Lot 1302 Dα

Like the previous lot “View of the Arno Valley and Fiesole” (lot 1301), Hackert also painted this “View of Maddaloni” for Sir John Francis Edward Acton. What was written about the “View of the Arno Valley and Fiesole” also applies to this work. Its significance arises from the artist's friendship with the work's British patron and the fact that the prime version painted for Grand Duke Karl-Ernst of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach is now lost. Like the “View of the Arno Valley and Fiesole”, the present work has also been in German private ownership for over 100 years, and for many years nothing was known of its existence.
Whilst the “View of the Arno Valley and Fiesole” depicts a landscape in Tuscany, the present work depicts the Campagna in Southern Italy. It shows the town of Maddaloni at the base of Monte Michele near Caserta seen from the south. Caserta was the site of the palace of Ferdinand IV, where Hackert resided for over 14 years as court painter. The present work can be described as a “landscape portrait” (Nordhoff), the churches and towers of Maddaloni are clearly recognisable in the image. A river also runs through this painting, presumably the Fosso dell´Aia. The water mill on the river, the herds, and the dozing shepherd in the foreground demonstrate the fecundity of the landscape and evoke an idyllic Arcadian vision of Italy.

Castera and Florence, Tuscany and the Campagna were the great geographical points of reference for both painter and patron, and held personal significance for both Acton and Hackert. Jacob Philipp Hackert, a German artist from Prenzlau, became court painter for Ferdinand IV of Naples in 1786. He left Naples in 1799, the year of the French invasion, and resettled to Florence, where he also painted this landscape. Sir John Francis Edward Acton was born in Lyon and pursued a glittering political career in two Italian courts. He first served Grand Duke Leopold in Tuscany and later moved to the Neapolitan court of Ferdinand IV, serving in many important positions and eventually achieving the rank of “Primo Ministro”. After the French invasion, Acton withdrew to Sicily with the King.

Acton and Hackert became friends whilst at the court of Ferdinand IV. They met frequently, a fact which we know from travel reports, Hackert dedicated engravings to Acton, and they surely also hiked together in the area around Caserta, both of them sharing an admiration for the beauty of this countryside. Hackert and Acton were both representatives of a cosmopolitan European elite, pursuing successful international careers made possible by the court culture of the time. With this in mind, it is little wonder that they became so close.

John Acton planned to retire to his manor house in England at the end of his political career. He wanted Hackert's views of Fiesole and Maddolini to be reminders of his busy years in Italy, “an adornment for his hall in England”, as Hackert wrote to Goethe. A third view of Rome was never painted. It must have been a great honour for Hackert to carry out this commission for his old friend, capturing the landscapes that meant so much to them.

Like “View of the Arno Valley and Fiesole” (lot 1301), “View of Maddaloni” is also “of great importance for Hackert's late work”, as Claudia Nordhoff mentions. They are “Hackert masterpieces”, which “confirm his reputation as the greatest landscape painter of his era”. Moreover, his works are visual testimonies to a time - frequently referred to as the “Goethe era” - in which artists, politicians, rulers, and writers of all backgrounds, origins, cultures, and languages were united in their enthusiasm for the beauty of Italy.