Italienischer Mittag (Fassung von 1827)

Bryullov painted this in Rome in 1827, sent there on a scholarship from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists back in Saint Petersburg. They had funded him, and they expected a certain kind of beauty. When it reached them, they complained that the woman reaching for the grapes was too ordinary, too earthy, not the graceful ideal they thought a young Russian abroad should be sending home. Bryullov wrote back that classical correctness belonged to statues, and that he wanted the living warmth of a real Italian woman in real midday light. You can see the argument in the picture. The sun comes through the leaves and lands on her arm and face, and nothing about her is arranged to flatter a committee. The exchange cooled his relations with the Society for good.