Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman marble statue of draped woman wash drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
"Writing of his Paper Museum in a letter of 1654, Cassiano declared, "I have not spared expense in collecting together evidence, having caused young men well qualified in drawing to copy over a period of many years, continuing even to the present, all that is good that may be found amongst marbles and metals that might be capable of suggesting some noteworthy information about the Antique." Cassiano did not possess the financial means to collect antiquities on a large scale himself, and this may have been one of the reasons why he decided to employ artists to make drawn copies for him of the remains of Roman civilization, from household objects to manuscripts, sculpture and mosaics. These copies were then classified thematically in his Paper Museum, thus forming as complete a record as possible of ancient Roman religion, customs, dress, architecture, theatrical spectacles and so on."
– Nicholas Turner, from The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1993 exhibition catalog from the British Museum
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman Forum - Temple of Castor & Pollux copy of Uffizi drawing by Giovanni Antonio Dosio before 1610 British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Statue of seated figure flanked by phalloi wash drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Bronze Statuette of Mars Ultor (head) wash drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Antique Capitals wash drawing ca. 1650 British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Putti before a statue of Venus etching by Giovanni Andrea Podestà, after Titian dedicated to Cassiano dal Pozzo 1636 British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Triumph of Caesar with Elephants engraving by follower of Andrea Mantegna ca. 1470-1500 British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman Procession with Bulls for Sacrifice etching by Michele Lucchese after Polidoro da Caravaggio ca. 1540-50 British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Chapel Interior Funeral of Filippo Giuseppe San Martino d'Angliè etching 1667 British Museum |
Funeral decoration of chapels and churches was a huge and profitable field of artistic endeavor throughout Europe in the seventeenth century. At the back of the small chapel above, the altar-like structure rising to the ceiling consists of five tiers. Paintings and statues are densely arranged on each level in a diminishing scale that echoes perspective techniques used to communicate depth in paintings with a similar system of diminishment. The statue at the peak supports an oval portrait of the deceased and stands beneath a suspended baldachino put in place for the occasion from which descends a canopy apparently made of dozens of yards of embroidered silk.
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Colonnade including statues of six bishops from one family in Brescia engraving 17th century Royal Collection, Windsor |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Sheet of sketches by Perino del Vaga drawing before 1547 British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Study for fountain with Adonis in niche wash drawing 17th century British Museum |
Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Chiefly motifs from the base of Trajan's Column in Rome mid-17th-century drawing British Museum |