Miniatures from the Bruni Tedeschi Collection

This catalogue presents the collection of one hundred and thirty miniatures put together by Alberto Bruni Tedeschi from the early 1950s onwards and illustrates the history of miniature portrait painting between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. Thanks to the pictorial quality of the individual works and the historical and iconographic breadth exemplified, it is an extremely interesting collection. The main European schools are represented, often by works of the most renowned artists: Jean Baptiste Jacques Augustin and Jean-Baptiste Isabey for France; George Engleheart, Andrew Plimer and Charles William Ross for England; Moritz Michael Daffinger for Austria; Augustin Ritt for Russia.
Alongside subjects of a more intimate nature, hang portraits of reigning families, great politicians, doctors and scientists. Often linked to the social world and its sentiments rather than to the political world, miniatures represent a sort of parallel history to portrait painting. The collection presented here shows a varied repertoire of techniques going from painting on ivory to that on parchment or card. After the exhibition, the miniatures will be generously donated to the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica in Turin by Tedeschi's heirs and, when the museum re-opens, will be exhibited on the piano nobile of Palazzo Madama.