Oil painting, 'Tasso Reading Before the Duke of Ferrara', Elie-Honoré Montagny, 1815

In a lavishly decorated internal setting, a man in 16th-century costume is reading before two figures seated on a throne-like chairs; pages stand behind, a table with sheets of paper and ink pot with quill pens in the right background.

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886
Ref: Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, (Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990), p.xx.
Joshua Dixon (1811-1885), was the son of Abraham Dixon of Whitehaven and brother of George Dixon (who was head of the foreign merchants firm of Rabone Brothers in Birmingham 1883-98). Educated at Leeds Grammar School, and was deputy chairman of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company 1869-70. Died Winslade, near Exeter, 7 December 1885. Bequeathed all his collection of drawings, watercolours and oil paintings to the Bethnal Green Museum; they have since been transferred to the V&A. He also collected engravings, Japanese vases and panels, and bronze and marble sculpture.

Historical significance: This painting is a fine example of Montagny's history paintings, a genre in which he specialised after studying with David. The present painting shows the famous Renaissance author Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) reading before his patrons, the Duke Alfonso II d'Este and his wife Princess Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara. Torquato Tasso composed a successful pastoral drama, Aminta, and an even more famous epic poem, Gerusalemme liberata. He is most likely represented reading one of these two masterpieces.

The setting however has some Neoclassical design and does not reflect very accurately the taste of the 16th-century Ferrarese society. While the costumes are representative of 16th-century Italian fashion, the setting and furniture appear Neoclassical.

This painting is a fine example of the troubadour style, an aesthetic movement that aimed to renew the classical tradition by focusing on subject matters drawn from medieval history. This movement preceded Romanticism, with which it shared a devotion to the past and had among its most famous exponents: Ingres (1780-1867), Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) and Delacroix (1798-1863. Montagny apparently painted another version of this painting in a smaller format, which was formerly in the palace of the King of Naples. However Montagny is more famous for his compositions inspired by the Greek and Roman history and mythology such as Apollo and Phaeton, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon.

History painting, i.e. depictions of non recurring events based on religious, classical, literary or allegorical sources, particularly developed in Italy during the Renaissance (15th-16th centuries). History painting could include religious themes, or depictions of momentous recent events, but the term was most frequently associated with Classical subject-matter. However a renewed impetus was given to religious subjects after the Council of Trent (1545-63), which stipulated new iconographical programmes. The development of art treatises, in which the compositional rules guiding the art of painting were discussed also notably influenced the evolution of history painting. From around 1600, history painting's principal rivals: still-life, landscape and genre painting began to emerge as independent collectable genres. Furthermore, the Rococo taste for the ornamental in the early 18th century prioritised the decorative quality of history painting, so that subject matters became more entertaining rather than exemplary. There was a renewed interest in history painting during the Neo-Classical period after which the taste for such pictures faded towards the end of the 19th century when an innovative approach to the image was led by the Symbolists and was developed further by subsequent schools in the early 20th century.

Elie-Honoré Montagny (died 1864) was born in Paris and entered the studio of Jacques Louis David (1748-1825). He journeyed to Italy and was appointed official painter to the Queen Caroline in Naples. He was the author of a perspective treatise adapted from Serlio and is famous for his Recueil d'antiquités trouvées à Herculanum which records design from the antique decoration of the city (1804-05, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles).

This work is a good example of French history painting from the early 19th century. It depicts the Italian author Torquato Tasso reading before the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara. Executed in Neoclassical manner with great accuracy of details such as the costumes and the setting, this painting is a good example of the Troubadour style, a branch within the Neoclassical movement, which favoured subject from the medieval and Renaissance times.

1059-1886