Praised for his use of color, his soft, perfectly measured brushwork, and his sense of composition, Gaspare Landi (6 January 1756 – 28 February 1830) – considered one of the great practitioners of Italian Neoclassical painting – acquired fame and received numerous commissions for mythological and religious paintings and portraits.
Gaspare Landi (1756-1830)
Incontro di Ettore con Andromaca
Italy, 1794
Oil on canvas
56 x 80 inches
Autograph replica of the painting in the Museo Civico, Piacenza, Italy
Provenance:
The Joseph Sorger Collection, Philadelphia, PA
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe New Mexico 2010
Literature:
Skira, Gaspare Landi, Roma, Camera dei deputati – Palazzo Monteciorio, 16 Marzo – 21 April, 2005
pg. 120
Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Edgar Peters Bowron, editor, Merrell Publishers, 2000
pg. 387 and artist bio
Exhibition History:
Peyton Wright Gallery “Annual Art of Devotion”, 2010, 2011, 2012
The featured painting depicts the last meeting of Hector and his wife Andromache as Hector is arming himself to go forth from the fortified walls of Troy to engage the invincible Achilles, a meeting which will end in his own death.
Andromache brought their infant son Astyanax, held tenderly by his wet nurse in this depiction, with her in a bid to prevent Hector from entering battle.
This painting utilizes soft lighting and tender, acutely human details; Andromache rests her head on her husband’s shoulder with a loving expression in her eyes.
Hector’s emotion at the sight of his son is made clear by his posture – his left hand clasps his helmeted forehead and his right hand is drawn back in bewilderment.
Gaspare Landi was an Italian painter of the Neoclassic period, active in Rome and his native city of Piacenza.
In 1781, at the age of 25, Landi procured a subsidy to study painting in Rome from patron and distant relative, Marquis Giambattista Landi. In Rome, he trained under Domenico Corvi and Pompeo Battoni. He is considered a rival of Vincenzo Camuccini.
Landi became a member of the Accademia di San Luca of Rome in 1805, becomimg a professor of painting theory in 1812, and president of the Academy in 1817. He was also made a Chevalier of the Order of the Iron Crown by the Emperor, of the Order of Saint Joseph, and of a Neapolitan order by the King of Naples.
Around 1820 he returned to Piacenza, intending to remain there, but soon tired of the monotonous existence of a provincial town and in 1824 re-established himself at Rome.
He was offered a post as professor of the Academy of Venice, but opted to remain as president of the Academia di San Luca.
He returned to Piacenza in 1829, where he passed away the following year.
Landi’s works are in numerous churches, galleries, museums and private collections, including San Giovanni in Canale, Piacenza, Italy; San Francesco di Paola, Naples, Italy; Galeria Borghese, Rome, Italy; Museo Correr, Venice, Italy; and others.
