Date
1862
Object Type
Photograph
Subject
Antonio Tantardini, marble sculptural group depicting the kiss between the lovers Faust and Marguerite, inspired by Goethe’s Faust, in 1862.
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
About The Work
The photographic reproduction of Faust and Margarete, a work by Antonio Tantardini, is recorded in the collection of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts among the bequest of the painter Francesco Hayez, received by 1870. The marble sculptural group depicts a kiss between the lovers Faust and Margarete, protagonists of Goethe’s Faust. The couple is dressed in late fourteenth-century attire: Faust wears tights and a long-sleeved brocade doublet with wide, open outer sleeves, while Margarete is clad in a close-fitting satin gown, paired with a diamond-patterned embroidered cap and a purse hanging from her waist. Seated on a stool, Faust draws Margarete toward him, encircling her waist with his left hand and placing her arm over his shoulder with his right. The image is accompanied by an affectionate handwritten dedication from Antonio Tantardini—at the time professor of sculpture at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts—to his colleague Francesco Hayez. The unmistakable visual source for the sculptural group is Hayez’s painting The Kiss (1859). The photograph, taken by Pompeo Pozzi—himself trained within and closely connected to the academic milieu—provides important evidence of Tantardini’s working process, as the sculpture was not yet finished in December 1862. Observing the figures’ hair, one sees that it is only roughly sketched, with some fragments fallen onto the octagonal stone base. Two versions of the work were carved for the lawyer Giovanni Antona Traversi. The second, probably the one depicted here and now in the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan, was presented at the Brera Exhibition in 1864, where it met with great success among both the public and critics. In particular, Arrigo Boito interpreted it as a symbolic representation of the dialogue between Science and Conscience, an idea that provided the composer and librettist with the spark for his opera Mefistofele, first staged in 1868. This image embodies the academic cultural climate in the years following the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, marked by fertile exchanges and reciprocal influences among all the arts and their leading figures.
Title
Antonio Tantardini, Faust and Margherita or 'the Kiss'
Subject
Antonio Tantardini, marble sculptural group depicting the kiss between the lovers Faust and Marguerite, inspired by Goethe’s Faust, in 1862.
Creator
Unidentified photographer
Date
1862
Object Type
Photograph
Technique / Support
Albumen print
Original Function
Documentation / teaching tool
Dimensions
mm 435x346
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
Unique identifier
ICCD_MIDF_5120142990771