Scarpia by Piers Paul Read

Author:Piers Paul Read
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408867525
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-08-19T09:50:21+00:00

Ten

1

In the middle of August 1797, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Citizen Cacault, was replaced by Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of the all-conquering general, Napoleon. He took up residence in the Palazzo Corsini on the via della Lungara with a large retinue, which included an enthusiastic republican, General Maturin-Léonard Duphot. Disregarding all diplomatic conventions, the two men set out to encourage and organise the republican agitators, providing them with funds and tricolour cockades.

Also among the entourage of the new French ambassador was the French painter Armand Ringel, who, together with Girodet, Fabre, Gérard and Gros, had been a student of Jacques-Louis David and was now considered equal to, if not superior to, his master. The Ringel family were originally from Alsace, but had lived in Paris for two generations. Armand’s father, a wigmaker like his father before him, had recognised his son’s precocious talent and sent him to the Académie Royale in the Louvre. Failing to win the Prix de Rome in 1784, Armand had gone to the Eternal City at his father’s expense to study under Winckelmann. He joined the Freemasons at the French Academy, moved in a circle that included the republican Cesare Angelotti, his sister the Marchesa Attavanti and the young painter Mario Cavaradossi, whose mother was French. Ringel earned his keep by painting exquisite portraits of rich Romans and English families making the grand tour. In 1786, he caused a scandal by seducing both the wife and the daughter of Sir Charles Webster. Sir Charles complained to the Cardinal Secretary of State, and Armand Ringel was expelled from the city.

Back in Paris, Ringel’s reputation for depravity was no impediment to a career as a portraitist, and, following the revolution in 1789, actually became an asset – an accoutrement to his Jacobin opinions. He painted superb portraits of some of the republican salonnières such as Madame Roland and Josephine de Beauharnais, and one of Josephine’s lovers, the young General Bonaparte. He had also painted portraits for the Marseilles silk merchant, François Clary, whose daughter Julie was married to Joseph Bonaparte. Another daughter, Désirée, had been briefly engaged to Napoleon. She was now the fiancée of General Duphot, and had moved into the French Embassy in Rome, the Palazzo Corsini, with her mother.

Ringel had been asked by the Directory in Paris to accompany Joseph Bonaparte to Rome and advise on what works of art should be sequestered and taken to Paris. Now thirty-five years old, he was tall and thin with fleshy lips, narrow eyes and, suffering from rosacea, a strong red knobbly nose. He was proud of his appearance, particularly his long sideburns and thick, curly blond hair which, with the demise of the wig, had come into its own. The demise of the wig had, incidentally, ruined his father, but, despite the kindness his parents had shown him as a child, Ringel was indifferent to the abject conditions in which they now lived. He had married five years before, but left his wife

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.