Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, Dream of a Nun

Date: 1831
Technique: Unknown

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, The murder of Andrew, Duke of Calabria, by order of his wife, Joanna I of Naples

Date: 1835
Technique: Watercolour

Andrew, Duke of Calabria (1327 – 1345) was the second surviving son of Charles I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Poland. Andrew was the younger brother of the King Louis I of Hungary.

He was betrothed in 1334, at a young age, to his cousin Joanna I of Naples, daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria (eldest son of king Robert of Naples).

Robert's claim to the throne was rather tenuous and didn't follow primogeniture. Andrew's grandfather, Charles Martel of Anjou had died before ascending the throne, and therefore, the throne should have passed to Charles I of Hungary. However, due to fears of impending invasion from Sicily, it was felt that a seven year-old heir was too risky and would not be able to hold off invasions. The throne was offered to the next son of Charles II of Naples, Louis of Anjou, but he refused on religious ground and then it passed to Robert. To recompense Charles I of Hungary Charles II of Naples decided to assign him, the territory of Hungary, which was part of his wife's dowry.

When the King died in 1343, in his last will and testament, he formally bequeathed his kingdom to Joanna I of Naples, and made no mention of Andrew, even as a consort and tried to exclude him from rule.

With the approval of Pope Clement VI, Joanna was crowned as sole monarch of Naples in August 1344. Fearing for his life, Andrew wrote to his mother Elizabeth that he would soon flee the kingdom. She intervened, and made a state visit; before she returned to Hungary, she bribed Pope Clement to reverse himself and permit the coronation of Andrew. She also gave a ring to Andrew, which was supposed to protect him from death by blade or poison, and returned with a false sense of security to Hungary.

When Joanna fell ill in the summer of 1344, Andrew caused great controversy when he released the Pipini brothers. They had been locked up by Robert the Wise after having been convicted for murder, rape, pillage, treason and several other offenses. Their possessions had been given to other nobles, which now became increasingly hostile to Andrew.

Hearing of the Pope's reversal, a group of noble conspirators (the involvement of Queen Joanna remaining unproved) determined to forestall Andrew's coronation. During a hunting trip at Aversa, Andrew left his room in the middle of the night and was set upon by the conspirators. A treacherous servant barred the door behind him; and as Joanna cowered in their bed, a terrible struggle ensued, Andrew defending himself furiously and shrieking for aid. He was finally overpowered, strangled with a cord, and flung from a window. Isolde, Andrew's Hungarian nurse beheld the whole conflict, and took the Prince's corpse to the church of the monks, and remained with it until next morning sorrowing it. When the Hungarian knights arrived she told them everything in their mother tongue so no one else would learn about the truth, and soon they left Naples informing everything to the Hungarian King.

The deed would taint the rest of Joanna's reign, although she was twice acquitted of any charge in the trials that followed. Andrew's elder brother Louis I of Hungary several times invaded the Kingdom of Naples and drove out Joanna, only to meet with reverses. Ultimately, 37 years later, Louis' kinsman Charles III of Naples conquered Naples with Hungarian aid and put Joanna to death. She had been married three times more since Andrew.

Andrew and Joanna had one posthumous son, Charles Martel (Naples, 25 December 1345 – aft. 10 May 1348) who died young in Hungary.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, The Last Day of Pompeii

State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg (Государственный Русский музей)

Date: 1830-33
Technique: Oil on canvas, 465.5 x 651 cm

Bryullov visited the site of Pompeii in 1828, making numerous sketches depicting the AD 79 Vesuvius eruption. The completed canvas was exhibited in Rome to rapturous reviews of critics and thereafter transported to Paris to be displayed in the Louvre. The first Russian artwork to cause such an interest abroad, it gave birth to an anthologic poem by Alexander Pushkin, and inspired the hugely successful novel The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who saw it in Rome. Another British author, Sir Walter Scott declared that it was not an ordinary painting but an epic in colours.

The topic is classical, but Bryullov's dramatic treatment and generous use of chiaroscuro render it farther advanced from the neoclassical style. In fact, The Last Day of Pompeii exemplifies many of the characteristics of Romanticism as it manifests itself in Russian art, including drama, realism tempered with idealism, increased interest in nature, and a zealous fondness for historical subjects.

The commissioner, Prince Anatole Demidov, donated the painting to Nicholas I of Russia who displayed it at the Imperial Academy of Arts for the instruction of young painters. To present the painting to a wider audience the canvas was transferred to the Russian Museum for the museum's opening in 1895.

Bryullov included a self portrait in the upper left corner of the painting, under the steeple, one of the several foci in the picture, but not easy to identify.

Bryullov’s monumental historical painting The Last Day of Pompeii (1827) brought him the greatest acclaim during his lifetime.

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