The Serenade (Mario and Grisi in 'Il Trovatore)
Artist
Caldesi & Montecchi
(Leonida Caldesi, 1823-1891; Mattia Montecchi, 1816-1871; Italian, active 1857 - 1867)
Date1857
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 12 1/8 × 12 3/4 inches (30.81 × 32.39 cm)
Mount: 19 3/8 × 23 13/16 inches (49.23 × 60.5 cm)
Mount: 19 3/8 × 23 13/16 inches (49.23 × 60.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2015.67.15
Signednone
Inscribednone
MarkingsOn mount verso, lower left, in pencil: "14530";
On mount verso, central bottom, in blue ink: "J.Q." [?]
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a man and woman each dressed in fancy costumes. The man plays a stringed instrument while the woman watches from the stairs.Gallery LabelFamed soprano Giulia Grisi (1811–1869) and her husband, tenor Giovanni Mario (1810–1883), reenact a scene from the Italian opera The Troubadour. Photographed in a Victorian garden rather than in a studio, the image’s setting is surprisingly at odds with the elaborate costumes and the opera’s dark themes of murder and revenge. The Troubadour debuted in 1853 to immediate international acclaim. In response, this image, taken by commercial photographic team Caldesi & Montecchi, was reproduced in various formats: for display, as illustration for sheet music, and as small, affordable, and collectible cartes-de-visite.
Purchased from Vintage Works, Ltd., Chalfont, PA by The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2015;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
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Ludwigsburg Pottery and Porcelain Factory
ca. 1763-1765
33-1365
