Friday, January 1, 2021

Eighteenth-Century Marbles Carved in Italy - II

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Hermes Sandal-Binder (also called Cincinnatus)
(Roman fragment, 2nd century AD,
extended, embellished and reconfigured by Cavaceppi)
ca. 1765
marble
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Asclepios
(headless Roman torso, 2nd century AD,
extended, reconfigured and redefined by Cavaceppi)
ca. 1765
marble
Musée du Louvre

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Emperor Galba Enthroned
(colossal headless Roman torso, 2nd-3rd century AD,
extended, reconfigured and redefined by Cavaceppi)
ca. 1777
marble
Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Emperor Galba Enthroned (detail)
(colossal headless Roman torso, 2nd-3rd century AD,
extended, reconfigured and redefined by Cavaceppi)
ca. 1777
marble
Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican

Cavaceppi's identification of this piece as "Galba" is entirely imaginary, as is the positioning on the "throne" which Cavaceppi himself created. The arms, head, and lower body were all tacked on in the late 18th century to "complete" the sculpture and render it presentable by the standards of the day.

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Ganymede with Jupiter as Eagle
(headless Roman torso, 2nd century AD,
extended, reconfigured and embellished by Cavaceppi)
ca. 1785
marble
Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican

Carlo Albacini
Flora
(imitation of ancient Roman sculpture)
ca. 1780
marble
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Antonio Canova
Orpheus
(imitation of ancient Roman sculpture)
1776
marble
Museo Correr, Venice

Antonio Canova
Apollo Crowning Himself
(imitation of ancient Roman sculpture)
1781-82
marble
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Paolo Andrea Triscornia
Callipygian Venus 
(full-size copy of heavily restored ancient Roman statue in Naples)
ca. 1775-1800
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Paolo Andrea Triscornia
The Laocoön
(full-size copy of heavily restored ancient Roman statue group at the Vatican)
1798
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Vincenzo Pacetti
The Hope Dionysos
(Roman fragment, 27 BC-AD 68,
extended, reconfigured and embellished by Pacetti)
ca. 1796
marble
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Vincenzo Pacetti
Athena of Velletri
(Roman fragment, 1st century AD,
extended and embellished by Pacetti)
ca. 1798
marble
Musée du Louvre

Vincenzo Pacetti
The Barberini Faun
(Hellenistic Greek fragment, 220 BC,
extended and reconfigured for the 3rd and final time by Pacetti)
1799
marble
Glyptothek, Munich

Vincenzo Pacetti
The Barberini Faun
(Hellenistic Greek fragment, 220 BC,
extended and reconfigured for the 3rd and final time by Pacetti)
1799
marble
Glyptothek, Munich

The Faun's lolling pose, emphasizing the genitals, is inauthentic and was created by a succession of Italian restorers.  They manufactured the base, extending the figure with unrelated antique fragments and their own fresh-carved elements.  When the statue reached Munich in the early 19th century, it featured a dangling left arm, which had only recently been created and attached by Pacetti. That conspicuously spurious limb has since been removed, but the overall appearance of the piece is apparently too famous and too widely reproduced to attempt further correction. 

Vincenzo Pacetti
The Barberini Faun (detail)
(Hellenistic Greek fragment, 220 BC,
extended and reconfigured for the 3rd and final time by Pacetti)
1799
marble
Glyptothek, Munich