Irish painter, archaeologist, and art dealer. Although art historians consistently include Fagan within the ranks of Irish portraitGLOSSARYThe Roman portrait bust survived in the form of life-sized reliquaries of saints, but it was in 15th century Florence that the individual features and character of a contemporary sitter were accurately recorded by sculptors such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole and the Rossellino. A similar degree of realism occurs in 15th century tomb sculpture. The equestrian portrait, based on antique statues such as the Marcus Aurelius monument (Rome, Campidoglio), was revived in the 14th century. Two examples in fresco are Simone Martini's Guidoriccio (c. 1328; Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) and the posthumous portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (1436; Florence, Cathedral) by Uccello, which gives the illusion of a 3-dimensional statue seen from below. The Venetian Republic ordered imposing monuments from Donatello (1447; Gattarnelata, Padua) and Verrocchio (14799; Colleoni, Venice), whilst other statesmen ordered their own images to be erected in public places, directly relating themselves to the military heroes of ancient Rome. Another form of political portraiture derived from antiquity was the commemorative portrait medal designed by artists such as Pisanello. The carved or painted profile portrait became popular in the 1450s. The realism of the clear, flattened image, painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or Andrea del Sarto's arresting Portrait of a Man (London, National Gallery). The 16th century portrait became generalized, Lotto's Andrea Odoni (1527; Royal Collection) being an idealized concept of a collector rather than an individual. Group portraits, decorating whole rooms, include the narrative scenes of the Gonzaga court painted by Mantegna (completed 1474; Mantua, Palazzo Ducale) and the elaborate schemes commissioned by the Farnese family in Rome from Vasari (1546; Palazzo della Cancelleria) and Salviati (after 1553; Palazzo Farnese). Portraits were also incorporated into religious narratives, as in Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle painted for Giovanni Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, Florence (1486-90). artists, there is no written record of his connection with Ireland, although his father, a Covent Garden baker, was believed to have been born in Cork and Fagan himself claimed to be Irish.
Born in London, he studied drawing and painting at the Royal Academy schools, and in 1783 - after receiving a significant inheritance upon the death of his father - he travelled to Paris and thereafter to Rome, where he spent the remainder of his life. He married twice, both times to Italian women of great beauty, and enjoyed a life full of enterprise and circumstance. As a painter, he specialized in portraiture, acquiring numerous clients from the ranks of fashionable and wealthy visitors to Rome. Among his outstanding works are Portrait of Lady Mainwaring (c.1792-93), Sir Corbet Corbet, His Wife and Dog (c.1797), Self-Portrait With Second Wife (c.1805), and Portrait of Margaret Simpson at Hibernia (c.1805) - the latter complete with harp, wolfhound and shamrock border.
In addition to his career as a portraitist, Fagan bought and sold paintings, as well as ancient sculpture and other antiquities. In his mid-40s he even entered the world of diplomacy when, after considerable string-pulling, he contrived to have himself installed as Consul-General for Sicily. In 1815, at the age of 54, Fagan travelled to England at the request of one of his patrons, to execute a series of classicalGLOSSARYRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration. murals. Failing to complete this work, he returned to Rome, and the following year - in response to mounting financial pressure - committed suicide by jumping from an upstairs window. Today, he is seen as one of the major Irish artists of the 18th century.
