Became famous for creating nude paintings. Italian artist Francesco Hayez and his sensual works.

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882) was an Italian painter who worked in the art movement of Romanticism. He painted stunning portraits, beautiful and sensual nudes, and was an engraver whose prints touched on themes of political satire. During his long life he created many works on mythological and biblical subjects, and like the British artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema, he preferred to depict his contemporaries in historical settings. Subsequently, he favored allegories of all kinds, often alluding to current political events.

An accusation of adultery

Francesco was the youngest of five siblings, and his parents were in dire need of money, so they sent him to their wealthier relatives, hoping that they would be able to feed the child and ideally give him some education. Soon it turned out that Francesco could draw well, and so at the age of 7 he learned the craft from the restorer Francesco Magento. At the age of 15, Francesco was admitted to the most prestigious art school in Italy - the Academy of St. Luke.

Reflections on the Old and New Testament

The funds for his studies and life in Rome were given by Count Cicognara - at that time it was customary among the aristocracy to help gifted artists, hoping that they would repay them by painting quality paintings that could be kept in their collection or sold at a profit. Cicognara also helped with lucrative commissions, for example, with his assistance, he received an order to paint frescoes in the Vatican.

Susanna in the bath

In 1822 Francesco settled in Milan - he was attracted by this large and bustling city, with a rich trading tradition, where there were many aristocrats willing to pay well for his portraits. His style of painting is somewhat changing - earlier, under the influence of the outstanding French artist Dominique Engra, he wrote paintings in the style of neoclassicism, more austere, based on the traditions of ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, now in his work became more noticeable romantic motifs. Customers in portraits of the artist usually dressed in strict black clothes with a minimum of jewelry, the focus is on the face and character of the person, not on external attributes. And such portraits he wrote many, customers willingly posed him, and not only aristocrats, but also prominent musicians, such as the composer Gioacchino Rossini.

Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini

But Francesco Hayez was especially famous for his paintings of semi-nude and nude beauties, usually under the "fig leaf" of oriental exotica, i.e. all sorts of odalisques and piquant scenes from harem life.

Ruth

This was necessary to maintain decorum - modern European ladies should not be depicted in an unsightly manner, but odalisques from the harem - as much as they like. However, even Christian saints, in particular, Mary Magdalene, Francesco rather resembles a sensual and greedy woman, rather than a detached follower of Jesus Christ, living only with thoughts of God.

Penitent Mary Magdalene

In 1859, he painted his most famous painting, The Kiss. Few have depicted such a manifestation of love so frankly - this kiss is not chaste and modest, but passionate and sensual, the young man even holds the back of the girl's head and it is clear that they do not care about everything else, including far-fetched social decency.

A kiss

And also this picture became a kind of symbol of the struggle for the unification of Italy. At the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 wanted to thoroughly redraw the map of Europe, and Italy should be a lot of small principalities dependent on large European states, that is, practically in a state of feudal fragmentation. Of course, the Italians themselves did not like it, a young man is a soldier who is ready to fight for the unification of Italy, and kisses his beloved before going to his military unit and participating in hostilities. So all the horror of the war will be yet to come, but for now he just enjoys the last minutes of intimacy with his beloved.

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