Page 65 - Beholding Liberty!

PERISTYLE
I.1.16
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824) [attributed] Portrait of François-René de Chateaubriand, ca. 1809
oil on canvas, 120 × 97 cm (image) / 154 × 132 cm (frame)
inscribed (dedication): ΤΗΙ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΒΟΥΛΗΙ / ΑΜΑΛΙΑ ΣΥΖΥΓΟΣ ΚΑΡΟΛΟΥ ΛΕΝΟΡΜΑΝΤ / ΩΣ ΤΕΚΜΗΡΙΟΝ ΕΥΓΝΩΜΟΣΥΝΗΣ / ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ ΤΙΜΩΝ / ΑΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΤΑΦΟΝ ΤΟΥ ΣΥΖΥΓΟΥ / ΠΡΟΣΗΝΕΓΚΕΝ / Η ΕΛΛΑΣ (inlaid, lower part of the frame, centre)
Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, inv. n. 296
AN ICONIC PORTRAIT of the Vicomte François René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), who had visited Greece before the Revolution, in 1806 [cat. no I.1.6]; with the outbreak of the Greek Struggle he became an ardent supporter of the Greek cause [cat. nos III.8.C.7-8].
This monumental full-length portrait of Chateau- briand came to define the quintessential repre- sentation of the romantic thinker – hence it is also known under the alternative title Man Meditating on the Ruins of Rome. The writer and politician is portrayed as a melancholy figure against the background of the Colosseum, a choice of setting that – in addition to the relationship with Rome, shared by both artist and sitter – has to do with the contemporaneous publication of the author’s The Martyrs (1809), which deals with the Roman persecution of Christianity.
This portrait of Chateaubriand was originally pro- duced in 1808-09 by the French painter Anne-Lou- is Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824), an im- portant exponent of Romanticism and a pupil of the leading painter of the time, Jacques-Louis Da- vid. The original portrait is now in the museum of
Chateaubriand’s birthplace, Saint-Malo in Brittany (oil on canvas, 120 × 97.5 cm, Le Musée d’Histoire de la Ville et du Pays Malouin, inv. no 50.17). Pro- duced in 1808 or (more probably) 1809, it went on display at the Paris Salon of 1810.
Girodet was on friendly terms with Chateaubriand and faithfully reproduces his facial features – a fact confirmed by the sitter’s wife in her mem- oirs. Honoré de Balzac also praised the portrait in 1838.
In any case, the success of this portrait was such that it led to replicas and copies, such as the one now in Versailles, painted in 1811 by Girodet in collaboration with his pupil, François-Louis De- juinne (oil on canvas, 128 × 98 cm, Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, inv. no MV5668, RF1724). Girodet had also produced a complete scaled study, a painting now in the historic Château de Chateaubriand in Châtenay-Malabry (oil on can- vas, 40.5×32.4cm).
The version in the Hellenic Parliament is in keep- ing with the original work, both in terms of formal characteristics – such as the overall composition and individual iconographic elements, as well as
THE AWAKENING OF HELLENISM From Archaeoloatry to Philhellenism 65