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Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (c. 1716 – December 9, 1799) was an Italian sculptor who worked in Rome, where he trained in the studio of the acclimatized Frenchman,
Pierre-Étienne Monnot, and then in the workshop of Carlo Antonio Napolioni, a restorer of sculptures for Cardinal
Alessandro Albani
Alessandro Albani (15 October 1692 – 11 December 1779) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, but should be best remembered as a leading collector of antiquities, dealer and art patron in Rome. He supported the art historian, Johann Joachim Winckelmann ...
, who was to become a major patron of Cavaceppi, and a purveyer of antiquities and copies on his own account. The two sculptors shared a studio. Much of his work was in restoring antique Roman sculptures, making casts, copies, and fakes of antiques, fields in which he was pre-eminent and which brought him into contact with all the ''virtuosi'': he was a close friend of and informant for
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding he ...
. Winckelmann's influence and Cardinal Albani's own evolving taste may have contributed to Cavaceppi's increased self-consciousness of the appropriateness of restorations — a field in which earlier sculptors had improvised broadly — evinced in his introductory essay to his ''Raccolta d'antiche statue, busti, teste cognite ed altre sculture antiche restaurate da Cav. Bartolomeo Cavaceppi scultore romano'' (3 vols., Rome 1768-72). The baroque taste in ornate restorations of antiquities had favoured finely pumiced polished surfaces, coloured marbles and mixed media, and highly speculative restorations of sometimes incongruous fragments. Only in the nineteenth century, would collectors begin for the first time to appreciate fragments of sculpture: a headless torso was not easily sold in eighteenth-century Rome.
In the competition for a permanent marble of ''
Saint Norbert
Norbert of Xanten, O. Praem (c. 1075 – 6 June 1134) (Xanten-Magdeburg), also known as Norbert Gennep, was a bishop of the Catholic Church, founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular, and is venerated as a saint. Norbert was c ...
'' for the last available niche in
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...
, Cavaceppi, the candidate favoured by Cardinal Albani, lost out in the end to the more conservative declamatory Baroque manner of
Pietro Bracci
Pietro Bracci (1700–1773) was an Italian sculptor working in the Late Baroque manner.
Biography
He was born in Rome and became a student of Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari and Camillo Rusconi. His most familiar works are the colossal ''Oceanus' ...
, who received the commission.
Cavaceppi, "now certainly one of the most underrated artist-personalities in that era" according to Seymour Howard, was the Pope's chief restorer, and a measure of his other clientele may be drawn from the plates that illustrated the works of art that had been restored in his extensive studio in the ''Raccolta'', which appeared in three folio volumes, 1768-72. Haskell and Penny note that of sixty plates in the first volume, thirty-four reproduced works already belonging to Englishmen, while a further seventeen showed works in German collections. The remainder were divided among Cardinals
Alessandro Albani
Alessandro Albani (15 October 1692 – 11 December 1779) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, but should be best remembered as a leading collector of antiquities, dealer and art patron in Rome. He supported the art historian, Johann Joachim Winckelmann ...
and
Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti
Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti (24 January 1685 – 14 January 1764) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, an antiquarian and philologist, and a collector of antiquities whose ambitious excavations at the site of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli rewarded him ...
(1684–1764) and Conte
Giuseppe Fede, with one more in the
Capitoline Museum
The Capitoline Museums (Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Pal ...
and another belonging to
Jacques-Laure le Tonnelier de Breteuil, the Bailli de Breteuil. The following year's volume showed sixty plates of sculptures that were all on the market. Cavaceppi made a considerable fortune from his endeavors.
Cavaceppi's studio, staffed with a host of assistants, was a stop for all the young connoisseurs making the
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
.
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
described his visit in ''Italienische Reise'' XXXII. Cavaceppi was entrusted with making casts of antiquities.
Joseph Nollekens
Joseph Nollekens R.A. (11 August 1737 – 23 April 1823) was a sculptor from London generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century.
Life
Nollekens was born on 11 August 1737 at 28 Dean Street, Soho, London, ...
purchased from Cavaceppi the casts of the ''
Furietti Centaurs'' that may still be seen at
Shugborough Hall
Shugborough Hall is a stately home near Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England.
The hall is situated on the edge of Cannock Chase, about east of Stafford and from Rugeley. The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the dissolutio ...
, Staffordshire; Cavaceppi also produced full-size copies in marble.
For his contributions in the formation of the
Museo Clementino, based in large part on Albani's collection, Cavaceppi was made a
Knight of the Golden Spur in 1770 and was henceforth ''Cavaliere'' Cavaceppi. His sculptures were presented for sale in the ''Museo Cavaceppi'' between the
Piazza di Spagna
Piazza di Spagna ("Spanish Square"), at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares in Rome, Italy. It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, the seat of the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See. There is also the famed Colum ...
and the
Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian language, Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the Populus, poplars (''populus'' in Latin language, Latin, ''pioppo'' in Italian) ...
, the part of Rome most frequented by foreigners.
In the 1770s he carved a reduced version of
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column ( it, Colonna Traiana, la, Columna Traiani) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Ap ...
, which was purchased by the English virtuoso
Henry Blundell to complement his antiquities at
Ince Blundell
Ince Blundell is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the ceremonial county of Merseyside and historic county of Lancashire, England. It is situated to the north of Liverpool on the A565 road and to the east of t ...
; Blundell also acquired Cavaceppi's working model, a wooden column painted in
grisaille
Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...
.
At the time of his death, the collection of fragments and casts in the ''Museo'' was vast. Prince
Giovanni Torlonia purchased over a thousand items from Cavaceppi's legacy.
[Howard 1993:243 note 5.] In some senses,
Vincenzo Pacetti
Vincenzo Pacetti (1746–1820) was an Italian sculptor and restorer from Castel Bolognese, particularly active in collecting and freely restoring and completing classical sculptures such as the Barberini Faun (1799 – now in the Glyptothek, Mun ...
, who had collaborated with Cavaceppi on restorations and who supervised restorations and display of the Borghese collection at
Villa Borghese
Villa Borghese or Villa Borghese Pinciana ('Borghese family{{!Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill') is the villa built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio (and, after his death, finished by his assistant Giovanni Vasanzio), developing sketches by Scip ...
was Cavaceppi's successor.
An exhibition "Bartolomeo Cavaceppi", curated by C.A. Picon in London, 1983, helped to bring him out of obscurity.
Some other sculptors in Rome renowned for their restorations
*
Carlo Albacini
Carlo Albacini (1734 — 1813) was an Italian sculptor and restorer of Ancient Roman sculpture.
He was a pupil of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, an eminent sculptor and restorer of Rome. Albacini was notable for his copies after classical originals such ...
*
Orfeo Boselli
*
Ippolito Buzzi
*
Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata ( 1610 – 10 July 1686) was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.
Biography
A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants. When h ...
*
Francesco Nocchieri
*
Francesco Fontana
*
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian Classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric ...
*
Vincenzo Pacetti
Vincenzo Pacetti (1746–1820) was an Italian sculptor and restorer from Castel Bolognese, particularly active in collecting and freely restoring and completing classical sculptures such as the Barberini Faun (1799 – now in the Glyptothek, Mun ...
Notes
References and Further reading
* I. Bignamini, C. Hornsby, ''Digging And Dealing In Eighteenth-Century Rome'' (2010), p. 252-255
* M. G. Barberini and C. Gasparri, ''Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, scultore romano (1717-1799)''
xhibition catalogue, Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome(1991)
* Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny, ''Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900'' (1981. Yale University Press)
* Howard, Seymour, 'Bartolomeo Cavaceppi's Saint Norbert', in ''The Art Bulletin''; 70.3 (September 1988), pp. 478–485.
oward appends a list of original sculptures by Cavaceppi.* S. Howard, ''Bartolomeo Cavaceppi Eighteenth-Century Restorer''
h. D. thesis, New York(1982)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavaceppi, Bartolomeo
1716 births
1799 deaths
18th-century Italian sculptors
Italian male sculptors
Catholic sculptors
18th-century Italian male artists