New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2007.

Portrait of Cristoforo Saliceti

Attribution Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar (French, 1762 - 1834)

Dateca. 1800

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions30 x 25 1/8 in. (76.2 x 63.8 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 x 32 1/8 in. (94 x 81.6 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number77.445

Terms

Portrait
Man
Cristoforo Saliceti
Statue
Minerva
Vase
Green
Red
Blue
Gray
Brown
Neoclassical

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting portrait of a young man. The background is a drape of green cloth sweeping diagonally from the upper right corner of the canvas. Behind the green is the top of a bookcase. Mid-ground is a classical Greek vase on a marble table. In the foreground the young man sits with straight posture in a casual pose. His left arm is curved intimately around a classical statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. His bulbous eyes are fixed upon her. His gray britches are neatly crossed at the knees. He wears white stockings and a navy double breasted jacket beneath which are three shirts. Two are unbuttoned and the third one is twisted high around his neck. A small open volume is balanced on his knee (the way he has the page folded over breaks the back binding). In the foreground, yet almost unobserved, at the edge of the table where Minerva stands, some books and papers almost push off the edge of the table, pushing the foreground closer to the viewer so that the viewer feels lead into the room with the young man.

Label TextAttributed to Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar French, 1762–1834 Portrait of Cristoforo Saliceti, ca. 1800 Oil on canvas Even bad guys can be made to look good. With the brilliant palette, strong outlines, and tight, polished painting method typical of early Neoclassicism, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar presents Cristoforo Saliceti as a gentleman-collector. He sits in his book-lined study with Greek vases and a statuette of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. Yet Saliceti was no gentleman. As minister of police and war in Naples, Italy, Saliceti ruthlessly pursued and destroyed anyone who was labeled an enemy of Napoleon Bonaparte’s regime. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 77.445