Mercury Gives Paris the Apple of Discord

mythological

Hayez worked on the decoration of the interiors of the Napoleonic Wing, the building which ran between the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove, the two long arcades of buildings which extend the length of St Mark's Square and had housed the offices and residences of some of the most important political authorities of the Venetian Republic. In the nineteenth century, when Venice was under the rule of Austria, it served as the official residence of the Habsburg Court during its frequent visits to the city, and after would become the Venetian residence of the king of Italy. Presently the building houses the Museo Correr.

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Mercury Gives Paris the Apple of Discord

About the Artist

Francesco Hayez

1791 – 1882

Italian painter, active mainly in Milan. Hayez was the most important figure in the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism in Italian painting, but his Romantic leanings come out mainly in subject-matter rather than in technique, the clear outlines he favoured revealing his training in Rome in the circle of Canova and Ingres. He painted religious, historical, and mythological works in a vein owing something to Delacroix and Delaroche, and portraits that are sometimes thought worthy of comparison with those of Ingres. Many of the most eminent Italians of the day sat for him. For many years he taught at the Brera in Milan (he became Director in 1860) and he exercised great influence on his pupils. The Brera has an outstanding collection of his work.

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