FEUERBACH, Anselm Friedrich
(b. 1829, Speyer, d.1880, Venezia)

Nanna

c. 1861
Oil on canvas, 74 x 56 cm
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne

From 1860 to 1865 Anna Risi, a cobbler from Trastevere in Rome, was Anselm Feuerbach's model. He believed that in her he had found the embodiment of classical ideals of beauty and so she sat for him for a series of mythological, religious and literary subjects. The real model was essential to Feuerbach despite the idealism of his sketches.