Anna Risi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anna Risi, portrait by Anselm Feuerbach (1860), Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Anna Risi , called Nanna , was a Roman woman several important painters in the 19th century model was. For several years she was the lover and muse of Anselm Feuerbach .

biography

Anna Risi lived as the wife of a shoemaker in the Roman artisan district of Trastevere . She had already sat as a model for other painters such as Frederic Leighton when she was discovered by Feuerbach in the spring of 1860. With her classic profile, full black hair and her noble figure, she corresponded to the ideal of beauty of the time. Feuerbach was so fascinated by her that he made 28 portraits of her in six years. Almost all of them show her in a melancholy pose with lowered eyes. But numerous depictions of historical or mythological female figures such as Medea , Iphigenia , Mirjam and Bianca Cappello also bear the unmistakable traits of Anna Risi, in whom Feuerbach saw the perfect incarnation of ancient beauty.

Anna Risi, called Nanna by Feuerbach, became his lover. She left her husband and children and lived with Feuerbach for almost six years, who showered her with gifts, but also restricted her with excessive jealousy.

In 1865 Anna Risi left Feuerbach with a wealthy Englishman. This connection did not last long; three years later she begged Feuerbach in Rome in a miserable condition, but was rejected by him. In 1867, he found a new model and a new lover in Lucia Brunacci .

Little is known about Anna Risi's further life. Apparently she continued to model foreign painters. Albert Hertel , who was influenced by Feuerbach and who had also lived in Rome since 1863, created a study of her in 1866. In the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe hang a back view of Nanna painted by Ferdinand Keller and a portrait of Nanna by Nathanael Schmitt from 1874.

Exhibitions

  • 2013: Nanna. Anselm Feuerbach's Elixir of a Passion , Museum Wiesbaden ; Catalog.
  • 2014: Feuerbach's Muses - Lagerfelds Models , Hamburger Kunsthalle

literature

Web links

Commons : Portraits of Anna Risi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Feuerbach's Muses - Lagerfelds Models ( Memento from May 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Picture gallery

  • Portraits of Anna Risi by Frederic Leighton

  • A Roman Lady - La Nanna by Frederic Leighton, 1858 ( Philadelphia Museum of Art )

  • Pavonia by Frederic Leighton, 1858/1859

personal data
SURNAME Risi, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Model by Anselm Feuerbach
DATE OF BIRTH around 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH 19th century or 20th century