Francesco (de') Ficoroni (1664–1747) was an Italian connoisseur and
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
in Rome closely involved with the antiquities trade. He was the author of numerous publications on ancient
Roman sculpture
The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies". A ...
and antiquities, guides to the monuments of Rome and
the city's ancient topography, and on Italian theatre and theatrical masks, among other subjects. For his antiquarian works he was made a Fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
of London. A major segment of his potential audience, both for his publications and for the objects from his perpetually changing collection, was composed of British ''milordi'' on their
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 ...
s. His complementary volumes on ancient and modern Rome (1744) remained in print long after his death:
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
purchased both volumes while he was abroad in 1785-89.
Life
![Acta Eruditorum - VII monete, 1734 – BEIC 13446956](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Acta_Eruditorum_-_VII_monete%2C_1734_%E2%80%93_BEIC_13446956.jpg)
Ficoroni was born near Lugnano, in the ''comune'' of
Valmontone
Valmontone is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about southeast of Rome.
Geography
The historic part of the town is situated on a tuffaceous hill, above sea level, part of a mor ...
,
Latium
Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.
Definition
Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil (Old Latium) on whi ...
.
From 1705 to 1710 he undertook a series of excavations along the
Via Appia
The Appian Way (Latin and Italian: ''Via Appia'') is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, ...
in the ''vigna Moroni'', the Moroni vineyard, which revealed ninety-two funerary chambers decorated with
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
es and
mosaics, which provided material for his ''Bolla d'oro'' (1736); the excavation was supported by Cardinal
Filippo Antonio Gualterio, who purchased many of the antiquities discovered. Later Ficoroni bought back some of Gualterio's objects, while over two hundred of the examples of glass, terracotta oil lamps and some carved hardstones were purchased by Sir
Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...
and eventually found their way, with the rest of his collection, to establish the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. Reasons of cost aborted the engraving of the watercolor drawings of the frescoes (now long disappeared) made for Ficoroni by Gaetano Piccini (1681–1736); the watercolors were purchased by Cardinal Gualterio but dispersed after his death in 1728. The frescos in the 92 tombs unearthed along the via Appia were visited by the painter
Carlo Maratta
Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...
, who brought his students to view them.
Ficoroni's excavations at
Hadrian's Villa
Hadrian's Villa ( it, Villa Adriana) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built c. AD 120 by Roman Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli outside Rome. The site is owned by the Republic of ...
were never fully published.
Carlo Fea
Carlo Fea (4 June 1753 - 18 March 1836) was an Italian archaeologist.
Biography
Born at Pigna, in Liguria, Fea studied law in Rome, receiving the degree of doctor of laws from the university of La Sapienza, but archaeology gradually attrac ...
summarised some outstanding finds in 1790.
The most famous object that was in his collection or passed through his hands was the fourth-century BCE cylindrical bronze ritual vessel known still as the "
Ficoroni cista", which was found in an
Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
** Etrusca ...
woman's tomb just south of
Palestrina
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pren ...
(the ancient sanctuary site of
Praeneste
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pre ...
) in 1738 and which Ficoroni gallantly presented to the museum assembled by
Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans ...
in the
Collegio Romano
The Roman College ( la, Collegium Romanum, it, Collegio Romano) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school t ...
. It has four finials on its lid, the figure of Dionysus flanked by aroused
satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...
s, and love scenes of Heracles and Iolaos.
The catalogue of his own collection of ancient Roman mercantile sealings stamped in lead was written by conte C. Gaetani and doubtless published at Ficoroni's expense.
He died in Rome.
Selected publications
*''Osservazioni... sopra l'antichità di Roma... dal...
Padre B. de Montfaucon'' (Rome, 1700, 1709).
*''Lettera scritta al ill. Sig. G., Lord Johnstone... sovra un nuova cameo esprimente Marcello nipote di Augusto (Naples, 1718, 1726).
*''Le memorie più singolari di Roma e sue vicinanze, notate in una lettera... all'Illustrissimo Cav. Bernard Inglese aggiuntavi nel fine la spiegazione d'una medaglia d'Omero'' (Rome, 1730).
*''La Bolla d'oro de fanciulli nobili Romani, e qualla de' libertini'' (Rome, 1732); one of the objects described is the gilded glass medallion, long considered to be a forgery, now at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
[Joseph Breck, "The Ficoroni Medallion and Some Other Gilded Glasses in the Metropolitan Museum of Art", ''The Art Bulletin '' 9,.4 (June 1927:352-356)]
*''I Tali, ed altri istromenti lusorj degli Antichi Romani'' (Rome, 1734)
*''Le Maschere sceniche e le figure comiche d'antichi Romani descritte brevemente''(Rome: Antonio de' Rossi, 1736, 1748) Dedicated to nob. sig. Paolo Ippolito De Beawille. A Latin translation, ''De larvis scenicis'', appeared in 1750 and 1754..
*''Breve descrizione di tre particolari statue trovatesi in Roma l'anno 1738 (Rome, no date
738
__NOTOC__
Year 738 ( DCCXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 738 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini cale ...
.
*''Le Vestigia e rarità di Roman antica ricercate, e spiegate'' (Rome:G. Mainardi, 1744)
*''Le Singolarità di Roma moderna'' (Rome, 1744), a companion volume to ''I Tali''.
*''Le memorie ritrovate nel territorio della prima, e seconda città di Labico e i loro giuste siti''. (Rome:G. Mainardi, 1745)
*''Gemmae litteratae antiquae, aliequae rariores'' (Rome, 1757). The engraving were by P. Nicola Galeotti.
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ficoroni, Francesco
1664 births
1747 deaths
People from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital
Italian antiquarians