Representing Duchess Anna Amalia's Bildung: A Visual Metamorphosis in Portraiture from Political to Personal in Eighteenth-Century Germany

231 Pages·2017·22.081 MB·English

by  Christina K. Lindeman

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Representing Duchess Anna

Amalia’s Bildung
The cultural milieu in the “Age of Goethe” of eighteenth- century Germany is given
fresh context in this art historical study of the noted writers’ patroness: Anna Amalia,
Duchess of Weimar- Sachsen- Eisenach. An important noblewoman and patron of
the arts, Anna Amalia transformed her court into one of the most intellectually and
culturally brilliant in Europe; this book reveals the full scope of her impact on the
history of art of this time and place. More than just biography or a patronage study,
this book closely examines the art produced by German- speaking artists and the
figure of Anna Amalia herself. Her portraits demonstrate the importance of social
networks that enabled her to construct scholarly, intellectual identities not only for
herself, but for the region she represented. By investigating ways in which the duchess
navigated within male-d ominated institutions as a means of advancing her own self-
cultivation – or Bildung – this book demonstrates the role accorded to women in
the public sphere, cultural politics, and historical memory. Cumulatively, Christina K.
Lindeman traces how Anna Amalia, a woman from a small German principality, was
represented as an active participant in enlightened discourses. The author presents
a novel and original argument concerned with how a powerful woman used art to
shape her identity, how that identity changed over time, and how people around her
shaped it – an approach that elucidates the power of portraiture in eighteenth- and
early nineteenth- century Europe.
Christina K. Lindeman is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of South
Alabama. A scholar of eighteenth-c entury art and material culture, she has contrib-
uted essays to edited volumes and Source.
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Routledge Research in Gender and Art

Routledge Research in Gender and Art is a new series in art history and visual studies,
focusing on gender, sexuality, and feminism. Proposals for monographs and edited
collections on this topic are welcomed.
Representing Duchess Anna Amalia’s Bildung
A Visual Metamorphosis from Political to Personal in Eighteenth-Century Germany
Christina K. Lindeman
Virgin Sacrifice in Classical Art
Women, Agency, and the Trojan War
Anthony F. Mangieri
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Representing Duchess Anna

Amalia’s Bildung
A Visual Metamorphosis in
Portraiture from Political to Personal
in Eighteenth-C entury Germany
Christina K. Lindeman
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First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Christina K. Lindeman
The right of Christina K. Lindeman to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978- 1- 4724- 6738- 6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 19677- 0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Out of House Publishing
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For my mother Renate and son Wyatt
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Contents

List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1

1 Setting the stage 10

2 Composing a musical portrait 22

3 Representing the female Grand Tourist 42

4 The scientific lady in Naples 68

5 Materializing Anna Amalia’s Bildung 92

6 Anna Amalia’s Gedenktafel: the making of an icon 110

Conclusion 126

Appendix A 129

Appendix B 130

Bibliography 191
Index 208
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Illustrations

Figures
0.1 Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Goethe in the Roman Campagna,
1786– 1787. Oil on canvas, 164 × 206 cm. Staedelsches Kunstinstitut,
Frankfurt, Germany. 5
2.1 Georg Melchior Kraus, Portrait of Anna Amalia, Herzogin von
Sachsen- Weimar- Eisenach, 1775. Oil on canvas, 54.8 × 43.8 cm.
Wieland Museum, Ossmannstedt. 23
2.2 François Boucher, Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, 1756. Oil
on canvas, 201 × 157 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. 24
2.3 Johann Georg Ziesenis, Portrait of Kurfürst Carl Theodor
von der Pfalz, 1757. Oil on canvas, 46 × 31.8 cm. Bayerishe
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, Germany. 26
2.4 Gottfried Eichler, “Musica,” from Des berühmten italiänischen Ritters
Caesaris Ripae allerley Künsten und Wissenschafften dienlich seyender
Sinnbilder und Gedanken… 23.9 × 18.2 cm. Houghton Library,
Harvard College Library, Cambridge. 30
2.5 Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, Herzog Karl I und Herzogin
Philippine- Charlotte von Braunschweig- Wolfenbüttel und ihre
Familie im Schlosspark von Salzdahlum, 1762. Oil on canvas.
Museumslandscaft Hessen Kassel, Schlossmuseen. 32
2.6 Antoine Pesne, Carl Heinrich Graun und seine Gemahlin Anna Luise,
1735. Oil on canvas, 140 ×110 cm. Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten
Potsdam- Sanssouci. 33
2.7 Johann Georg Ziesenis, Portrait of Anna Amalia, Herzogin von
Sachsen- Weimar- Eisenach, 1769. Oil on canvas, 143 × 104 cm.
Wittumspalais, Weimar Germany. 34
2.8 Johann Georg Ziesenis, Portrait of Philippine Charlotte Herzogin
von Braunschweig- Wolfenbüttel, 1765. Oil on canvas, 70 × 48.5 cm.
Schloss Charlottenburg. 35
2.9 François- Hubert Drouais, Portrait of Mme Favart, 1757. New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher Collection. 36
3.1 Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Anna Amalia Herzogin von Sachsen-
Weimar- Eisenach geb. Prinzessin von Braunschweig- Wolfenbüttel,
1788/ 1789. Oil on canvas. Römischen Haus, Weimar, Germany. 43
x i
Illustrations ix
3.2 Johann Georg Schütz, Anna Amalia und Reisegesellschaft im
Park der Villa d’Este in Tivoli, 1789. Watercolor on paper,
56.8 × 77 cm. Goethe- Nationalmuseum, Weimar, Germany. 52
3.3 Pompeo Batoni, Prince Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of
Braunschweig and Lüneburg, 1766. Oil on canvas, 133 × 96 cm.
Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany. 53
3.4 Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Thomas Jenkins and his Niece Anna
Maria Jenkins, 1790. Oil on canvas, 130 × 94.6 cm. National Portrait
Gallery, London, England. 56
3.5 Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Cornelia Knight, 1793. Oil on canvas,
96 × 80 cm. Manchester Art Gallery. 57
3.6 Angelica Kauffman, Self- Portrait, 1787. Oil on canvas,
128 × 93.5 cm. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. 58
3.7 Christoph Heinrich Kniep, Heroische Landschaft mit Apollo und
Midas, 1789. Gray- black pen drawing on paper, 63.3 × 91.2 cm.
Schlossmuseum, Weimar, Germany. 59
3.8 Maximillian von Verschaffelt, Poseidontempel zu Paestum, 1789.
Watercolor over gray pen drawing on paper, 50.1 × 71.8 cm.
Schlossmuseum, Weimar, Germany. 59
4.1 Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Portrait of Anna Amalia in
the Pompeian Ruins, 1789. Oil on canvas, 72 × 54 cm.
Goethe- Nationalmuseum, Weimar, Germany. 69
4.2 Christoph Heinrich Kniep, Grotte von Bonca, 1788. Gray- black
pen drawing on paper, 63.3 × 91.2 cm. Schlossmuseum,
Weimar, Germany. 75
4.3 Jacob Philipp Hackert, Das Grab der Priesterin Mammia auf der
Graberstrasse Pompeji, 1793. Gouache on paper, 58.4 × 85 cm.
Wittumspalais, Weimar, Germany. 76
4.4 Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Fan with a View of the Gulf of
Naples, 1790. Wittumspalais, Weimar, Germany. 79
4.5 Jacob Philipp Hackert Fan of the Aqueduct at Caserta, c. 1790.
Wittumspalais, Weimar, Germany. 80
4.6 Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Portrait of Lady Charlotte
Campbell, 1789. Oil on canvas, 197.2 × 134 cm. Scottish National
Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland. 85
5.1 Ferdinand Jagemann, Duchess Anna Amalia, 1805. Oil on canvas,
143 × 107 cm. Wittumspalais Museum, Weimar, Germany. 93
5.1a Detail from Ferdinand Jagemann, Duchess Anna Amalia,
1805. Oil on canvas, 143 × 107 cm. Wittumspalais Museum,
Weimar, Germany. 94
5.2 Rokokosaal, Anna Amalia Bibliothek. 97
5.3 Johann Georg Wille, Les Délices Maternelles, 1782. Engraving.
Schlossmuseum, Weimar, Germany. 99
5.4 Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Maria Teresa and Maria Luise
with a Bust of Their Mother Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, 1790.
Private collection. 102