Letizia Bonaparte  

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-'''Antoine Joseph Wiertz''' ([[February 22]], [[1806]] - [[June 18]], [[1865]]) was a [[Belgian Romanticism|Belgian romantic]] [[painter]] and [[sculpture|sculptor]]. 
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-Born in [[Dinant]] from a relatively poor family, he entered the [[Antwerp]] art academy in [[1820]]. Thanks to his protector Pierre-Joseph de Paul de Maibe, a member of the Second Chamber of the States-General, king [[William I of the Netherlands]] awarded an annual stipend to Wiertz from 1821 onwards. Between November [[1829]] and May [[1832]], he stayed in [[Paris]], where he studied the old masters at the [[Louvre]]. 
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-In [[1828]], Wiertz took part in the ''Grand Concours'', also known as ''Concours de Rome'', but came out only second. He landed the prestigious ''Prix de Rome'' only at his second attempt in [[1832]], which enabled him to go to [[Rome]], where he resided from May [[1834]] until February [[1837]]. Upon his return, he established himself in [[Liège (city)|Liège]] with his mother. 
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-During his stay in Rome, Wiertz worked on his first great work, ''Les Grecs et les Troyens se disputant le corps de Patrocle'' ("Greeks and Trojans fighting for the body of [[Patrocles]]", finished in 1836), on a subject borrowed from canto XVII of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]''. It was exhibited in Antwerp in [[1837]], where it met with some success. Wiertz submitted the work for the [[Paris Salon of 1838]], but it arrived too late and was refused. 
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-At the Paris ''Salon'' of 1839, Wiertz showed not only his ''Patrocles'', but also three other works: ''Madame Laetitia Bonaparte sur son lit de mort'' ("Madame [[Letizia Ramolino|Laetitia Bonaparte]] on her deathbed"), ''La Fable des trois souhaits — Insatiabilité humaine'' ("The fable of the three wishes — Human insatiability") and ''Le Christ au tombeau'' ("Christ entombed"). Badly hung and lit, his entry elicited indifference on the part of the public, and provoked sarcasm among the critics. This secons humiliation led to a profound rancour against art critics and against Paris, as expressed in his virulent pamphlet ''Bruxelles capitale, Paris province''. 
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-In 1844, Wiertz painted a second version of his ''Patrocles'' on an even bigger scale than the first (the 1836 version measures 3.85m by 7.03m; the 1844 version 5.20m by 8.52). The Rome version is now in the Museum of Walloon Art in Liège, the 1844 in the Wiertz Museum in [[Brussels]]. 
-After the Paris disaster, Wiertz veered more and more to the excessive. A fine example is the monumental ''La Chute des Anges rebelles'' ("The Fall of the rebellious Angels", 1841), on an arched canvas of 11.53m by 7.93m.+'''''Nobile'' Maria Letizia Buonaparte''' ''[[Married and maiden names|née]]'' '''Ramolino''' ('''Marie-Lætitia Ramolino, Madame Mère de l'Empereur''') (24 August 1750 – 2 February 1836) was the mother of [[Napoleon|Napoleon I of France]].
-The death of his mother in [[1844]] was a terrible blow to the artist. He left Liège in [[1845]] to settle in Brussels for good. During this period he painted a confrontation of Beauty and Death, ''Deux jeunes filles — La Belle Rosine'' ([[1847]]), which remains perhaps his most famous work.+She was born in [[Ajaccio]], [[Corsica]], to ''Nobile'' Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino (13 April 1723–1755), [[Captain (land and air)|Captain]] of Corse [[Regiment]]s of [[Chivalry]] and [[Infantry]] in the Army of the Republic of Genoa, and wife ''Nobile'' Angela Maria Pietrasanta (circa 1725–1790). The distant cousins of the Ramolinos were a low rank of [[nobility]] in the [[Republic of Genoa]]. Letizia was not formally educated.
-Dissatisfied with the shiny effect of [[oil painting]], he developed a new technique combining the smoothness of oil painting with the speed of execution and the dullness of painting in [[fresco]]. This technique of ''mat painting'' entailed the use of a mixture of colours, turpentine and petrol on holland. ''La Lutte homérique'' ("The Homeric struggle", 1853) was the first big-scale painting executed in this technique. However, the components used in this technique are responsible for the slow degradation of the works produced with it.+On 2/7 June 1764, when she was 14, she married at Ajaccio to [[Lawyer|attorney]] [[Carlo Buonaparte]]. She bore 13 children, eight of whom survived infancy, and most of whom were created monarchs by Napoleon:
- +* Napoleone Buonaparte (1764/1765 – 17 August 1765)
-Many of his works from the 1850s have a social of philosophical message, often translated in delirious imagery, like ''Faim, Folie et Crime'' ("Hunger, Madness and Crime", 1853), ''La Liseuse de Romans'' ("The Reader of Novels", 1853), ''Le Suicide'' ("The Suicide", 1854), ''L'Inhumation précipitée'' ("The hasty burial", 1854), ''Le Dernier Canon'' ("The last gun", 1855).+* Maria Anna Buonaparte (3 January 1767 – 1 January 1768)
 +* [[Joseph Bonaparte]] (7 January 1768 – 28 July 1844) King of Naples and Sicily, [[List of Spanish monarchs|King of Spain]] and the Indies, and Comte de Survilliers.
 +* [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), [[Emperor of the French]] and namesake of his deceased older brother
 +* Maria Anna Buonaparte (1770), namesake of her deceased older sister
 +* Maria Anna Buonaparte (14 July – 23 November 1771), namesake of her deceased older sisters
 +* A [[Stillbirth|stillborn]] son
 +* [[Lucien Bonaparte]] (21 March 1775 – 29 June 1840), [[Prince of Canino and Musignano]]
 +* [[Elisa Bonaparte]] (3 January 1777 – 7 August 1820), [[List of rulers of Tuscany|Grand Duchess of Tuscany]]
 +* [[Louis Bonaparte]] (2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846), [[List of Dutch monarchs|King of Holland]]
 +* [[Pauline Bonaparte]] (20 October 1780 – 9 June 1825), Sovereign Princess and Duchess of [[Guastalla]]
 +* [[Caroline Bonaparte]] (25 March 1782 – 18 May 1839), Grand Duchess of [[United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg|Berg and Cleves]], wife of [[Joachim Murat]], later [[List of consorts of Naples|queen consort of Naples]]
 +* [[Jérôme Bonaparte]] (15 November 1784 - 24 June 1860), King of [[Westphalia]].
 +[[Image:Letizia Ramolino.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Deathbed portrait of Maria Letizia Bonaparte]]
-Wiertz was also a fine portrait painter, who made self-portraits at various ages. As a sculptor, he produced his most important project towards the end of his life: a series of plasters representing ''Les Quatre Âges de l'Humanité'' ("The Four Ages of Humanity", [[1860]]-[[1862]]), reproduced in marble for the Wiertz museum by Auguste Franck.+She was a harsh mother, and had a very down-to-earth view of most things. When most European mothers, even those in the [[upper class]], [[bathing|bathed]] perhaps once a month, she had her children bathed every other day.
-After difficult negotiations with the Belgian government, Wiertz was able to realize his dream to turn his last studio into a museum for his works. The Belgian State bought a piece of land and funded the construction of a huge hall to accommodate the painter's monumental works. In exchange, Wiertz donated all his works to the Belgian State, with the express proviso that they should remain in his studio both during and after his lifetime. The Wiertz Museum is located in the Leopold district of Brussels, near the Luxembourg railway station, today overshadowed by the bombastic European Parliament complex.+When [[France under the Ancien Régime]] took control of [[Corsica]], in 1769, [[French language|French]] became the national language, but Letizia never learned the tongue. When she was 35, her husband died of [[cancer]]. She was decreed "Madam, the Mother of His Majesty the Emperor" (''Madame Mère de l'Empereur''), Imperial Highness, on 18 May 1804 or 23 March 1805. She died of old age in [[Rome]], in 1836, aged 85, three weeks before the 50th anniversary of her husband's death. By then she was nearly [[blindness|blind]] and had outlived her most famous son Napoleon by 15 years.
-Wiertz died in his studio. His remains were embalmed in accordance with Ancient Egyptian burial rites and buried in a vault in the municipal cemetery of [[Ixelles]].+==See also==
 +* [[François Carlo Antommarchi]]
-Influenced mainly by [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] and the late [[Michelangelo]], Wiertz' monumental painting often moves between classical academism and lurid romanticism, between the grandiose and the ridiculous. Although his work was often derided as ''[[art pompier]]'', his pictorial language nevertheless preannounced symbolism and a certain kind of surrealism, two currents that would be very strong in Belgian painting.{{GFDL}}+{{GFDL}}

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Nobile Maria Letizia Buonaparte née Ramolino (Marie-Lætitia Ramolino, Madame Mère de l'Empereur) (24 August 1750 – 2 February 1836) was the mother of Napoleon I of France.

She was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, to Nobile Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino (13 April 1723–1755), Captain of Corse Regiments of Chivalry and Infantry in the Army of the Republic of Genoa, and wife Nobile Angela Maria Pietrasanta (circa 1725–1790). The distant cousins of the Ramolinos were a low rank of nobility in the Republic of Genoa. Letizia was not formally educated.

On 2/7 June 1764, when she was 14, she married at Ajaccio to attorney Carlo Buonaparte. She bore 13 children, eight of whom survived infancy, and most of whom were created monarchs by Napoleon:

Image:Letizia Ramolino.jpg
Deathbed portrait of Maria Letizia Bonaparte

She was a harsh mother, and had a very down-to-earth view of most things. When most European mothers, even those in the upper class, bathed perhaps once a month, she had her children bathed every other day.

When France under the Ancien Régime took control of Corsica, in 1769, French became the national language, but Letizia never learned the tongue. When she was 35, her husband died of cancer. She was decreed "Madam, the Mother of His Majesty the Emperor" (Madame Mère de l'Empereur), Imperial Highness, on 18 May 1804 or 23 March 1805. She died of old age in Rome, in 1836, aged 85, three weeks before the 50th anniversary of her husband's death. By then she was nearly blind and had outlived her most famous son Napoleon by 15 years.

See also


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