Francesco Hayez: 9 works

'It was in fact Cicognara that urged Hayez to take part in the annual competition of the Brera Academy early in 1813 through a letter addressed to their mutual friend Antonio Canova.'

'This youthful work by the Venetian painter Francesco Hayez, which Vincenzo Vela found very inspirational, was long attributed to the school of Andrea Appiani.'

'The erudite collector from Turin, who also owned Hayez's Angel of the Annunciation, purchased in Milan in 1833 together with Palagi's Madonna of the Annunciation (with which it became part of the GAM collections), should have known or perceived how much sentimental value was attached to the image of that young brunette woman in a state of undress, depicted in a confidential and spontaneous pose. The woman portrayed was Carolina Zucchi, Hayez's model and student, with whom he also became sentimentally involved, forming an intense intimate relationship in around 1822.'

'Francesco Hayez depicts himself with his friends: on the left the painters Pelagio Palagi and Giovanni Migliara (in profile); on the right the painter Giuseppe Molteni (in a top hat) and the writer Tommaso Grossi. Hayez is wearing a painter's cap and round glasses.'

'For this self-portrait Hayez chose a panel with an unusual horizontal format and a rather peculiar angle of the image.'

'This painting was executed in 1835 for Andrea Maffei, poet, translator and iconographic adviser to Francesco Hayez. He subsequently gave it to his wife Clara who displayed it in her famous and much frequented salon in Milan.'

'Hayez also painted other works on the theme of the Crusades, full of political allusions to the contemporary Italian situation and the need for national liberation: the famous Peter the Hermit, 1829 (private collection), a real appeal to the cause of independence, and Thirst for the Crusades (Turin, Palazzo Reale).'

'Jacopo's leavetaking of his family is rendered even more agonising by the allusion to his imminent departure from his homeland evident in the view of the lagoon with the ships about to set sail, which can be glimpsed through the portico of the Ducal Palace.The myth of Venice and the loneliness of the powerful are condensed in this episode, which Hayez treated repeatedly in several versions, including the famous canvas commissioned by his friend and adviser Andrea Maffei and executed between 1852 and 1854 (Florence, Galleria d'Arte Moderna Palazzo Pitti).'

'In the mid-nineteenth century Francesco Hayez was the most admired portrait painter among the grand bourgeoisie and aristocracy of Milan, who loved his rigorous painting with its deep psychological insight and of the characters.'