‘IL N'Y A PRESQUE PAS DE CES GÉNIES GRANDIOSES QUI ÉTONNENT LE MONDE’: UNVEILING GENIUS IN DAVID D'ANGERS'S PAGANINI by Vivienne Suvini-Hand
Abstract
This article examines the bronze portrait bust of the Italian virtuoso violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) by David d’Angers (1789-1856), a major innovator in French sculpture of the 1830s. The bust, produced between 1830 and 1833, is analyzed in the light of David’s own observations about the violinist, recorded in his notebooks, Les Carnets de David d’Angers, published posthumously in Paris in 1858. The focal point of David’s highly literary writing which includes allusions to a range of French, German and English writers, theorists and phrenologists of the Romantic period, is Paganini’s genius. It is the concept of ‘genius’ which is also most heavily pronounced in the sculptured effigy of the violinist.
The Modern Language Review Vol. 109, No. 4 (October 2014), pp. 977-995 (19 pages) Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
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