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Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-c. 1780)

Giovanni Maria Morandi (1622-1717) c.1772-80

7.2 x 5.5 cm (sight) | RCIN 421269

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  • Giovanni Maria Morandi (1622-1717) was a Florentine painter. He trained as a page for the Medici family and then, according to his biographers Lione Pascoli and Nicola Pio, he was invited to Rome by Duke Jacopo Salviati (1607-1672), who had moved there from Florence in 1634. Morandi worked for the Salviati throughout his life. He painted three large canvases with mythological scenes for the centre of the vaults of three rooms in the family palace, but they were removed in 1883 and are now lost. Between 1651 and 1655, Morandi probably travelled in northern Italy, visiting Bologna, Modena, Padua, Milan and Venice among other cities. Back in Rome, Morandi was involved in two of the major church projects commissioned by Pope Alexander VII (previously Cardinal Fabio Chigi), shortly after he was elected in 1655: the restructuring and redecorating of the two churches of S. Maria del Popolo and S. Maria della Pace, the first under the direction of Bernini and his assistants, the second under Pietro da Cortona. Morandi also began to make a name for himself as a portraitist, and in 1657, he joined the Accademia di S. Luca, where he was principal in 1671 and 1680. In the mid-1660s, he was called to Vienna by Leopold I, then was recalled to Rome by the newly elected Clement IX in 1667. The Chigi patronage of Morandi extended well into the 1670s and to projects outside Rome. He painted two large altarpieces for churches in Siena, the home town of the Chigi. His last known altarpiece in Rome is the Pentecost in the Cappella Giraud in S. Maria in Vallicella, painted around 1696-7 when Morandi was 74 years old.

    This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series).Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.

    Provenance

    Presented to George III by Lord Cowper

  • Medium and techniques
    Measurements

    7.2 x 5.5 cm (sight)


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