(Venice 1791–1881 Milan)
Valenza Gradenigo before the Inquisition, oil on canvas, 105 x 140 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Collection of the Counts von Lützow (according to the catalogue of Christie’s Amsterdam);
Christie’s Amsterdam, 13 December 2011, lot 165 (as German School, 19th century);
Düsseldorfer Auktionshaus, 19 May 2012, lot 556 (as unknown master of the 19th century);
Private Collection, Germany.

Compare:
A. R. Perger, Die Kunstschätze Wiens in Stahlstich, ed. by Österreichischer Lloyd in Trieste 1854, p. 247, pp. 261–265;
Elenco ms, s. d., Quadri storici ed allegorici, Carotti 1890, vol. I, p. 278;
Fernando Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez, catalogue, Federico della Motta Editore, Milan, 1994, p. 293, no. 281 (with wrong provenance).

Catalogued in:
Fernando Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez, catalogue raisonné, Federico della Motta Editore, Milan 1994, p. 225, no. 176; p. 293, no. 280.

A certificate issued by Prof. Fernando Mazzocca (February 2017) is available.

We are grateful to Prof. Fernando Mazzocca for his scientific assistance.

Given its high quality, illustrious provenance, and historic interest, this previously unknown painting is an important addition to the oeuvre of Francesco Hayez. This version, untraced until now, depicts a Venetian subject very close to the artist’s heart. This is perhaps why he has tackled it four times, albeit changing the format, technique, and composition. The first version was painted for the collection of the accountant Antonio Patrizio, administrator and friend of the family of Alessandro Manzoni and his second wife Teresa Stampa. The painting (oil on wood, 40 x 59 cm) was shown with great success at the annual exhibition of the Academy of Brera in 1832, under the title Valenza Gradenigo before her father the Inquisitor and at some point ended up in the collection of Manzoni’s stepson, Stefano Stampa. From there it entered the collection of the Academy of Brera, from whence it was stored at Villa Carlotta, Tremezzo, where it can be found on display today.(1)
The second version was also shown at Brera, in 1835, having been commissioned by the famous writer Andrea Maffei, a friend and iconographic advisor to the painter, as a gift for his wife Clara. This cultured noblewoman, a friend of Verdi’s, as well as of many other artists and intellectuals, hung the painting on the most conspicuous wall of her renowned and popular Milanese salon. This painting (oil on canvas, 96 x 115.5 cm) was acquired by the Cariplo Foundation, and is currently on display in the Gallerie d’Italia, Milan. (2)
The differences between these first two paintings are notable, starting with the technique and dimensions. Hayez moves from wood to canvas and practically doubles the size of the painting. The composition in both cases consists of four figures, but while in the first version the father and the other two inquisitors are in the background and an unconscious Valenza Gradenigo, supported by another character, is in the foreground, the second, in order to render the painting more animated and thus dramatic, shows the figure of the father standing in a prominent position in the foreground at the centre of the scene. He thus becomes the fulcrum of the painting, while the other two inquisitors, also in red robes, are seated behind him. The protagonist and her rescuer instead appear towards the back on the right, so that they are struck by the beam of light which bursts like a spotlight from the open window, partly covered by a carmine curtain, at the back.

The version in question, which should to be the third, and another, either contemporary or slightly later version, which appeared at auction at Christie’s in 2004 (oil on canvas, 95.3 x 125.1 cm), are different again from their predecessors.(3). Both are oil on canvas, slightly larger than the Maffei version, and above all depict a more complex scene through the addition of two characters.
The father is no longer in the foreground, but is still standing at the centre of the scene, while the other two inquisitors are now seated in the foreground on the left. The group composed of the unconscious Valenza Gradenigo and her rescuer, now no longer an old man but a young one, is positioned in the foreground on the right. In these more complex compositions two further characters make their appearance: a young page standing behind the two inquisitors and an older scribe, bent over a writing desk in the background. The light is more suffused and enters the room through leaded gothic mullioned windows, which confer a more Venetian tone to the surroundings.
The differences between the latter two versions, compared to the major divergences between the first two, are merely in the details, as if the artist has at this point found the definitive solution with which he is satisfied. The most relevant difference is the addition of a crimson cloth, which in our version covers a small wooden bench in the left-hand corner. The perforated arches of the gothic mullioned window are cut off at a high point in the later version, but are more visible in this one. The artist has widened the space between the two seated inquisitors and the left-hand side of the painting. The curtain, yellow in the later version, is a darker colour here, reminiscent of a funeral veil, and thus confers a more intensely dramatic feel to the scene.
The clothes of the characters are similar in colour and style, despite being rendered differently, albeit with the same masterful hand. In the later version, however, the rosary hanging from Valenza’s girdle is of particular note, absent as it is from the present painting. These are not obvious differences, but are substantive enough to confer a different tone and originality to the two paintings, which are both equally successful.
The subject matter, repeated four times, must have been particularly congenial to the painter who, as was highlighted by the contemporary press at the time the first version was exhibited, was inspired by “a French novel, Foscarini ou le patricién de Venise, which, as the subject of the tireless brush of Hayez, became the topic of a little painting full of expression.”(4). The dramatic story of the Venetian noblewoman Valenza Gradenigo would therefore correspond to a fictional addition to the historical account of Foscarini. Valenza Gradenigo ended up in the dock of the state inquisition in order to save her lover Antonio Foscarini, who was unpopular with the Venetian Republic. Her father, an inflexible judge of her feminine passion, numbered among the judges of the inquisitorial panel.
The Venetian senator Foscarini was executed in 1662 on suspicion of treason, and was the heroic protagonist of a tragedy named after him by Giovanni Battista Niccolini, published in Florence in 1827. This, however, is not the source, but perhaps only one of the inspirations behind this painting, along with another depicting Foscarini refusing to marry the fair-haired Valenza Gradenigo (Foscarini che ricusa di sposare Valenza Gradenigo il giorno delle nozze perché la trova bionda di capelli), which was exhibited at Brera in 1833. (5)
The version sold at Christie’s in 2004 was erroneously listed as part of the Lützow Collection in the auction catalogue. It had previously been sold at the Dorotheum in Vienna in 1919–1920, thus passing into the Franz Kromer Collection. In reality, that painting was listed by Hayez in the inventory of his own work as acquired by an unspecified “Viennese businessman” (“negoziante di Vienna”) (6). It was reproduced as an engraving by Domenico Gandini in the Album of 1845, accompanied by a favourable critique written by Cesare Cantù, (7) and exhibited in 1851, when it was once again reproduced. (8) The work was further mentioned in 1913 by Theodor von Frimmel, who specified it as belonging to the Beroldingen family.(9)
In fact, it is the present painting – sold at auction at Christie’s in Amsterdam n 2011 with the wrong attribution “German School 19th Century” – which can be identified as the one belonging to the famous Lützow Collection. This is confirmed by the fact that a painting by Adolf Senff, belonging to the same collection and sold in 2011, has the same frame as this one.
Rudolf von Lützow (Salzburg 1780 – Monza 1858), (10) son of the general Johann Gottfried, had a brilliant diplomatic career, first as internuncio in Constantinople, and then as a special ambassador of the Austrian Empire to the Holy See in Rome, representing his uncle the chancellor, Prince Metternich. He was a sophisticated connoisseur and collector, following in the footsteps of his grandfather. In addition to the current painting, he also acquired a further painting by Hayez, The Death of Giselda, 1844, which depicts an episode in the poem The Lombards in the First Crusade by Tommaso Grossi. (11) Among the other works in the collection, a painting by Filippo Agricola on an episode from the Greek War of Independence (Episodio della guerra d’Indipendenza in Grecia, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna) (12) is particularly important, alongside the as yet untraced first version of the magnificent Flora by Pietro Tenerani. (13)
Both his interest in sculpture and the esteem he must have enjoyed in Rome are confirmed as early as 1831 by the dedication of a volume reproducing the works of Bertel Thorvaldsen. (14) Further proof of his love of art was the 1837 project to mount an exhibition in Rome to celebrate the birthday of the Austrian Emperor.
The present painting reflects the widespread international fashion for Venetian themes, present also in literature and on the stage, particularly in melodramas. It must have been one of the most important works in the Lützow Collection, cherished for the emotional engagement and the superb formal mastery with which the scene is rendered. The decisive factor in underlining the dramatic effects and tense atmosphere is the quality of the painting technique, based on the variation of colour. This was inspired by the sixteenth-century Venetian Old Masters, in particular Veronese, and is evident in the light entering the mullioned gothic window in the background of the painting. This ray of light illuminates the protagonist to great dramatic effect, highlighting the pure hues of her white robes and her pale face. These different chromatic shades and tonal effects were rendered by means of the many coats of glaze with which Hayez used to finish off his paintings, as was the case for this composition, thereby giving them a magic touch.

Milan, 11 February 2017

Prof. Fernando Mazzocca

(1) F. Mazzocca, description in Pinacoteca di Brera. Dipinti dell’Ottocento e del Novecento. Collezioni dell’Accademia e della Pinacoteca, ed. by F. Mazzocca, Milan, Electa, 1993, vol. I, pp. 333¬¬¬–335 no. 373; F. Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez. Catalogo ragionato, Milan, Federico Motta Editore, 1994, p. 225 no. 176.
(2) F. Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez. Catalogo ragionato, op. cit., p. 243 no. 208; E. Lissoni, in Da Canova a Boccioni. Le collezioni della Fondazione Cariplo e di Intesa Sanpaolo, ed. by F. Mazzocca, Milan, Skira, 2011, pp. 183–184 no. II.17.
(3) Christie’s London. 19th Century European Art including Spanish Paintings. 18 November 2004, p. 64 no. 46. This work was recently exhibited and published by the author of the present contribution in L’Impressionismo di Zandomeneghi, catalogue of the exhibition at Palazzo Zabarella, Padua, curated by F. Dini and F. Mazzocca, Venice, Marsilio, 2016, p. 225.
(4) Le glorie dell’arti belle esposte nel Palazzo di Brera l’anno 1832, Milan 1832, pp. 74–75.
(5) This work, which was regarded as lost and was documented in an engraving published in Le glorie dell’arti belle esposte nel Palazzo di Brera l’anno 1833, Milan 1833, pp. 70–72, has recently resurfaced in a private collection.
(6) It is mentioned in the handwritten Elenco, or inventory, preserved in the Braidense National Library in Milan under the heading “Quadri storici ed allegorici, n. 78” (Historical and Allegorical Paintings, no. 78). It also appears in the inventory published by G. Carotti in his afterword to F. Hayez, Le mie memorie, Milan, Tipografia Bernardoni e Rebeschini, 1890, p. 278.
(7) Album. Esposizione di Belle Arti in Milano, Milan 1845, pp. 19–26.
(8) In Kunstschätze Wien, Trieste 1851, pp. 5, 11.
(9) T. von Frimmel, Lexikon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen, Vienna, G. Müller, 1913, pp. 104–105.
(10) C. von Würzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 16 vols. / Theil Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1867, pp. 148–150.
(11) This small-size painting was sold at Galleria Manzoni, Milan, in 1970.
(12) Garibaldi. Arte e Storia. Arte, catalogue of the exhibition held at Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome, ed. by S. Pinto, Florence, Centro Di, 1982, pp. 81–82.
(13) S. Grandesso, Pietro Tenerani (1789 – 1869), Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), Silvana Editoriale, 2003, p. 136.
(14) Intera collezione di tutte le opere inventate e scolpite dal cav. Alberto Torvaldsen. Incisa a contorni con illustrazioni del chiarissimo abate Missirini. Dedicata a sua Eccellenza Rodolfo conte di Lützow, nella tipografia di Pietro Aurelj, Rome, 1831.

Provenance:
Collection of the Counts von Lützow (according to the catalogue of Christie’s Amsterdam);
Christie’s Amsterdam, 13 December 2011, lot 165 (as German School, 19th century);
Düsseldorfer Auktionshaus, 19 May 2012, lot 556 (as unknown master of the 19th century);
Private Collection, Germany.

Catalogued in:
A. R. Perger, Die Kunstschätze Wiens in Stahlstich, ed. by Österreichischer Lloyd in Trieste 1854, p. 247, pp. 261–265;
Elenco ms, s. d., Quadri storici ed allegorici, Carotti 1890, vol. I, p. 278;
Fernando Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez, catalogue, Federico della Motta Editore, Milan, 1994, p. 293, no. 281 (with wrong provenance).

Compare:
Fernando Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez, catalogue raisonné, Federico della Motta Editore, Milan 1994, p. 225, no. 176; p. 243, no. 280.

A certificate issued by Prof. Fernando Mazzocca (February 2017) is available.

We are grateful to Prof. Fernando Mazzocca for his scientific assistance.

Given its high quality, illustrious provenance, and historic interest, this previously unknown painting is an important addition to the oeuvre of Francesco Hayez. This version, untraced until now, depicts a Venetian subject very close to the artist’s heart. This is perhaps why he has tackled it four times, albeit changing the format, technique, and composition. The first version was painted for the collection of the accountant Antonio Patrizio, administrator and friend of the family of Alessandro Manzoni and his second wife Teresa Stampa. The painting (oil on wood, 40 x 59 cm) was shown with great success at the annual exhibition of the Academy of Brera in 1832, under the title Valenza Gradenigo before her father the Inquisitor and at some point ended up in the collection of Manzoni’s stepson, Stefano Stampa. From there it entered the collection of the Academy of Brera, from whence it was stored at Villa Carlotta, Tremezzo, where it can be found on display today.(1)
The second version was also shown at Brera, in 1835, having been commissioned by the famous writer Andrea Maffei, a friend and iconographic advisor to the painter, as a gift for his wife Clara. This cultured noblewoman, a friend of Verdi’s, as well as of many other artists and intellectuals, hung the painting on the most conspicuous wall of her renowned and popular Milanese salon. This painting (oil on canvas, 96 x 115.5 cm) was acquired by the Cariplo Foundation, and is currently on display in the Gallerie d’Italia, Milan. (2)
The differences between these first two paintings are notable, starting with the technique and dimensions. Hayez moves from wood to canvas and practically doubles the size of the painting. The composition in both cases consists of four figures, but while in the first version the father and the other two inquisitors are in the background and an unconscious Valenza Gradenigo, supported by another character, is in the foreground, the second, in order to render the painting more animated and thus dramatic, shows the figure of the father standing in a prominent position in the foreground at the centre of the scene. He thus becomes the fulcrum of the painting, while the other two inquisitors, also in red robes, are seated behind him. The protagonist and her rescuer instead appear towards the back on the right, so that they are struck by the beam of light which bursts like a spotlight from the open window, partly covered by a carmine curtain, at the back.

The version in question, which should to be the third, and another, either contemporary or slightly later version, which appeared at auction at Christie’s in 2004 (oil on canvas, 95.3 x 125.1 cm), are different again from their predecessors.(3). Both are oil on canvas, slightly larger than the Maffei version, and above all depict a more complex scene through the addition of two characters.
The father is no longer in the foreground, but is still standing at the centre of the scene, while the other two inquisitors are now seated in the foreground on the left. The group composed of the unconscious Valenza Gradenigo and her rescuer, now no longer an old man but a young one, is positioned in the foreground on the right. In these more complex compositions two further characters make their appearance: a young page standing behind the two inquisitors and an older scribe, bent over a writing desk in the background. The light is more suffused and enters the room through leaded gothic mullioned windows, which confer a more Venetian tone to the surroundings.
The differences between the latter two versions, compared to the major divergences between the first two, are merely in the details, as if the artist has at this point found the definitive solution with which he is satisfied. The most relevant difference is the addition of a crimson cloth, which in our version covers a small wooden bench in the left-hand corner. The perforated arches of the gothic mullioned window are cut off at a high point in the later version, but are more visible in this one. The artist has widened the space between the two seated inquisitors and the left-hand side of the painting. The curtain, yellow in the later version, is a darker colour here, reminiscent of a funeral veil, and thus confers a more intensely dramatic feel to the scene.
The clothes of the characters are similar in colour and style, despite being rendered differently, albeit with the same masterful hand. In the later version, however, the rosary hanging from Valenza’s girdle is of particular note, absent as it is from the present painting. These are not obvious differences, but are substantive enough to confer a different tone and originality to the two paintings, which are both equally successful.
The subject matter, repeated four times, must have been particularly congenial to the painter who, as was highlighted by the contemporary press at the time the first version was exhibited, was inspired by “a French novel, Foscarini ou le patricién de Venise, which, as the subject of the tireless brush of Hayez, became the topic of a little painting full of expression.”(4). The dramatic story of the Venetian noblewoman Valenza Gradenigo would therefore correspond to a fictional addition to the historical account of Foscarini. Valenza Gradenigo ended up in the dock of the state inquisition in order to save her lover Antonio Foscarini, who was unpopular with the Venetian Republic. Her father, an inflexible judge of her feminine passion, numbered among the judges of the inquisitorial panel.
The Venetian senator Foscarini was executed in 1662 on suspicion of treason, and was the heroic protagonist of a tragedy named after him by Giovanni Battista Niccolini, published in Florence in 1827. This, however, is not the source, but perhaps only one of the inspirations behind this painting, along with another depicting Foscarini refusing to marry the fair-haired Valenza Gradenigo (Foscarini che ricusa di sposare Valenza Gradenigo il giorno delle nozze perché la trova bionda di capelli), which was exhibited at Brera in 1833. (5)
The version sold at Christie’s in 2004 was erroneously listed as part of the Lützow Collection in the auction catalogue. It had previously been sold at the Dorotheum in Vienna in 1919–1920, thus passing into the Franz Kromer Collection. In reality, that painting was listed by Hayez in the inventory of his own work as acquired by an unspecified “Viennese businessman” (“negoziante di Vienna”) (6). It was reproduced as an engraving by Domenico Gandini in the Album of 1845, accompanied by a favourable critique written by Cesare Cantù, (7) and exhibited in 1851, when it was once again reproduced. (8) The work was further mentioned in 1913 by Theodor von Frimmel, who specified it as belonging to the Beroldingen family.(9)
In fact, it is the present painting – sold at auction at Christie’s in Amsterdam n 2013 with the wrong attribution “German School 19th Century” – which can be identified as the one belonging to the famous Lützow Collection. This is confirmed by the fact that a painting by Adolf Senff, belonging to the same collection and sold in 2011, has the same frame as this one.
Rudolf von Lützow (Salzburg 1780 – Monza 1858), (10) son of the general Johann Gottfried, had a brilliant diplomatic career, first as internuncio in Constantinople, and then as a special ambassador of the Austrian Empire to the Holy See in Rome, representing his uncle the chancellor, Prince Metternich. He was a sophisticated connoisseur and collector, following in the footsteps of his grandfather. In addition to the current painting, he also acquired a further painting by Hayez, The Death of Giselda, 1844, which depicts an episode in the poem The Lombards in the First Crusade by Tommaso Grossi. (11) Among the other works in the collection, a painting by Filippo Agricola on an episode from the Greek War of Independence (Episodio della guerra d’Indipendenza in Grecia, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna) (12) is particularly important, alongside the as yet untraced first version of the magnificent Flora by Pietro Tenerani. (13)
Both his interest in sculpture and the esteem he must have enjoyed in Rome are confirmed as early as 1831 by the dedication of a volume reproducing the works of Bertel Thorvaldsen. (14) Further proof of his love of art was the 1837 project to mount an exhibition in Rome to celebrate the birthday of the Austrian Emperor.
The present painting reflects the widespread international fashion for Venetian themes, present also in literature and on the stage, particularly in melodramas. It must have been one of the most important works in the Lützow Collection, cherished for the emotional engagement and the superb formal mastery with which the scene is rendered. The decisive factor in underlining the dramatic effects and tense atmosphere is the quality of the painting technique, based on the variation of colour. This was inspired by the sixteenth-century Venetian Old Masters, in particular Veronese, and is evident in the light entering the mullioned gothic window in the background of the painting. This ray of light illuminates the protagonist to great dramatic effect, highlighting the pure hues of her white robes and her pale face. These different chromatic shades and tonal effects were rendered by means of the many coats of glaze with which Hayez used to finish off his paintings, as was the case for this composition, thereby giving them a magic touch.

Milan, 11 February 2017

Prof. Fernando Mazzocca

(1) F. Mazzocca, description in Pinacoteca di Brera. Dipinti dell’Ottocento e del Novecento. Collezioni dell’Accademia e della Pinacoteca, ed. by F. Mazzocca, Milan, Electa, 1993, vol. I, pp. 333¬¬¬–335 no. 373; F. Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez. Catalogo ragionato, Milan, Federico Motta Editore, 1994, p. 225 no. 176.
(2) F. Mazzocca, Francesco Hayez. Catalogo ragionato, op. cit., p. 243 no. 208; E. Lissoni, in Da Canova a Boccioni. Le collezioni della Fondazione Cariplo e di Intesa Sanpaolo, ed. by F. Mazzocca, Milan, Skira, 2011, pp. 183–184 no. II.17.
(3) Christie’s London. 19th Century European Art including Spanish Paintings. 18 November 2004, p. 64 no. 46. This work was recently exhibited and published by the author of the present contribution in L’Impressionismo di Zandomeneghi, catalogue of the exhibition at Palazzo Zabarella, Padua, curated by F. Dini and F. Mazzocca, Venice, Marsilio, 2016, p. 225.
(4) Le glorie dell’arti belle esposte nel Palazzo di Brera l’anno 1832, Milan 1832, pp. 74–75.
(5) This work, which was regarded as lost and was documented in an engraving published in Le glorie dell’arti belle esposte nel Palazzo di Brera l’anno 1833, Milan 1833, pp. 70–72, has recently resurfaced in a private collection.
(6) It is mentioned in the handwritten Elenco, or inventory, preserved in the Braidense National Library in Milan under the heading “Quadri storici ed allegorici, n. 78” (Historical and Allegorical Paintings, no. 78). It also appears in the inventory published by G. Carotti in his afterword to F. Hayez, Le mie memorie, Milan, Tipografia Bernardoni e Rebeschini, 1890, p. 278.
(7) Album. Esposizione di Belle Arti in Milano, Milan 1845, pp. 19–26.
(8) In Kunstschätze Wien, Trieste 1851, pp. 5, 11.
(9) T. von Frimmel, Lexikon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen, Vienna, G. Müller, 1913, pp. 104–105.
(10) C. von Würzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 16 vols. / Theil Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1867, pp. 148–150.
(11) This small-size painting was sold at Galleria Manzoni, Milan, in 1970.
(12) Garibaldi. Arte e Storia. Arte, catalogue of the exhibition held at Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome, ed. by S. Pinto, Florence, Centro Di, 1982, pp. 81–82.
(13) S. Grandesso, Pietro Tenerani (1789 – 1869), Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), Silvana Editoriale, 2003, p. 136.
(14) Intera collezione di tutte le opere inventate e scolpite dal cav. Alberto Torvaldsen. Incisa a contorni con illustrazioni del chiarissimo abate Missirini. Dedicata a sua Eccellenza Rodolfo conte di Lützow, nella tipografia di Pietro Aurelj, Rome, 1831.