Portrait of Andrea Appiani the Elder (1754-1817)
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt
Accession Number
1931-94-87
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
This print by Italian artist Filippo Caporali offers a posthumous portrait of Andrea Appiani the Elder, created around 1840, more than two decades after the subject's death in 1817. As a reproductive print, it likely served to preserve and circulate the image of Appiani, a figure whose life spanned the late Enlightenment and Napoleonic eras in. Such works helped keep notable personalities visible to later generations through an accessible medium. Prints like this one played a vital role in 19th-century visual culture by allowing wider distribution than unique paintings or drawings. Caporali, ...