Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716 - 99), and his use of the eared socle.
Including a few notes on Vincenzo Pacetti.
This post was prompted by researches into Nollekens
Some Notes and images.
I cannot pretend any real expertise on the subject of Cavaceppi. any opinions expressed are my own - this is just a collection of notes and images added in a sort of stream of consciousness fashion as an aide memoire.
Part of the reason for posting is to illustrate the way that Cavaceppi influenced English sculptors who came to Rome to make the grand tour and to learn the techniques of the Italians! such as Joseph Nollekens (in Rome 1761 - 70) Wilton (in Rome 1749 -55) and Thomas Banks (in Rome 1772 - 9) others who came and stayed such as Christopher Hewetson, Francis Harwood (in Rome 1752 - 83), John Deare (in Rome 1786 - 98).
Post under Construction.
Cavaceppi’s Raccolta - is a sort of Catalogue of his restoration works but also a very effective piece of advertising.
The Raccolta is available online.
Volume 1, dated 1768, Vol II, dated 1769 and Vol III. dated 1772.
Bound together and available
online at - https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009338969/page/n5/mode/2up
Vol I . is available
also online - https://objects.auxiliary.idai.world/Tei-Viewer/cgi-bin/teiviewer.php?manifest=BOOK-810357
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The Petworth House Bust of Emperor Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus.
Height 310 mm.
Marble sculpture bust, Emperor Decimus Clodius Septimius
Albinus (c.AD 150-197). A portrait bust of a bearded man turned slightly to the
right, with a broad face, high forehead, prominent eyes and thick curly hair.
Provenance -
Collected by Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont, thence by
descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given
Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John
Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72), arranged for the
acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death
duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M. Treasury.
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/486343
.
A Restored Antique
Bust from the Workshop of Cavaceppi.
Previously with London and Leeds
Dealers Tomasso Brothers.
https://www.tomasso.art/artworkdetail/850418/19408/roman-c-50-b-c-c-50-a-d-head-of-a-man
NB. The open eared support on the
socle. Included here to illustrate the typical Cavaceppi Socle.
This bust is illustrated in the
Raccolta, no 15.
Provenance -
Bartolomeo
Cavaceppi (c. 1716-1799), Rome, Italy From whom purchased by Hans Jürge I,
Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1748-1811), 1766
By descent
at Schloss Wörlitz and then Schloss Mosigkau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Dessau-Wörlitz
Cultural Foundation (est. 1918), Germany, inv. no. II-1216, until returned to
the heirs of the Anhalt-Dessau family in 2007.
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The Philadelphia Museum Plautilla.
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The Busts of Caracalla.
Several antique busts have survived and it has been reproduced numerous times.
The Getty Caracalla.
Emperor Lucius Septimius Bassianus (April 4, 188 – April 8, 217),
commonly known as Caracalla, who ruled from 211 to 217.
There are three different versions depicting the emperor
Caracalla, the best known is the one that belonged to Cardinal Farnese, listed
in the inventory of his collection in 1568, and is now preserved in the
National Museum of Naples.
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A bust of Caracalla is included in the 1769 edition of Kennedy's Guide to Wilton House.
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The Brocklesby Park Caracalla.
Shown here to illustrate the Cavaceppi type eared support to the socle.
Sothebys's Lot 19. 3 July 2024.
Extracts from the Sotheby's catalogue.
The head of the present bust is a replica of the emperor’s
first portrait type, which is known in numerous ancient (and modern) replicas.
However, in contrast to most replicas of this type, the head of the present one
is not turned to the left, but to the right. Another replica of Caracalla’s
first portrait type with the head turned to the right is in the Musei
Capitolini in Rome: Fittschen and Zanker cit., p. 109, no. 93, pl. 114
(arachne.dainst.org/entity/1097287).
This bust of Caracalla has been kept away from public view at
Brocklesby Park for at least a century. Consequently, it has not been studied
in person by a scholar since Michaelis visited Brocklesby in the 1870s and
published his findings in Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882). Michaelis
never doubted the bust’s antiquity, but scholars since then - who have made
their judgments only from images rather than in-person inspection - have
designated it as a modern replica of the 18th century.
More recent scholarship has shown that the bust was once in
the collection of Charles Townley, where it was described as ancient and
originating from Naples. Townley, whose collection was to form the nucleus of
the British Museum, bought it from Thomas Jenkins. Both men were eminent
connoisseurs of ancient sculpture in their own right, close to the source in
Jenkins' case, and probably better attuned to the authenticity of ancient
marbles than we are today.
This bust if it is ancient would therefor appear to be the bust copied and adapted in reverse by Cavaceppi now at the Getty Museum.
The eared socle has similarities with those of Nollekens see my next post.
Is this a restoration by Nollekens for Cavaceppi?
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https://www.bonhams.com/auction/16853/lot/224/a-roman-marble-bust-of-the-emperor-caracalla/
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The Emperor Commodus./
White Marble 70.5 cms
Attributed to Cavaceppi (C. 1716-1799).
From the Kagan Collection
Lot 57 10 June 2022.Christie's.
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6377696
not great resolution but sufficient for my purposes. showing the very similar detail of where the bust meets the eared support on the socle.
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Catalogued as "A Late 18th Century Gentleman in a Toga"?!
Height 82.1 cms
Christie's, Lot 62 - 4 December 2018. Sold for £4,375.
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6178335?ldp_breadcrumb=back
What am I missing here?? Does this mean that it is suggested as a fake?
To my eye this is obviously an antique bust which has been restored in the 18th Century - possibly in the workshop of Cavaceppi. The surface has been weathered unsurprisingly, but an obvious pointer to its age is the use of iron pins to fix the missing elements - if it were later then bronze pins would have been used.
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The Sotheby's New York Bust of Zeus or Asklepios.
I don't think that Cavaceppi or his contemporary Vincenzo Pacetti were above providing copies - the Sotheby's New York bust of Zeus or Asklepios is perhaps an example.
Provenance.
Sotheby's say that this head was "reproduced in terracotta, plaster, and marble in 1784 in Rome by the antiquarian and restorer Vincenzo Pacetti (1746-1820), who may have owned it himself at the time".
The art dealer Louis Meier, 23 Cecil Court, London, 1940s.
The portrait photographer Angus McBean (1904-1990), Flemings
Hall, Bedingfield, Suffolk, acquired from the above in 1948
David Ball, Guildhall, Debenham, by inheritance.
Peter Hone, London, acquired from the above circa 2000.
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/antiquities-n09362/lot.34.html
The form of the socle is typical of Cavaceppi's work and here suggested as a Cavaceppi replacement.
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Pair of Monumental Plaster Busts.
The busts are modelled after Roman emperor portraits that
were found in Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, dated to circa 120 A.D. One bust
portrays Lucius Verus (161–169) and the other Antoninus Pius (138-161).
Sotheby's 5 July 2022. Lot 246.
Approx. 94 cms
‘A Bust of Lucius Verus with the military coat, covered with
the Paludamentum; formerly in the Mattei Villa, and is engraved in the Museum
Matteianum’ (TY 12/3, library 25).
Bought from Hamilton for £70 (TY 8/4; TY 10/2, fo. 25r; TY
10/3, fo.29; ST 1, fo. 17r).
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A Group of Drawings in the British Museum attributed to Vincenzo Pacetti by Ian Jenkins.
https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/1200865348
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John Brown (1752 - 1787).
Alert readers of this blog might have come across John Brown before. When I was researching the Vandewall / Seward Bust of Alexander Pope. This is a good opportunity to expand on the works of John Brown
The Pope engraving with title and references both Rysbrack and the owner William Seward
The Busts of Homer and Pope.
Stipple Engraving of the bust in the possession of William
Seward of Alexander Pope by Roubiliac dated 1788, drawn by John Brown and
engraved by Marino Bovi.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Q-1-126
Proposals for Publishing by Subscription , Two several Engravings of the Busts of Homer and his Translator Alexander Pope.
One of the Engravings, the Homer, will be executed by F. Bartollozi. R.A. The other of Pope, by Mr. BOVI, Pupil to Bartolozzi.
The Price to Subscribers will be TEN and SIXPENCE.
The Prints to be delivered on or before the 30th of January 1788, and in the order they are
Mess. WHITE and SON, Fleet Street;
Mr. RICHARDSON, Strand;
Mess. ROBSON and Co. New Bond Street;
Mess.PAYNE, Mews-Gate;
Mr. CADELL, Strand;
Mr. TORRE, Print Seller, Pall-Mall;
Mr. EDWARDS, Bookseller, Pall-Mall;
and at Mrs. BROWN’S at Mr. MIDDLETON’S, No. 162, Strand [?1797].
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John Brown was born around 1752, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the
son of a watchmaker. He studied in Edinburgh at the Trustees' Academy. Around 1769 he traveled to Rome, where he became a pupil of Alexander Runciman.
They became firm friends.
For the next eleven years he lived in Rome. In Italy and Sicily he made sketches of the ruins of ancient buildings for his Scottish patrons, William Townley and Sir William Young,[1] and sent drawings to the Royal Academy.
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