The Apollo Belvedere (Grisaille Paintings of Classical Statuary: a set of eight reproductions of celebrated antiques with the addition of niches, pedestals, classical masonry, trees, etc.)
Louis Gabriel Blanchet (1705 - 1772)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1765 - 1765
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
972 x 730 mm (38 1/4 x 28 3/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872541
Caption
The Apollo Belvedere was rediscovered and owned by Giuliano della Rovere at SS Apostoli, Florence before he became Pope Julius II and installed it in the Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican, Rome, after 1506, now in the Vatican Museums. This is one of a set of eight paintings of celebrated classical antique marble statues from ancient Greek statuary, painted in grisaille (grey-green monochrome colour) by Louis-Gabriel Blanchet in 1765 with the addition of niches, pedestals and trees. The set was probably commissioned as souvenirs, by John Parker, MP (1734/5 – 1788) during his Grand Tour of Italy, with his first wife, in 1764, and may have occupied a garden building at Saltram.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Apollo Belvedere (Grisaille Paintings of Classical Statuary: a set of eight reproductions of celebrated antiques with the addition of niches, pedestals, classical masonry, trees, etc.), Louis Gabriel Blanchet (1705-1772), signed (very faintly) bottom left: L.G. Blanchet. Reproductions of celebrated Antiques with the addition of niches, pedestals, classical masonry, trees etc.
Provenance
Probably commissioned by John Parker, later Lord Boringdon, on his Grand Tour, 1765; then, from the absence of any reference to them in catalogues or inventories and their plain white frames, probably set into the walls of some garden building; given to the National Trust as part of the endowment by Montagu Brownlow Parker, 5th Earl of Morley (1878-1962)
Credit line
Saltram, The Morley Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: Signed (very faintly) bottom left: L.G. Blanchet
Makers and roles
Louis Gabriel Blanchet (1705 - 1772) , artist
References
Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, Tate Gallery, London, 10 October 1996 – 5 January 1997 and Palazzo della Esposizioni, Rome, 5 February 1997 - 7 April 1997, p. 252, no. 207