Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti (24 January 1685 – 14 January 1764) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, an antiquarian and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, and a collector of

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...

whose ambitious excavations at the site of

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 ...

at Tivoli rewarded him with the Furietti Centaurs and other

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 ...

Biography

Furietti was born at Bergamo, the son of Giovanni Marco Sonzogni Furietti, noble, of a local branch of the Sonzogni. He was educated at the Almo Collegio Borromeo, Pavia, then at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...

, where he received his doctorate in canon and civil law (''utroque iure''). In spite of his distinguished service to the Apostolic Camera, and Furietti's dedication of a book on mosaics to him, the cardinal's hat was withheld by

Pope Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758. Pope Be ...

partly in pique for Furietti's refusal to part with the famous marble centaurs for the ''

Museo Capitolino 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 Pala ...

'', which had opened in 1734. Furietti was eventually created cardinal priest, by

Clement XIII Pope Clement XIII ( la, Clemens XIII; it, Clemente XIII; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. ...

in the consistory of 24 September 1759. For a sum, Furietti obtained rights to excavate the section of Hadrian's Villa that belonged to Simplicio Bulgarini. As early as 1724, Conte Giuseppe Fede had been buying up parcels of land in the extensive villa, which had become divided up among a multitude of owners, forming the nucleus of one of the outstanding recently formed and non-papal collections of antiquities in Rome. After only a few days Furietti's crews found the famous statues of Centaurs signed by Aristeas and Papias, the " Furietti Centaurs", which quickly became two of the most celebrated sculptures in Rome, in part through the engravings of them made in 1739 and 1740 under Furietti's supervision.

Charles de Brosses Charles de Brosses (), comte de Tournay, baron de Montfalcon, seigneur de Vezins et de Prevessin (7 February 1709 – 7 May 1777), was a French writer of the 18th century. Life He was president of the parliament of his hometown Dijon from 1741, a ...

saw them displayed in Monsignor Furietti's apartments in the

Palazzo Montecitorio The Palazzo Montecitorio () is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian Parliament. History The palace's name derives from the slight hill on which it is built, which was claimed to be the ''Mon ...

in 1739-40, and Francesco de' Ficoroni described them in Furietti's collection in 1744. Furietti habitually employed

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi 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 restore ...

as a restorer, hence some of the pieces that had passed through Cavaceppi's studio were illustrated from Furietti's former collection in Cavaceppi's self-promoting volume of plates, ''Raccolta d'antiche statue, busti, teste cognite ed altre sculpture antiche'', 1768. Among the

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s he found at Hadrian's Villa is the celebrated one of four doves drinking, found in 1737; Furietti was convinced that it was the very work executed by Sosius/Sosos at Pergamum, mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

('' Pliny's Natural History'
XXXVI,.25
. It was the first plate in his book on mosaics, ''De Musivis'' (Rome, 1752), with six engraved plates, four of them folding, which became a classic on the subject. After Furietti's death, his heirs sold the two centaurs and the mosaic for 14,000 ''scudi'', for the Museo Clementino. Furietti was also a bibliophile. He edited and published the works of two of his compatriots, Gasparino and Guiniforti Barziza, and the poems of Publio Fontana, prefacing the volumes with brief ''vite''. His personal library he bequeathed to his native Bergamo, with the obligation that it be open to the citizens. It became the nucleus of the Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai; there some of Furietti's correspondence is preserved.Biblioteca Angelo Mai: calendaer of Furietti papers
. His tomb is in the Roman church of the Bergamaschi,

Santi Bartolomeo ed Alessandro dei Bergamaschi Santi is used as: People with the surname * Brenden Santi (born 1993), Australian-Italian rugby league player * Domenico Santi (1621–1694), also known as il Mengazzino, Italian painter * Emanuele Santi, Italian economist and political scientist ...

, also called Santa Maria della Pietà. The early biography is G. Gallizioli, ''Memorie per servire alla storia della vita, degli studi e degli scritti del cardinale Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti'', (Lucca) 1790.

Notes

Sources

Salvador Miranda, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti
* Sonzogni, Ivano: ''Una Biblioteca per i bergamaschi di gran talento, il cardinale Furietti e la fondazione della Civica'', in "Bergomum", Bollettino della Civica Biblioteca, n. 2, 1994, pp. 5–46 * Sonzogni, Ivano: ''Il carteggio Alessandro Furietti - Pierantonio Serassi. Momenti dell'erudizione bergamasca a metà Settecento, in "Bergomum", n.2, 1996, pp. 91–188. {{DEFAULTSORT:Furietti, Giuseppe Alessandro 1685 births 1764 deaths Clergy from Bergamo 18th-century Italian cardinals Italian scholars Italian art collectors Apostolic Camera Writers from Bergamo