Pictures of the Month | September 2009
Picture of the Month
September 2009
Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci [c.1773-5]
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88)
This month, the Barber Institute is celebrating 50 years of the Barber Opera with three performances of Handel’s Agrippina. To mark this, the Picture of the Month for September is Thomas Gainsborough’s Portrait of Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci.
Tenducci, a famous Italian castrato singer, is seen casually reading from sheet music, rehearsing for a performance. With his hair coiffed and lightly powdered, and wearing a yellow waistcoat and light-brown coat, Tenducci stands out from the rather uniform brownish-grey background.
A friend of both Mozart and J.C. Bach, Tenducci was a phenomenon on the British music scene after his arrival in London in 1758, and was notorious for both his extravagance and his vanity. Working chiefly in Edinburgh and Dublin, the singer’s career was dogged by scandal. Despite his success, Tenducci was frequently in debt, and often borrowed from friends. More surprising, however, was his marriage to Dora Maunsell, the 15-year-old daughter of a Dublin lawyer in 1766. The marriage was annulled nine years later on grounds of non-consummation, despite reports - including one in Giacamo Casanova’s Story of My Life – of Dora bearing two children.
The painting, while unfinished, is typical of Gainsborough’s portrait style, with its soft focus and attention to delicate details. Although he aspired to paint more landscapes, portraits were the most lucrative genre in painting. It was as a portrait painter, especially of women, that he made his name in Bath. Wearing fine silk dresses and ruched gowns, Gainsborough’s female portraits are sumptuous and individual; however, many of his male portraits arguably fail to show the strength and power of the sitter. His portrait of Tenducci bucks this trend, since the castrato possesses a feminised body, the curse of his condition.
Gainsborough was himself a talented musician, moving within the musical circles in Bath. Many of his portraits feature musicians and composers, such as Carl Friedrich Abel, and musical instruments, including lutes and cellos.
While this portrait remained unfinished, a second, more finished version was in the collection of Yves Saint Laurent, and was sold earlier this year, following the fashion designer’s death.
Laura Pitcher, Barber Intern
Chosen by Professor Colin Timms “Since it combines art and music, this painting of a famous eighteenth-century opera singer symbolises everything that the Barber Institute was created to promote. Whenever I see it, I remember the interpretation given by Ivor Keys (Professor of Music 1968-86): ‘Tenducci is inspecting a new song in order to decide whether to deign to learn it.’ The choice of this picture also coincides with the forthcoming production of Handel’s Agrippina, which can be seen at the Barber Institute on the 23, 25 and 26 September. |
| What is your favourite work of art in the Barber Institute galleries? Drop us a line at info@barber.org.uk and let us know, and we could feature your choice in a future Picture of the Month. |