Count Giacomo Durazzo (1717–1794) and Ernestine Aloisia Ungnad von Weissenwolff (1732–1794)

The Artist: Marten van Meytens the Younger was born in Stockholm in 1695 to a Dutch portrait painter from The Hague who had moved to Sweden in 1677. Having trained initially under his father, Meytens set out in 1714 for some sixteen years of itinerant study and work in major European centers, including London, Paris, Dresden, Vienna, Venice, Rome, and Florence. He quickly became a preferred portraitist of royalty and the nobility. About 1730 Meytens settled in Vienna, where he had already forged connections with Emperor Charles VI several years earlier, and he remained there until his death in 1770. He achieved greatest renown during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, his most important patron. A major figure in Vienna’s artistic scene, Meytens headed a large workshop and from 1759 onward served as director of the Imperial art academy.

The Picture: The large, unsigned double portrait belonging to The Met was attributed to Meytens on stylistic grounds after its acquisition in 1950. Although the painting is cited in early biographies of Meytens (see Leben Herrn Martin von Meytens 1768, p. 153; Gahm Persson 1784, p. 153; Lisholm 1974, pp. 110, 122), in modern times the sitters remained unidentified until Bruce Alan Brown (1997) recognized them as Count Giacomo Durazzo (1717–1794) and his wife, Ernestine Aloisia Ungnad von Weissenwolff (1732–1794). Brown noted the matching physiognomy in an engraved, half-length likeness of Durazzo made in 1765 by Jakob Schmutzer and Joseph Wagner after a painting by Meytens. The similarity in costume and pose in the engraving suggests that that representation of Durazzo was likely adapted from the Museum’s painting, which therefore must date earlier, probably before 1764, the year Durazzo moved from Vienna to Venice. Brown (1997, p. 164) proposed a date in the late 1750s or early 1760s, "consistent with the chronology of Durazzo’s rising status at [the Vienna] court and international renown." Another painted likeness of Count Durazzo in a private collection has been attributed to Meytens (see Sotheby’s, New York, January 24, 2008, no. 364).

Giacomo Durazzo, who hailed from Genoa, was court theater director in Vienna, Austrian ambassador to Venice, and a savvy print collector. His handing over of about a thousand works of art to Duke Albert of Sachsen-Teschen in 1776 formed the basis of the eponymous Albertina graphic art collection in Vienna. Count Durazzo and Weissenwolff, a famed beauty who was well-connected in Viennese society, were married in 1750.

Meytens depicted the couple as hunters in a woodland setting. They sit on the bank of a stream that cuts across the left foreground. The main colors of the costumes—red, white, blue, and gold—reflect the color schemes of both the Durazzo and Weissenwolff coats of arms (Leoncini in Genoa 2004, p. 348), and the three lilies among the flowers in Weissenwolff’s hair may refer to the three fleurs-de-lis in the Durazzo arms (Brown 1997, p. 166). The dog at the lower right guards the couple’s quarry of game birds, and the lapdog that is seated on Durazzo but tethered to a leash held by Weissenwolff may allude to the husband being "subservient in love" (Brown 1997, p. 161). The dual themes of the hunt and love were important in the artistic life of the count, who in 1755 had penned a libretto entitled Le cacciatrici amanti (The Amorous Huntresses), which concerns the goddess Diana and her retinue. It is the countess, however, who is documented as having closer connections to the hunt in practice, both as a skilled shooter and archer and as an enthusiastic falconer (Brown 1997, pp. 167–68).

Joshua P. Waterman 2013

[Bacri Frères, Paris]; Mr. and Mrs. John E. Aldred, Lattingtown, N.Y. (until 1940; sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, December 6, 1940, no. 21, as "King Louis XV and Queen Maria Lesczinska," by Louis Michel van Loo, for $2,000 to Spingold); Mr. and Mrs. Nate B. Spingold, New York (1940–50, as by François Desportes)

Genoa. Palazzo Reale. "Da Tintoretto a Rubens: capolavori della collezione Durazzo," July 14–October 3, 2004, no. 74.

Vienna. Albertina. "Die Gründung der Albertina: Zwischen Dürer und Napoleon," March 14–June 29, 2014, unnumbered cat.

"Leben Herrn Martin von Meytens, kaiserl. Direktor der Mahler, Bildhauer- und Architect-Akademie in Wien." Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste. Leipzig, 1768, vol. 7, p. 153, refers to a life size family portrait which Meytens made for Count "Buratro" [sic, see Refs. Lisholm 1974, p. 122, and Brown 1997, pp. 164, 172 n. 18].

S. L. Gahm Persson. Framlidne stora Swenska Konstnärens . . . Herr Martin van Meytens . . . Stockholm, 1784, p. 153, [see Ref. Lisholm 1974, p. 110].

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 71.

Birgitta Lisholm. Martin van Meytens d. y.: hans liv och hans verk. Malmö, Sweden, 1974, pp. 68, 110, no. 186, p. 122, notes that the portrait Meytens made for a Count "Buratro" [see Ref. 1768] must, instead, have been made for Durazzo.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 230, ill.

Bruce Alan Brown. "I cacciatori amanti: The Portrait of Count Giacomo Durazzo and His Wife by Martin van Meytens the Younger." Metropolitan Museum Journal 32 (1997), pp. 161–74, fig. 1, identifies the sitters; notes that a 1765 engraving of Durazzo derived from the present picture is inscribed "Le C[omte] Jacques Durazzo / Ambassadeur Imperial / a [sic] Venise en MDCCLXV / Peint par Maytens / Commencé a Vienne par Schmutzer / Achevé a Venise par Wagner"; notes that both sitters were patrons of the arts, and that the count collected graphic arts on behalf of Albert, duke of Sachsen-Teschen, laying the foundation for the Albertina; suggests that the three lilies in the Countess's hair may refer to the branches of the Durazzo family; as Durazzo wrote the libretto for the opera "Le cacciatrici amanti," first performed in 1755, suggests that the hunting subject-matter in this portrait may reflect his preoccupation with this opera, or may refer to his wife's skill with the crossbow and rifle .

Luca Leoncini in Da Tintoretto a Rubens: capolavori della collezione Durazzo. Ed. Luca Leoncini. Exh. cat., Palazzo Reale, Genoa. Milan, 2004, pp. 348–49, no. 74, ill. (color).

Giacomo Durazzo: teatro musicale e collezionismo tra Genova, Parigi, Vienna e Venezia. Ed. Luca Leoncini. Exh. cat., Museo di Palazzo Reale. Genoa, 2012, ill. pp. 30–33 (color, overall, detail, and gallery installation photographs).

Ingrid Ciulisová. Men of Taste: Essays on Art Collecting in East-Central Europe. Bratislava, 2014, p. 22, fig. 5 (color).