The Crown in This Painting Doesn’t Exist Anymore

The Crown in This Painting Doesn’t Exist Anymore Vittorio Matteo Corcos painted Alla fontana (Le due colombe) in 1896, near the height of his reputation as the Belle Époque's sharpest painter of self-possessed women. The woman in white usually holds all the attention. This film looks past her, at the wall. She is seated on a real Florentine monument - the Lion Fountain on the façade of the Pitti Palace - and the lion above her head is wearing the crown of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The jewelled original is gone. The carving is not. What interested me was the order of survival: which version of a thing lasts, and which quietly disappears. That question sits underneath the whole picture. Inside A Frame art analysis and reads paintings from the background forward. This one rewards it. #vittoriocorcos #arthistory #allafontana #artanalysis #artdocumentary 00:00 - A lion that used to be a window 00:30 - The crown that no longer exists 01:14 - Built for public convenience 02:28 - Checking the record against the canvas 03:08 - A crown made for a new rank 03:52 - What the frame cuts off 04:06 - 1737, and what came after 05:06 - The woman in white 06:35 - One bird, two doves 07:13 - The wall behind her 08:36 - What's left above the spout Luciano Artusi, Tante le acque che scorrevano a Firenze (Semper, Florence, 2005), for the Fonte del Leone, its sculptors and the grand-ducal crown; Christie's, European Art Part I, New York, 15 October 2020, lot 16, catalogue entry and accompanying feature on Corcos; Gallerie degli Uffizi - Pitti Palace history; Sotheby's London, 17 November 1993, lot 229, provenance record. Alla fontana (Le due colombe) (1896) by Vittorio Matteo Corcos is in the public domain. The reproduction shown is sourced from Wikimedia Commons; the painting itself is held in a private collection. This video is historical commentary and analysis offered for educational purposes, and claims no ownership of the original artwork.