Papers by Anna Maria Riccomini
Il gruppo cd. di Sant’Ildefonso, oggi al Museo del Prado, è stato ritenuto un unicum, privo di re... more Il gruppo cd. di Sant’Ildefonso, oggi al Museo del Prado, è stato ritenuto un unicum, privo di repliche antiche a grandezza naturale. Una statua del Museo di Antichità di Torino, restaurata in età moderna con gli attributi di Mercurio, si direbbe, invece, togliere questo gruppo dal suo isolamento. Si propone qui di riconoscere nel torso torinese una replica del cd. Oreste del gruppo di Sant’Ildefonso: tracce di rilavorazione del marmo in corrispondenza della spalla e della scapola sinistre sembrano suggerire l’originaria presenza del braccio di una seconda figura, oggi perduta.
La provenienza della statua è ancora incerta, ma sembra molto probabile un suo arrivo da Roma. I restauri moderni, che hanno interessato la testa, il braccio sinistro e la parte inferiore delle gambe, sembrano però ricondurre all’ambito artistico veneto del primo Cinquecento. Il confronto stilistico, che qui si propone, con la testa dell’Ermafrodito Grimani, nel Museo Archeologico di Venezia, attribuito di recente alla mano di Antonio Lombardo, fornisce un interessante spunto di indagine e suggerisce la possibilità che anche i restauri del Mercurio di Torino siano da ricondurre alla cerchia dei Lombardo, anche se in assenza di dati d’archivio questa attribuzione è destinata a rimanere solo un’ipotesi. Non si tratterebbe, comunque, di un caso isolato, tra i marmi delle raccolte archeologiche dei Savoia: altri pezzi antichi o ‘all’antica’ delle collezioni sabaude sono state, già in passato, avvicinate alla scuola dei Lombardo o, comunque, all’ambito scultoreo veneto del XVI secolo.
The so-called St. Ildefonso group, now in the Prado Museum, has been considered a unicum, lacking life-size ancient replicas. However, a statue in the Museo di Antichità in Turin, restored in modern times with the attributes of Mercury, might remove this group from its isolation. It is proposed here to recognize in the Turin torso a replica of the so-called. Orestes of the St. Ildefonsus group: traces of marble rework on the left shoulder and shoulder blade seem to suggest the original presence of the arm of a second figure, which is now lost.
The provenance of this statue is still uncertain, but its arrival from Rome seems very likely. However, modern restorations, which have affected the head, left arm, and lower legs, might indicate connections to the Venetian artistic milieu of the early 16th century. A stylistic comparison, proposed here, with the head of the Grimani Hermaphrodite, now in the Archaeological Museum in Venice and lately attributed to the hand of Antonio Lombardo, provides an interesting point of investigation and suggests the possibility that the restorations of the Turin Mercury are also to be traced back to the Lombardo circle, even though, in the absence of archival data, this attribution remains a hypothesis. This would not, however, be an isolated case among the marbles in the archaeological collections of the Savoy family: other antique or ‘all’antica’ pieces in this collections have already been attributed to the Lombardo circle or to the Venetian school.
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So far poorly studied, the series of female busts drawn by Jacopo Strada in the Vienna and Dresde... more So far poorly studied, the series of female busts drawn by Jacopo Strada in the Vienna and Dresden codices provides us with useful information on the knowledge of imperial female portraiture soon after the mid-16th century. In comparison to Andrea Fulvio's Illustrium Imagines and, above all, Enea Vico's Imagini delle Donne Auguste, Strada's drawings seek, for the first time, to replace the traditional numismatic images with ancient Roman busts. This study proposes the identification of ancient models for some Jacopo Strada's drawings: in addition to the marble busts of some Augustae, it was possible to demonstrate that, during the 16th century, the busts of Athena/Attis and Demeter, from the Cesi-Ludovisi collection and now in the National Roman Museum (Palazzo Altemps) were interpreted as portraits of Cleopatra and Eunoe, queen of Mauretania.
Strada's drawings also allow us to confirm that some busts used to have different combinations of head and chest.
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An ancient model for Canova’s Opheus?
Is it possible that, before going to Rome, Canova was inspi... more An ancient model for Canova’s Opheus?
Is it possible that, before going to Rome, Canova was inspired, for his first statue, from an ancient model? This paper suggests a possible connection between Canova’s Orpheus and a Roman statue of a Gaul in the Galleria Barberini, in Rome.
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Antichità al Santo/Antiquity in the Basilica, in L. Bertazzo, G. Zampieri (a cura di), La Pontificia Basilica di Sant’Antonio in Padova. Archeologia, Storia, Arte, Musica, (Le chiese monumentali Padovane, 6), Roma 2021, I, pp. 393-421 Reuse, reworking, inspiration, imitation, allusion: antiquity resurfaces in all these forms in th... more Reuse, reworking, inspiration, imitation, allusion: antiquity resurfaces in all these forms in the Basilica. Sometimes it can be noticed in a game of references and comparisons between ancient and modern art, which begins with Rolando da Piazzola’s tomb placed immediately in front of the Basilica, then continues into the Chapter Cloister with the Bebi and the da Lozzo monuments and the holy water font of Saint Justina, for whose image an ancient statue depicting one of the muses had been in all likelihood refashioned. The taste for antiquity can also be found not only in the copy of two famous Roman portraits and in the monument to Alessandro Contarini, but also in the very Ark of the Saint, whose nine large relief panels rich in allusion to classical sources become a sort of modern triumphal arch erected to the greater glory of the Christian faith.
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Addictions to Diomede Carafa's Collection Formed by Diomede Carafa in the second half of the 15th... more Addictions to Diomede Carafa's Collection Formed by Diomede Carafa in the second half of the 15th century and carefully arranged in the courtyard and in the interior of his Palace in Naples, this outstanding collection of antiquities has been recently and carefully investigated: a considerable part of its contents has therefore been identified, but much is still lacking. This study allows us to identify three new sculptures so far untraced and provides new evidence on their provenance and antiquarian history. A statue of a draped woman, mentioned in 16th century epigraphic sylloges, seems to correspond to the so-called ‘Trentham Lady’, now in the British Museum, whose inscription was probably misinterpreted. An Italian 16th century drawing in Hamburg depicts the Trentham Lady with a second female statue, now lost but still documented at the beginning of the 20th century in the Vesuvian villa of Francesco Santangelo, who around 1815 had bought Diomede’s palace. As to the curious and much appreciated relief of Tempus I suggest an identification with the Chronos/Tempus relief now in the Hermitage Museum.
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Jacopo Strada plays a leading role in the study of Roman female portraiture, in particular with r... more Jacopo Strada plays a leading role in the study of Roman female portraiture, in particular with respect to the images of Augustae and other women of the imperial family. The series of drawings with
imperial portraits, preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna and the Kupferstich-Kabinett of the Dresden Residenzschloss and still almost unpublished, point out an artist well updated on this topic and able to bring new contributions to the antiquarian debate. This study focuses on that part of female portraits taken from numismatic images. The comparison with previous publications leaves no doubt that Jacopo Strada’s drawings expanded the traditional repertoire up
to include portraits of Augustae of the late Roman imperial age or those coined in the provincial mints. They also show an expedient of great effect: the artist did not draw the portraits in profile, as had been done before, but “turned” the numismatic models, so as to give the impression of marble busts in the round, thus creating a sort of portrait gallery.
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Prospettiva, 2019
The handwriting of the caption “in la vale” appearing on a drawing in the Musée de Grenoble, iden... more The handwriting of the caption “in la vale” appearing on a drawing in the Musée de Grenoble, identical to that on another sheet conserved in the Cooper Hewitt Museum of New York, suggests that both were by the same hand, identified in the past as that of Girolamo da Carpi. It was in fact more probably a pupil of the Ferrarese artist who, like his master, copied ancient statues: sculptures of the Della Valle collection that was among the most visited and studied by artists of the Cinquecento. The drawings by this anonymous artist enable us to trace to this collection statues that had never previously been copied and of which other drawn reproductions are unknown, as is the case with a statue of ‘Venus’ in the Boboli Gardens or that of a ‘Togatus’ in the deposits of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence. The idea of identifying the ‘Venus’ drawn on the Grenoble sheet as the statue today standing in the Boboli Gardens has provided us with an opportunity to reconsider its complex history, closely intertwined with that of the ‘Venere Aurea’, one of the nobilia opera of the Gallerie degli Uffizi. At Boboli we also find the ‘Dionysus’ reproduced in the New York drawing, a statue which, despite its excellent condition and fine workmanship, has never been the object of particular interest in the specialized literature, a fact that has prompted a reappraisal of the work in this article aimed at better defining its chronological and typological placement. Lastly, an analysis updated in the light of information emerging from recent restoration work has also been attempted for another marble reproduced on a second sheet of the Musée de Grenoble, the so-called ‘Young Marcus Aurelius’ of the Gallerie degli Uffizi, in whose head – ancient, although not originally belonging to the statue – it is now possible to recognize a portrait of the young Commodus.
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Lancut Castle in Poland is home to a statue of a seated Mercury. It's perhaps one of the most cur... more Lancut Castle in Poland is home to a statue of a seated Mercury. It's perhaps one of the most curious ancient marble sculptures to have come out of Vincenzo Pacetti's restoration workshop. Until now, the earliest known reference to it was as late as the 1800s when Pacetti is reported as buying it. Now an unpublished drawing in the British Museum shows that it was on display in Rome at least as early as in the mid 1500s. It can be identified as the statue of Phryxus that Ulisse Aldrovandi noted in the gardens of Palazzo Podocataro. By knitting together the writings of Aldrovandi and Vasari an intentional iconographical layout of the garden's statuary emerges. The statue of Mercury could be seen "in conversation" with the statue of Bacchus seated next to a panther. The latter, now lost, had been in the Della Valle-Medici collection. Drawings on the back of the London document, and others on a second leaf by the same hand, provide new and precious information about the history of art collections and the restoration of some of the famous sculptures that were on display in the coutyard of the Della Valle Palace in Rome,
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Papers by Anna Maria Riccomini
La provenienza della statua è ancora incerta, ma sembra molto probabile un suo arrivo da Roma. I restauri moderni, che hanno interessato la testa, il braccio sinistro e la parte inferiore delle gambe, sembrano però ricondurre all’ambito artistico veneto del primo Cinquecento. Il confronto stilistico, che qui si propone, con la testa dell’Ermafrodito Grimani, nel Museo Archeologico di Venezia, attribuito di recente alla mano di Antonio Lombardo, fornisce un interessante spunto di indagine e suggerisce la possibilità che anche i restauri del Mercurio di Torino siano da ricondurre alla cerchia dei Lombardo, anche se in assenza di dati d’archivio questa attribuzione è destinata a rimanere solo un’ipotesi. Non si tratterebbe, comunque, di un caso isolato, tra i marmi delle raccolte archeologiche dei Savoia: altri pezzi antichi o ‘all’antica’ delle collezioni sabaude sono state, già in passato, avvicinate alla scuola dei Lombardo o, comunque, all’ambito scultoreo veneto del XVI secolo.
The so-called St. Ildefonso group, now in the Prado Museum, has been considered a unicum, lacking life-size ancient replicas. However, a statue in the Museo di Antichità in Turin, restored in modern times with the attributes of Mercury, might remove this group from its isolation. It is proposed here to recognize in the Turin torso a replica of the so-called. Orestes of the St. Ildefonsus group: traces of marble rework on the left shoulder and shoulder blade seem to suggest the original presence of the arm of a second figure, which is now lost.
The provenance of this statue is still uncertain, but its arrival from Rome seems very likely. However, modern restorations, which have affected the head, left arm, and lower legs, might indicate connections to the Venetian artistic milieu of the early 16th century. A stylistic comparison, proposed here, with the head of the Grimani Hermaphrodite, now in the Archaeological Museum in Venice and lately attributed to the hand of Antonio Lombardo, provides an interesting point of investigation and suggests the possibility that the restorations of the Turin Mercury are also to be traced back to the Lombardo circle, even though, in the absence of archival data, this attribution remains a hypothesis. This would not, however, be an isolated case among the marbles in the archaeological collections of the Savoy family: other antique or ‘all’antica’ pieces in this collections have already been attributed to the Lombardo circle or to the Venetian school.
Strada's drawings also allow us to confirm that some busts used to have different combinations of head and chest.
Is it possible that, before going to Rome, Canova was inspired, for his first statue, from an ancient model? This paper suggests a possible connection between Canova’s Orpheus and a Roman statue of a Gaul in the Galleria Barberini, in Rome.
imperial portraits, preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna and the Kupferstich-Kabinett of the Dresden Residenzschloss and still almost unpublished, point out an artist well updated on this topic and able to bring new contributions to the antiquarian debate. This study focuses on that part of female portraits taken from numismatic images. The comparison with previous publications leaves no doubt that Jacopo Strada’s drawings expanded the traditional repertoire up
to include portraits of Augustae of the late Roman imperial age or those coined in the provincial mints. They also show an expedient of great effect: the artist did not draw the portraits in profile, as had been done before, but “turned” the numismatic models, so as to give the impression of marble busts in the round, thus creating a sort of portrait gallery.
La provenienza della statua è ancora incerta, ma sembra molto probabile un suo arrivo da Roma. I restauri moderni, che hanno interessato la testa, il braccio sinistro e la parte inferiore delle gambe, sembrano però ricondurre all’ambito artistico veneto del primo Cinquecento. Il confronto stilistico, che qui si propone, con la testa dell’Ermafrodito Grimani, nel Museo Archeologico di Venezia, attribuito di recente alla mano di Antonio Lombardo, fornisce un interessante spunto di indagine e suggerisce la possibilità che anche i restauri del Mercurio di Torino siano da ricondurre alla cerchia dei Lombardo, anche se in assenza di dati d’archivio questa attribuzione è destinata a rimanere solo un’ipotesi. Non si tratterebbe, comunque, di un caso isolato, tra i marmi delle raccolte archeologiche dei Savoia: altri pezzi antichi o ‘all’antica’ delle collezioni sabaude sono state, già in passato, avvicinate alla scuola dei Lombardo o, comunque, all’ambito scultoreo veneto del XVI secolo.
The so-called St. Ildefonso group, now in the Prado Museum, has been considered a unicum, lacking life-size ancient replicas. However, a statue in the Museo di Antichità in Turin, restored in modern times with the attributes of Mercury, might remove this group from its isolation. It is proposed here to recognize in the Turin torso a replica of the so-called. Orestes of the St. Ildefonsus group: traces of marble rework on the left shoulder and shoulder blade seem to suggest the original presence of the arm of a second figure, which is now lost.
The provenance of this statue is still uncertain, but its arrival from Rome seems very likely. However, modern restorations, which have affected the head, left arm, and lower legs, might indicate connections to the Venetian artistic milieu of the early 16th century. A stylistic comparison, proposed here, with the head of the Grimani Hermaphrodite, now in the Archaeological Museum in Venice and lately attributed to the hand of Antonio Lombardo, provides an interesting point of investigation and suggests the possibility that the restorations of the Turin Mercury are also to be traced back to the Lombardo circle, even though, in the absence of archival data, this attribution remains a hypothesis. This would not, however, be an isolated case among the marbles in the archaeological collections of the Savoy family: other antique or ‘all’antica’ pieces in this collections have already been attributed to the Lombardo circle or to the Venetian school.
Strada's drawings also allow us to confirm that some busts used to have different combinations of head and chest.
Is it possible that, before going to Rome, Canova was inspired, for his first statue, from an ancient model? This paper suggests a possible connection between Canova’s Orpheus and a Roman statue of a Gaul in the Galleria Barberini, in Rome.
imperial portraits, preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna and the Kupferstich-Kabinett of the Dresden Residenzschloss and still almost unpublished, point out an artist well updated on this topic and able to bring new contributions to the antiquarian debate. This study focuses on that part of female portraits taken from numismatic images. The comparison with previous publications leaves no doubt that Jacopo Strada’s drawings expanded the traditional repertoire up
to include portraits of Augustae of the late Roman imperial age or those coined in the provincial mints. They also show an expedient of great effect: the artist did not draw the portraits in profile, as had been done before, but “turned” the numismatic models, so as to give the impression of marble busts in the round, thus creating a sort of portrait gallery.
L'apparato fotografico, interamente rifatto per l'occasione, si deve alla generosa collaborazione di Giorgio Olivero.