Thursday, 8 February 2024

Hewetson in Rome (Part 16). The Bust of Luigi Gonzaga di Castiglione and his mistress Maria Madelena Morelli (called Corilla Olympica).


 

The Bust of Luigi Gonzaga di Castiglione (1745 -.

in the Palazzo Braschi.

Inscribed Christopher Hewetson fecit 1776

Marble Bust 65 cms.

Heir to the Gonzagas of Castigleone he was born in Venice, his father died when he was young.


In 1773 having gone to Vienna, he reached an agreement with the imperial agents of Maria Theresa, who offered him a lifetime income of 10,000 florins per year. On 26 July 1773 he signed a deed with which he renounced all rights to the ancestral fiefdom of Castiglione and was thus able to collect the first installment of the income, which allowed him to escape from the relative poverty in which he had always lived.

















.......................





 Frontispiece portrait of the author by Domenico Corvi, engraved by Volpatto.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1861-1109-597


GONZAGA DE CASTIGLIONE (Prince Louis de) L'homme de lettres bon citoyen, philosophical and political speech Geneva, 1777. French edition, translated by Guéneau de Montbéliard, of this philosophical speech delivered at the Académie des Arcades in Rome in 1776. 


Whilst in Rome he was the lover of the poet Maria Madalena Morelli, whose bust was also sculpted by Hewetson in 1776.





......................................


Maria Madalena Morelli.

Improvisational Poet (does this mean she was an 18th century rapper?

known as Corilla Olympica, formerly with the Arcadia Academy, Rome.

The Marble bust is now in the Palazzo Braschi.

Christopher Hewetson.

1776.

Inscribed Coryllae Etruscae Sapphus Amulae

Christoph. Hewetson Hiburnus Sculp. d. MDCCLXXVI.












For both of these Hewetson busts see - 

Il Museo di Roma racconta la città: Volume interamente a colori, oltre 500 ...By Aa.Vv.


..............................

Maria Madelena Morelli (b Pistoia 1727 d. Venice 1800)

 called Corilla Olimpica (sometimes Olympica)

Engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi.

after Anna Piatolli (1720 - 88).

1765.

Image courtesy Austrian National Library.












....................................

Corilla Olimpica.


Engraving by Raffaello Morghen (1761 - 1833).

Unfortunately the only image so far on line

Image below from New York Public Library.


A personal note - it is so frustrating to find portraits like this and then to discover I have to pay $50 for a higher resolution image - why do institutions go to the bother of posting such poor quality images?

One cannot even read the signature.





--------------------------





..........................................




Bronze Medallion.

by Lorenzo Maria Weber (1697 - 1765).

37 mm.

Pandolfini Auctions, Casa d'Aste. Florence, Italy. Lot 38, 28 May 2019.











.................................








..........................................................

Notes -

For those that can read Italian see Corilla Olimpica by A. Ademollo, pub. 1887.

on line courtesy the exemplary Hathi Trust.



......................

........................

Google Translation of a magazine article.

“We judge the incomparable Poet to be superior to sex, excellent in extemporaneous singing, and endowed with such extraordinary and sublime ingenuity, that she is well worthy of the conspicuous honor of the Capitoline Degree granted to her by the Sovereign Authority, for the greater increase of Italian Good Letters, and to perpetuate glory of Arcadia and Rome"

 

These are the words of the examiners of the Academy of Arcadia who explained how worthy Maria Maddalena Morelli was of that poetic coronation which until then had only been granted to Petrarca, Tasso and Perfetti . On the other hand, Morelli had managed to conquer several rulers of her time with her talent for poetry and above all for poetic improvisation . She was then also admitted to the Arcadia Academy under the pseudonym of Corilla Olimpica. A significant fact for an 18th century Italian woman who sacrificed her married life for the love of poetry, abandoning her husband and son .

................................


Sepulchral Monument for Poet Maria Maddalena Morelli

by Giuseppe Barberi (Architect) 1746 - 1809).

Drawing

Pen and brown ink, graphite.

21.2 x 29.4 cms.

Image from the Smithsonian Institute.

https://www.si.edu/object/sepulchral-monument-poet-maria-maddalena-morelli:chndm_1901-39-280


Note to New York Pub. Library. This is how it should be done!!





No comments:

Post a Comment