Francesco Algarotti

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Jean-Étienne Liotard : Portrait of Francesco Algarotti (1745; Rijksmuseum Amsterdam )

Francesco Graf von Algarotti (born December 11, 1712 in Venice , † May 3, 1764 in Pisa ) was an Italian writer , art critic and art dealer .

He made science and art known to the general public in the Age of Enlightenment . Together with Voltaire , Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens , Maupertuis , Julien Offray de La Mettrie , George and James Keith , Christoph Ludwig von Stille and Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg , he belonged to the illustrious circle around Friedrich II , the Adolph von Menzel in an oil painting entitled The Round Table of Sanssouci . In 1740 the king made him count. Since 1747 he was a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . From 1747 to 1753 he lived in Berlin and at the Potsdamer Hof.

Life

Adolph von Menzel : King Frederick II. Round Table in Sanssouci (1850): Watched by Frederick II in the middle, Voltaire (second chair to the left of the king) talks to the Algarotti, who is sitting opposite.

Algarotti was the son of the wealthy Venetian merchant Rocco Algarotti (d. 1726) and his wife Maria. After studying for six years at the University of Bologna , he traveled extensively across Europe. In Cirey in Champagne in 1735 he met Voltaire , who approached him benevolently and presumably initiated the correspondence with the then Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia. In London he was accepted into the Royal Society . Algarotti had already carried out several of Newton's key experiments at the University of Bologna in 1728, which were considered to be the most conscientious and most carefully documented repetition of Newton's optical experiments. Algarotti is the author of the popular scientific work Il Newtonianismo per le dame ("Newton's Doctrine for Women"), which was first published in Venice in 1737 and conformed to Fontenelle's principle, according to which even difficult scientific problems should be presented so elegantly and easily that also Ladies could deal with it without being bored. This bestseller, translated into several languages, made Algarotti a European celebrity and made a significant contribution to promoting Newton's physics on the continent.

In London he became friends with Antioch Dmitrijewitsch Kantemir and was allowed to keep the artistically and scientifically interested Queen Caroline (1683–1737) company on her promenades. Probably at the instigation of Kantemir and Lord Burlington, Algarotti was invited to accompany the delegation of the English government headed by Captain Lord Baltimore to the wedding of the Czarin's niece, Elisabeth Katharina Christine von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, with Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in St. Petersburg . From the diary entries of this trip, the work Viaggi di Russia ("Russian Journey") emerged, which appeared for the first time in 1760 and found many readers.

On the way back from St. Petersburg, Algarotti and Lord Burlington were invited to the court of the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I in Potsdam in the late summer of 1739 . From there it went to Rheinsberg Castle to see Crown Prince Friedrich, who immediately made friends with the Italian of the same age.

Jean-Étienne Liotard : The Chocolate Girl (around 1743; Old Masters Picture Gallery ). The pastel picture was bought by Algarotti for Dresden in 1745.

Algarotti was in London when the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I died on May 31, 1740. The new king, Frederick II, called Algarotti over with a few haunting lines. Algarotti accompanied the king on his homage journey to Königsberg . Friedrich raised his new partner to the rank of count and took him on a trip in August which, after a visit to King Wilhelmine's favorite sister in Bayreuth, was to lead to the Brandenburg-Prussian possessions on the Lower Rhine. On the way there, Friedrich left the tour company and traveled incognito with Prince August Wilhelm and Algarotti to the French border in Kehl and from there to Strasbourg . After the incognito of the royal retinue had been lifted by a soldier who had previously served in Prussia, Friedrich and his retinue left France immediately. In the presence of Algarotti, Friedrich met Voltaire for the first time at Moyland Castle near Kleve.

In 1741 Algarotti went on a diplomatic mission for the King of Prussia to Turin to persuade the King of Piedmont-Sardinia ( Kingdom of Sardinia ) to attack Austrian possessions in Italy and thus relieve Prussian troops on the Silesian theater of war. This mission was unsuccessful.

Algarotti came to the Saxon court in Dresden in 1742 and made the art-loving King August III. with a memorandum marked by a high level of expertise on the addition and completion of the royal art collections ( Progetto per ridurre a compimento il Regio Museo di Dresda ). Algarotti had thus qualified as an art connoisseur and was commissioned by August III. sent to Italy in March 1743 to buy pictures by classical and modern painters for the art collections in Dresden after careful examination of authenticity and origin. On a total of four trips to Italy between 1743 and 1746, Algarotti acquired a total of 34 paintings, including many of the central exhibits of the Dresden State Art Collections . August III. was satisfied and appointed Algarotti to the council of war. But Algarotti's zeal and ambition and, last but not least, his claims to title and position brought him into conflict with the actual ruler of Saxony, the all-powerful Prime Minister Heinrich von Brühl , who had been omnipotent since 1738, and his secretary Carl Heinrich von Heineken . He felt ignored and turned away from Dresden, deeply hurt and bitterly disappointed.

Algarotti's epitaph on the Camposanto Monumentale , Pisa

Algarotti returned to Berlin in mid-March 1747 and was greeted with joy by Friedrich II. He appointed him his chamberlain, awarded him an annual pension and awarded him on April 23, 1747 with the newly created order Pour le Mérite . This was a special honor because this order, founded by Frederick II in 1740, was only awarded to officers for military service. Along with Voltaire and Maupertuis, Algarotti was one of the few civilian exceptions to receive this war medal. Algarotti remained in Berlin as a prominent member of Friedrich II's round table until 1753. He advised the king, with whom he agreed on questions of taste, art, literature and philosophy, both in transforming Potsdam into a prestigious royal seat and in the ambitious plans to transform the Prussian capital into a center of the arts. Since 1747 he was a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

Algarotti traveled to Italy in 1753 for health reasons. From there he continued to correspond with Friedrich II, provided him with Italian literature and sent him broccoli and melon seeds to Potsdam. He also regularly delivered bottarga , processed caviar for the royal table.

Algarotti died of tuberculosis . Friedrich II arranged for the complete works of his friend to be translated. The tomb on the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa was also created at the instigation of Frederick. The inscription on the marble epitaph reads: Algarotto Ovidii Aemulo / Newtoni Discipulo / Fridericus Magnus ("Algarotti, the emulator of Ovid / the pupil of Newton / Frederick the Great").

Works

Edition of Saggi , 1963
  • Il newtonianismo per le dame ovvero Dialoghi sopra la luce ei colori . Naples [actually Venice] 1737 ( digitized version of the Milan 1739 edition ).
    • French translation: Le Newtonianisme pour les dames, ou Entretiens sur la lumière, sur les couleurs, et sur l'attraction . Traduits de l'Italien de M. Algarotti par [Louis-Adrien] Du Perron de Castera. Montalant, Paris 1738 ( digitized version of the first volume of the 1739 edition )
    • German translation: Jo. Newton's world science for women or conversations about light, colors and attractive power. From the Italian of Mr. Algarotti, translated into French by Mr. [Louis-Adrien] du Perron de Castera and from this into German. Schröder, Braunschweig 1745.
  • Il congresso di Citera . Naples 1745 ( digitized from the seventh edition, London 1765 ).
    • French translation: Le Congrès de Cythère . In: Œuvres du Comte Algarotti . Traduit de l'italien. Volume 7. GJ Decker, Berlin 1772 ( digitized version of this edition ).
  • Saggio sopra l'opera in musica . Marco Coltellini, Livorno 1763 ( digitized version ).
  • Experiments on architecture, Mahlerey and musical opera , translated from the Italian by Count Algarotti by RE Raspe . Johann Friedrich Hemmerde, Kassel 1769 ( digitized version ).
  • Essai sur la peinture et sur l'Académie de France, établie à Rome . Merlin, Paris 1769 ( digitized ).
  • Mixed thoughts (= eighth volume of the work edition). 1765.
  • Sopra la ricchezza della lingua italiana ne 'termini militari . In: Opere del conte Algarotti. Carlo Palese, Venice 1791; today Biblioteca Italiana, Rome 2003 ( digitized version ).
  • Correspondence with Friedrich II. Gropius, Berlin 1837 ( digitized version ).
  • Hans Posse , Count Francesco Algarotti's letters to the Saxon Court and his picture purchases for the Dresden Picture Gallery 1743–1747. Grote, Berlin 1931.
  • Saggi . Edited by Giovanni da Pozzo. Giuseppe Laterza & figli, Bari 1963 ( digitized version ).
  • Opere di Francesco Algarotti e di Saverio Bettinelli . Ricciardi, Milan, et al. 1969.
  • Writings on art . Edited, translated and commented by Hans W. Schumacher. Berlin 2011.

literature

  • Frieder von Ammon, Jörg Krämer, Florian Mehltretter (Hrsg.): Opera of the Enlightenment - Enlightenment of the Opera. Francesco Algarotti's “Saggio sopra l'opera in musica” in context. With an annotated edition of the 5th version of “Saggio” and its translation by Rudolf Erich Raspe (= Early Modern Age 214). Berlin and Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-054209-7 .
  • Ettore Bonora:  Algarotti, Francesco. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 2:  Albicante – Ammannati. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1960.
  • Walter Bussmann:  Algarotti, Francesco Graf von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 199 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ernst Friedländer:  Algarotti, Franz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 340.
  • Francis Haskell : Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy. Yale University Press 1980, pp. 347-360.
  • G. MacDonogh: Frederick the Great . St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999.
  • Massimo Mazzotti: Newton for ladies: gentility, gender and radical culture. In: British Journal for the History of Science. 37 (2), June 2004, pp. 119-146.
  • Norbert Schmitz: The Italian friend. Francesco Algarotti and Frederick the Great. Hanover 2012, ISBN 978-3-86525-289-0 .
  • Hans Schumacher (Ed.): Francesco Algarotti. A philosophical courtier in the century of the Enlightenment. Wehrhahn, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-86525-216-6 . Posts:
    • Brunhilde Wehinger: writer-philosopher, cosmopolitan, enlightener. Francesco Algarotti between court and city culture, baroque and classicism. Pp. 7-15.
    • Brunhilde Wehinger: “Mon cher Algarotti”. On the correspondence between Frederick the Great and Francesco Algarotti. Pp. 71-97.
    • Jörg Deuter: Representation and function. Algarotti, Lodoli and “der Klassizismus” , pp. 161–200.
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Algarotti, Franz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 1st part. University book printer L. C. Zamarski (formerly JP Sollinger), Vienna 1856, p. 13 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Francesco Algarotti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Massimo Mazzotti: Newton for ladies: gentility, gender and radical culture. In: British Journal for the History of Science 37/2 (June 2004), p. 124.
  2. ^ Preliminary report by the translator. In: Francesco Algarotti: Correspondence with Friedrich II . Based on the Italian original from 1799 with a foreword by the translator Friedrich Fursten from 1837. Published by Wieland Giebel. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 5–13 ( online )
  3. ↑ Walter Koschatzky (Ed.): Maria Theresia and their time. For the 200th anniversary of death. Exhibition May 13 to October 26, 1980, Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace. Organized by the Federal Ministry of Science and Research on behalf of the Austrian Federal Government. Catalog. Gistel, Vienna 1980, p. 313.
  4. ↑ G. MacDonogh (1999): Frederick the Great , pp. 142-145.
  5. ^ G. MacDonogh (1999): Frederick the Great , p. 191.
  6. ^ Gustav Lehmann: The knights of the order pour le mérite . First volume. Berlin 1913, page 36: "Spenersche Zeitung May 2nd 1747 [...], His Majesty the King have pardoned Dero Chamberlain Count A. with the order plm".
  7. ^ Members of the previous academies. Francesco Count of Algarotti. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 14, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Algarotti, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Algarotti, Count Francesco of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian philosopher and art critic
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1712
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1764
Place of death Pisa