Bath, Art and Architecture: Cavaceppi and the Eared Socle.

Saturday, 30 November 2024

Cavaceppi and the Eared Socle.

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716 - 99), and his use of the eared socle.

This post was prompted by researches into Nollekens

Some Notes and images.

I cannot pretend any real expertise on the subject of Cavaceppi. Part of the reason for posting is to illustrate the way that Cavaceppi influenced English sculptors who came to Rome to learn such as Joseph Nollekens and Thomas Banks (in Rome 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 - A sort of Catalogue of his works but also a very effective piece of advertising

it 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.

Very Poor Image courtesy National Trust below. Who made the decision at the NT to publish such poor images and why??

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/486343

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The Bust of Cato

Formerly with Tomasso Brothers of Leeds and London.

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.

The bust above is illustrated in the Raccolta, no 15.

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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.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auction-catalogue/2024/master-sculpture-from-four-millennia-L24264/caracalla-a-rediscovered-bust-a-re-examined-rule

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?