Francesco Algarotti

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Francesco Algarotti
Born 11 December 1712 (1712-12-11)
Venice
Died 3 May 1764 (1764-05-04)
Pisa
Nationality Italian
Occupation Philosopher

Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was "one of the first Esprits cavaliers of the age," a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and music and a friend of most of the leading authors of his times: Voltaire, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis and the atheist Julien Offray de La Mettrie.

Life

Algarotti was born in Venice as the son of a rich merchant. His father and uncle were art collectors. Unlike his older brother Bonomo he did not step into the company, but decided to become an author. Francesco studied natural sciences and mathematics in Bologna under Francesco Maria Zanotti and in 1728 he experimented with optics. (Zanotti became a lifelong friend.) He travelled in the North of Italy, but moved to Florence, and Rome. At the age of twenty, he went to Cirey and Paris, where he became friendly with Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet.[1] Two years later he was in London, where he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He became embroiled in a lively bisexual love-triangle with the politician John Hervey, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.[2] Algarotti left for Italy and finished his Neutonianismo per le dame ("Newtonism for Ladies"), a work on optics (1737), dedicated to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. Algarotti had made acquaintance with Antiochus Kantemir. In Summer 1739 he left with Lord Baltimore from Sheerness to Newcastle upon Tyne. Because of a heavy storm the ship went to Harlingen.[3] Returning from Saint Petersburg, they visited Frederick the Great in Rheinsberg. Algarotti had obligations and came back the year after. Algarotti went with Frederick to Königsberg where he was crowned.

Nandl Baldauf, la belle chocolatière (1743/44). The pastel by Liotard was sold in 1745 by Algarotti to Dresden.[2]

Frederik, who was impressed with this walking encyclopedia made him and his brother Bonomo Prussian counts in 1740. Algarotti accompanied Frederick to Bayreuth, Kehl, Strasbourg and Moyland Castle where they met with Voltaire, who was taking baths in Kleve for his health.[4] In 1741 Algarotti went to Turin as his diplomat. Algarotti did not succeed to have the Kingdom of Sardinia attack Austria in the back.[5] Frederick had offered a him salary, but Algarotti refused. First he went to Dresden and Venice, where he bought 21 paintings, a few by Jean-Étienne Liotard and Tiepolo for the court of Augustus III of Poland.[6][7]

Algarotti and the other arts

The interior of the Pantheon (Rome) by Giovanni Paolo Pannini, ordered by and belonging to the art collection of Algarotti.[1]

Algarotti's choice of works reflects the encyclopedic interests of the Neoclassic era; he was uninterested in developing a single unitary stylistic collection, he envisioned a modern museum, a catalogue of styles from across the ages. For contemporary commissions, he wrote up a list for paintings he recommended commissioning, including to ask of history paintings from Tiepolo, Pittoni, and Piazzetta; scenes with animals from Castiglione, and veduta with ruins from Pannini. He wanted"suggetti graziosi e leggeri" from Balestra, Boucher, and Donato Creti.[8] Other artist he protected were Giuseppe Nogari, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Pavona.

In 1747 Algarotti went back to Potsdam and became court chamberlain, but did not leave to visit the archeological diggings at Herculaneum.[9] In 1749 he moved to Berlin. It seems he was involved in the production of operas and involved in finishing the architectural designs of Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff who had fallen ill. It was probably Algarotti who introduced his friend Tiepolo to Karl Philipp von Greifenclau zu Vollraths where he painted his masterwork on the ceiling of the main hall of the bishopric residence.[citation needed] In February 1753, after several years residing in Prussia he returned to Italy, living most of the time in Bologna. In 1759 Algarotti was involved in a new opera-style in the city of Parm. He influencing Guillaume du Tillot and the Duke of Parma.

Gathering on Sanssouci in the Marble Hall, with Fredrik II. (the Great) of Prussia, Voltaire, d'Argens, La Mettrie, James Keith, George Keith, Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg, Christoph Ludwig von Stille, and Algarotti. The painting got lost in 1945

Algarotti's Essay on the Opera (1755) was a major influence on the librettist Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni and the composer Tommaso Traetta, and in the development of Gluck's reformist ideology.[10] Algarotti proposed a heavily simplified model of opera seria, with the drama pre-eminent, instead of the music or ballet or staging. The drama itself should "delight the eyes and ears, to rouse up and to affect the hearts of an audience, without the risk of sinning against reason or common sense". Algarotti's ideas influenced both Gluck and his librettist, Calzabigi writing their Orfeo ed Euridice.[11]

In 1762 Algarotti moved to Pisa, where he died of tuberculosis. After his death Frederick the Great, who several times needed Algarotti writing texts in Latin, sent in a text for a monument to his memory on the Campo Santo in Pisa, Italy.

Also Lord Chesterfield, Thomas Gray, George Lyttelton, Thomas Hollis, Metastasio, Benedict XIV and Heinrich von Brühl were among his correspondents[12]

Works

References

  1. ↑ In 1740 Voltaire called him the Venetian Socrates, may be his "cher cygne de Padoue" ("dear swan of Padua").
  2. ↑ Rictor Norton, "John, Lord Hervey: The Third Sex", The Great Queens of History. Updated 8 August 2009
  3. ↑ Algarotti dedicated six of the letters that made up his Viaggi di Russia to Hervey; the others to Scipio Maffei.
  4. ↑ MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 142-145.
  5. ↑ MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 191.
  6. ↑ The Empire of Flora by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo at Legion of Honor
  7. ↑ Eighteenth-century Venetian Art at Hermitage Amsterdam
  8. ↑ Tiepolo's Cleopatra Door, by Jaynie Anderson, p. 109
  9. ↑ MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, p. 192.
  10. ↑ Orrey, p. 81
  11. ↑ Orrey, p. 83
  12. ↑ Eighteenth Century Bibliography. "Francesco Algarotti Bibliography". C18.com. Retrieved 18 February 2012. 
  13. ↑ id=p_ZXZd3fH6kC&pg=PA475&lpg=PA475&dq=Francesco+algarotti+painting&source=bl&ots=MG5ZyY9nSz&sig=KqwwGu_Kt_u5Qhu6n9LNYFQttZw&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=1cAjT6rUIoKd-wa40vzjCA&ved=0CEoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Francesco%20algarotti%20painting&f=false Artin theory, 1648-1815: an anthology of changing ideas door Charles Harrison, Paul Wood
  14. ↑ Cosmin Ungureanu, "Sia funzion la rappresentazione." Carlo Lodoli and the Crisis of Architecture
  15. ↑ letter is on Siege of Bergen op Zoom (1747).
  16. ↑ Artin theory, 1648-1815: an anthology of changing ideas door Charles Harrison, Paul Wood

Sources

  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 
  • Haskell, Francis (1993). "Chapter 14". Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy. 1980. Yale University Press. pp. 347–360. 
  • Template:Literary Encyclopedia
  • MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great. New York: St. Martin's Griffin
  • Orrey, Leslie; Milnes, Rodney (1987). Opera, a concise history. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20217-6.
  • Occhipinti, C. Piranesi, Mariette, Algarotti. Percorsi settecenteschi nella cultura figurativa europea. Roma, UniversItalia, 2013. ISBN 9788865074596

Gallery

  • Algarotti thumbstone on the left in neo-classical style

  • Tomb of Algarotti in Camposanto di Pisa, designed by Mauro Antonio Tesi.

  • Algarotti was involved in the design of the Französische Kirche in Potsdam; picture taken just after the war

  • Francesco Algarotti by Giovanni Boggi, who copied J.É. Liotard

External links

Authority control
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