Milan 1811 c
Bronze Bronze with dark and green patina Engraving
75 x 0 cm (29 ¹/₂ x 0 inches)

Provenance

c.1808–09 Presented (?) by Luigi Manfredini to Méjan
1816 Brought to Munich with Méjan after the congress of Vienna
1846 Bavarian Royal Family
1868 Prince Adalbert of Bavaria
1875 Princess Isabella of Bavaria
1883 Brought to Italy after Isabella’s marriage to Tommaso of Savoy
By descent with Maria Luisa Alliaga Gandolfi dei Conti di Ricaldone in the middle of 1980s.

Detail Description

Luigi, Francesco and Antonio Manfredini founded the most important bronze manufactory in Italy under the Napoleonic Empire. They were in charge respectively of sculptures and medals, clocks, and bronze smith work. Their manufactory was housed in the former Church of Santa Maria alla Fontana. The manufactory’s main patron was the Viceroy Eugene de Beauharnais, through the finances of the Ministry of the Interiors and with the direct encouragement of Napoleon himself, to the point that the manufactory took the name of ‘Manifattura Nazionale dell’Eugenia’.The present bust is cast in bronze, finely chiselled, and patinated in green. The sitter is to be identified with Etienne Méjan who, after the coronation of Napoleon as King of Italy in 1805, was appointed as counsellor and State Secretary to the Viceroy Beauharnais.Our bronze bust, or probably the Giovan Battista Comolli’s wax model (now lost), served as the model for a marble bust depicting Méjan signed,‘Joseph Chinard à Lyon’, now in an important private collection.