Andrea Appiani

Upon Napoleon’s entry into Milan in 1796, when Appiani made a pencil portrait of the general (now in the Brera), he won great favor with Napoleon, and thus with Cisalpine society at large. He was made official painter to the court in 1801, and in this capacity was sent to Paris to produce portraits of the Beauharnais family. Appiani returned to Milan in 1803, where he began work on one of his most important projects: the Fasti di Napoleone. Commissioned by Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais, the Fasti was a series of 35 monochrome canvases for the Sala delle Cariatidi in the Palazzo Reale, Milan, that celebrate Napoleon’s military triumphs. So impressed was Napoleon with the (since largely destroyed) series that he ordered a graphic reproduction of it, which a team of engravers worked on, under Appiani’s supervision, until 1816. Appiani returned to Paris in 1804 to attend Napoleon’s coronation, where he met fellow history painter Jacques-Louis David.

Having been named ‘First Court Painter’ by Napoleon in 1805, Appiani received further commissions for portraits and fresco decoration. Between 1806 and 1808 he painted no fewer than sixteen portraits of the Emperor and of the Beauharnais family. Meanwhile, from 1808 to 1810, he decorated the interiors of the Villa Melzi d’Eril in Bellagio. Appiani’s last masterpiece was a fresco of Parnassus in the Royal Villa of Monza. It is dated to 1811, the same year that Appiani joined the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome. In 1812, the Napoleonic defeat in Russia interrupted the fresco decoration of the Royal Palace, and in the following year Appiani suffered a stroke that left him almost completely paralyzed, and put an end to his artistic career.

Despite his personal relationship with David, Appiani did not follow the severe, statuesque manner of Davidian neo-classicism. Instead, he painted with delicate tonal gradations that reflect his Milanese upbringing and fervent study of the Renaissance masters.