Reconstructing the archangel: Corelli 'ad vivum pinxit'

Abstract

Hugh Howard's portrait of Corelli is described by John Smith in his mezzotint copy as 'ad vivum pinxit' ('painted from the life'). This promise of a quasi-photographic, documentary accuracy needs to be treated with some scepticism, however. Howard, under the tutelage of the distinguished portrait painter Carlo Maratti, spent much of his three years in Italy copying other paintings (including Maratti's own self-portrait). It seems unlikely, in any case, that (even in view of the patronage of Lord Edgcumbe) Corelli would have been willing to sit for this relatively obscure semi-professional painter. Howard completed three versions of the Corelli portrait and the musical detail in two of these suggests that their real interest lies not in providing a reliable guide to Corelli's appearance but in what Barthes called 'la rhetorique de l'image'. (The widespread use of engraved copies of these portraits as frontispieces to Corelli editions underlines their role in constructing a persona of a serious and learned musician.) This is most obvious through the allusions in the painted border of one of the portraits to Corelli's op.3 no.7 and op.5, no.6—both contrapuntal movements.