9781422271759

MASTERS OF ART

PLATE 4 The Bellelli Family (c. 1858–60) Oil on canvas, 78 3 ⁄ 4 x 98 3 ⁄

8 inches (200 x 250 cm)

Degas was very fond of his aunt Laura, his father’s sister, and after he left Rome he was invited to visit her in Florence, where she lived with her husband, Baron Gennaro Bellelli, and their daughters, Giovanna and Giulia. It was Degas’ original intention to paint his aunt and her daughters, but the painting eventually included Baron Bellelli, a decision that caused his father some concern, since Gennaro was an unpredictable character. It was constructed from a number of separate sketches and completed in Paris. Degas’ first composition was not entirely satisfactory to him, and he returned to Florence to make more studies, including a full sketch of the intended composition. Back in Paris, he completed the revised work during 1860. There are a number of unresolved questions posed by the painting, not the least being the identity of the significant, defining rectangular portrait in the background. Laura is wearing black, as her father René-Hilaire had recently died, and it is suggested that the work was intended as a memento mori . Another suggestion is that the background picture is of her brother Auguste, Degas’ father, and a different interpretation is possible if that is true. However, the composition does break new ground

in that it is an interpretation in modern terms of the familiar Renaissance family portraits that Degas much admired.

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