Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Statsporträttets idé hos G. G. Pilo

1966; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 35; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00233606608603704

1651-2294

Anitra Gadolin,

Summary C. G. Pilo, Painter to the King of Denmark, and the Tradition of the Stateportrait I In 1746 a young Swedish artist, Carl Gustaf Pilo was named court‐pairiter to the newly crowned King of Denmark, Frederick V. This was quite an achievement since Pilo had been comparatively unknown before he thus entered into royal service. During 20 years of appointment to the court, covering the reign of Frederic V, he executed 57 portraits of his patron, of which 12 half‐length, 25 three quarter‐length, 15 full‐length and 4 equestrian. A full‐length portrait showing the king in coronation robes was pronounced to be his best work by a later age rediscovering Pilo as a painter of great talent. His reputation cheifly came to rest on a highly imaginative colour scheme, particularly appealing to the senses as for instance in the last mentioned portrait. There is a question however, whether in fact Pilo qualified for his task as a court painter, something which his own age occasionally felt very much entitled to question. Upon returning to his own country Pilo could even with some reason complain that the king, Gustaf III would not have his image done by him, though eagerly employing much lesser artists. II Pilo used five formulas for the stateportrait : 1) Half‐length. Body and face are slightly turned to the left, a device which will constantly reappear. The king wears a mantle decorated with crowns and a large ermine collar. The type served as a model for popular engravings. 2) Three quarter‐length. Black or shiny white armour with blue highlights. The posture was probably taken over from a portrait by Rigaud showing Frederick IV, in the Royal Collections (Frederiks‐borg). The type was intended for distribution among members of the nobility and important functionaries of state. 3) Full‐length. Coronation robes. The formula goes back to the coronation portrait of Louis XIV by Rigaud. Of the five known versions one was given to the Danish ambassador in London, two others to courtiers. 4) The figure is seated on a horse. The design, by far the most ambitious, was probably enlarged from a suitable model, preferably a French an‐graving, a fairly common method at the time. Men who played a decisive part in foreign trade, important to the Danish goverment at the time, were given a copy. By using the formula, commonly employed to celebrate victories in the military field, Pilo perhaps wanted to commemorate the victories won by his own age, though more peacefully, in mercantilism. 5) Full‐length. The subject, attired in a riding‐suit, assumes a fairly relaxed position, one hand grasping a commander's baton, the other touching a table, on which a helmet rests. There is probably an allusion to the fortunately averted crisis with Russia in the contrast between the civilian clothing and the warlike attributes. Of the two known copies, one was given to a German relation of the king, serving in the Danish army. III From early times there are two trends in the stateportrait, one taking a more individualistic view of the subject, the other prefering to be idealistic. Pilo evidently possessed a very keen sense of the appropriate pattern to be used in a certain connection. Yet, he apparently failed to recognize the state‐portrait for what it was : a symbol of spiritual and temporal forces by virtue of which the king reigned. The demand for resemblance intermingled with the necessity of using discretion when depicting the model, unfavourable traits must be suppressed in the interest of state and the distance to the spectator carefully kept. Technically Pilo probably was very much indebted to the English painter Hogarth, who was then at the height of his fame. Hogarth propagated the theory that "grace", the much admired quality of the age, could be transferred to a painting by the diligent employment of the serpentine line. Even Rigaud himself had made some use of the line, originally developed by a Frenchman, Du Fresnoy, though not approved of by the Academy. But Rigaud as a courtier would certainly know that grace could not be conveyed to a picture unless the painter himself was familiar with that subtlest and most lovable pose of decadence. Where the great Frenchman succeeded, Pilo totally failed. However, the new exalted view of man, which pervaded the century as a result of the increasing importance of discoveries made in natural sciences, tended to lead to worship of even the most peculiar physical traits as a sign of genius when in highly placed persons. Pilo indeed seems to have partaken of the entire literature on the subject. To be fair, his view of Frederick V, always hovering near downright bodily distortion, will perhaps not be entirely out of place when compared to what modern psychology says about certain physical characteristics. But the tension between colour scheme and pattern, the winding line and the flickering light are quite enough by themselves to create the atmosphere of tragedy surrounding the figure. The importance though, must be not to lose the sense of majesty in the subject. Louis Tocqué, who visited Copenhagen in' 1759 and Joseph Saly, called in from France to do the statue of the king, excelled in combining subtle psychological content with a virvid sense of, dignity in man particularly in monarchs. Great exemples are also Charles V by Tizian and Philip IV by Velázquez, princes never forgetting that they are on display though haunted by the knowledge of being strangers to the rest of human society. Pilo, an artist in his own right, instinctively felt that there was burden to earthly splendour. Curiosity conquered discretion, yet he would wait in vain for the king to drop his mask. The play must continue till the lights are out Not being a courtier and lacking the support of by‐gone times and cultures inherent in the blood of the Latin race, Pilo fatally missed the truth about the nature of his chosen art.