Rosalba Carriera

Flamboyant and assured, this engaging pastel by the acclaimed Venetian female artist, Rosalba Carriera, depicts the English historian, literary scholar and anecdotist, Joseph Spence (1699-1768). Rosalba Carriera was a pioneer of the pastel technique. She was prolific in terms of her output of portraits, allegories and personifications and stands out amongst pastellists for her subtle and delicate choice of palette, her use of sfumato and for her interest in portraying the sitter’s inner psychology.

The erroneous attribution to the Swiss pastellist, Jean-Étienne Liotard, in 1978, seems unimaginable when confronted with the portrait today, as it embodies so many of the attributes we associate with Rosalba’s oeuvre.¹ Benedetta Sani remarks on this incongruous attribution to Liotard, highlighting the instantly recognisable techniques and elements employed by the artist, especially in the distribution of light and the treatment of the physiognomy.²

Joseph Spence, whose own writings provide documentary evidence that he sat for Rosalba, embarked on his third Grand Tour in 1739-41 and together with Horace Walpole and Lord Lincoln, posed, in Italy, for the famous Venetian pastellist. In Spence’s Observations, anecdotes and characters of Books and Men, published in 1820, he recalls the conversations he had with Rosalba, discussing the importance of capturing the character of the sitter and the importance of the eyes in achieving a likeness. Spence noted that when conversing about Titian’s Barbarigo Magadalene, Rosalba said that she cries not only with her eyes, but ‘jusqu’au bout des doigts.’³ The recollections also include how the artist could gauge people’s temperament by their faces: ‘I have been so long used to study features and expressions of the mind by them, that I know people’s tempers by their faces.’ Reacting inquisitively to this statement, Spence enquired, ‘what is my temper’ to which she replied, 'neither happy nor melancholy, but a good mixture'.⁴

This portrait demonstrates Rosalba’s self-proclaimed skills in human observation and her ability to handle, with spontaneity and ease, the notoriously difficult medium of pastel. Here, Spence’s eyes look slightly upwards, creating a sense of movement and quiet animation to his face. Nothing feels static in his expression nor in the way his garments have been rendered. Neil Jeffares describes one of Rosalba’s hallmark techniques in handling pastel: 'the use of the flat side of a chalk dragged over a contrasting colour to depict lace effectively rather than accurately.’⁵ The textures created in the undulations in the velvet of Spence's coat and in his hat add to the sense of gentle movement throughout the portrait. The slight parting of his lips, as though on the verge of speaking, poignantly and metaphorically link the sitter with his renowned publication of anecdotes based on conversations; the portrait is as vivid today as when Spence sat for Rosalba in the 18^th Century.

1. R. Loche & M. Roethlisberger, 1978, op.cit., no. cat. no. 154 (as Jean-Étienne Liotard);

2. B. Sani, 2007, op.cit., cat. no. 392, p. 343

3. Ibid

4. Ibid

5. N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, Rosalba Carriera (Essay), online edition,  p. 4