tadema's portrait is set in Amendola's studio in Naples: a photograph of the artist is seen behind the sculptor upper left. The painting was executed in return for the statuette of Laura that Amendola has in his hands. The picture was well received when it was exhibited as the following review by Claude Phillips, the critic for Academy (op. cit.) demonstrates:
Sig Amendola, who is represented in studio dress, wearing a Turkish fez, and holding in his hand a stauette of silver and bronze, is a masterpiece of firm and seraching modelling and succesful characterization. The painter has exhibited all his marvellous skill in rendering the accessories and especially the stauette on which the sculptor is at work, while resisting the temptation to give them undue prominence. The painting of the flesh and treatment of the hair are perhaps not absolutely satisfactory on so large a scale, but even hypercriticism could scarcely find any other fault with the picture.
Although Amendola was fêted for his independent compositions, he is probably best known in a British context for the sculptures he created after figures in the paintings of his friends. Those who viewed the sale of the Forbes collection (Christie's, London, 19 and 20 February 2003) will remember the clever juxtaposition at Old Battersea House of Thomas Maclean's bronze figure group The Spring Festival, (lot 152), against Alma-Tadema's On the Road to the Temple of Ceres (lot 25), which had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and in which the figures were repeated. Amendola was aware of the commercial possibilities inherent in producing multiples of figure groups that had enjoyed popular acclaim at the RA. Through his friendship with Alma-Tadema he was introduced to Frederic, Lord Leighton. One of his most celebrated compositions was commissioned by the Fine Art Society and executed in 1885. It depicted the two figures in Wedded, Leighton's Royal Academy exhibit of 1882, now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The sculpture was commended for its ability to convey emotion, without sacrificing attention to detail.
Alma-Tadema's portrait is set in Amendola's studio in Naples: a photograph of the artist is seen behind the sculptor upper left. The painting was executed in return for the statuette of Laura that Amendola has in his hands. The picture was well received when it was exhibited as the following review by Claude Phillips, the critic for Academy (op. cit.) demonstrates:
Sig Amendola, who is represented in studio dress, wearing a Turkish fez, and holding in his hand a stauette of silver and bronze, is a masterpiece of firm and seraching modelling and succesful characterization. The painter has exhibited all his marvellous skill in rendering the accessories and especially the stauette on which the sculptor is at work, while resisting the temptation to give them undue prominence. The painting of the flesh and treatment of the hair are perhaps not absolutely satisfactory on so large a scale, but even hypercriticism could scarcely find any other fault with the picture.