[ad_1]
GIACOMO RAFFAELLI (1753-1836) LAPIDARY MASTER
Anna Maria Massinelli
‘Giacomo Raffaelli whom I’ve already named,
and who I’ll identify once more because the one who combines
the possession of uncommon and treasured stones
with elegant advantage within the artwork of mosaic’ (Faustino Corsi, 1833 )
This pietra dura specimen prime is a celebration of Giacomo Raffaelli’s fascination for the mineral world and his virtuosity as a lapidary artist. The gorgeous lapidary palette of the desk contains a wealthy specimen of semiprecious stones inlaid on a white Carrara statuary marble background. The geometrical sample includes 100 and thirty stones, dominated by the big central slice of agate whose inside microcrystalline formation is brightened by a gold foil beneath. This specimen maintains the pure irregular pebble form and is immersed in a big border constituted by slices of amethyst. The encircling stones are organized symmetrically round a lozenge fashioned by a sequence of rectangular panels (together with Sicilian and Corsican jasper and different uncommon stones) and a row of spherical and oval lower agates that body the central amethyst and agate.
Giacomo, born in Rome in 1753, was a descendant of a household of glass makers. In 1775 he achieved renown with a profitable mosaic exhibition held in his studio in Salita San Sebastianello, close to the Spanish steps. Modern sources topped Giacomo because the inventor of a brand new approach to make use of glass mosaic in objets de vertu, reminiscent of packing containers, small plaques and jewellery. Archival analysis reveals that, whereas he achieved fame as a glass mosaicist, he was additionally very concerned with a unique vary of productions, particularly lapidary works, which enchanted the Grand vacationers throughout their keep in Rome.
In 1794, writing a letter to Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, architect of the Elector of Mainz, Raffaelli introduced the opening of his pietra dura workshop in Rome. He requested for some samples of German stones, and ‘pietre nicolate’ (sardonix agate) to carve cameos. He provided in trade a few of his mosaics. It isn’t recognized if he succeeded on this particular request, however we all know that his lapidary assortment was massively elevated at the moment.
The celebrated Roman connoisseur and marble collector, Faustino Corsi (1711-1846), described the Raffaelli workshop as a particular place the place one may discover a big assortment of uncommon stones and specimens, and identified that Raffaelli’s son Vincenzo was additionally a refined lapidary connoisseur. Corsi described an vintage, large specimen of spato-fluore, exceptional for its dimension, vivacity and number of the colours and an unlimited block of rock crystal, weighing eight hundred and seventy kilos.
Raffaelli’s fame as a lapidary artist shortly widespread and in 1784 he obtained an essential fee from the Florence resident George Clavering-Cowper, third Earl Cowper by way of the Scottish painter Jacob Extra, who resided in Rome, for a pair of marble and pietra dura desk tops, to include two Florentine Grand Ducal workshop panels already within the Earl’s assortment, depicting an inside view of the Coliseum and the harbor in Leghorn. It’s important that Cowper, residing in Florence, turned to Raffaelli, relatively than the Grand Ducal workshop, for these tables, which included quite a lot of marmora romana, porphyry, granites, lapis lazuli and Sicilian jasper.
Within the early nineteenth century, Raffaelli renewed the approach and magnificence of his lapidary works. In a letter to Vincenzo Mora, who was touring within the south of Italy making an attempt to promote luxurious objects to the Bourbon court docket, Raffaelli described a chimney piece and a pair of tables from his workshop, in statuary marble inlaid in uncommon stones. The chimney piece was finally acquired by Pope Pius VII and in 1803 he despatched it as a gift to Napoleon, who had it put in within the Salon Doré at Malmaison. Within the letter which accompanied the chimney Raffaelli listed 126 uncommon stones within the frieze together with agate, carnelians, lapis lazuli, jasper, 177 stones within the pilasters, 151 amethyst stones across the gentle of the chimney, every little thing framed in gilt bronze. The frieze included additionally three micromosaic plaques with Herculaneum topics (these and a lot of the stone ornament have been eliminated and dispersed in the course of the Franco-Prussian warfare in 1870). Giacomo despatched to Napoleon the descriptions of the 2 inlaid tables that matched the chimney and he hooked up the design exhibiting the highest and the stand of considered one of them (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale), though the tables have been by no means despatched.
In 1804 Raffaelli moved to Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Italian Kingdom, invited by the viceroy Eugenio de Beauharnais to open a mosaic college, at which period the 2 nonetheless unfinished tables have been shipped with the remainder of his properties. He was capable of full them, with some adjustments, solely ten years later once they have been exhibited, in 1814, on the annual exhibition in Brera. They’re described in a printed brochure and solely about three a long time later when Vincenzo inherited them they have been despatched to St. Petersburg and at the moment are within the Hermitage Museum. The tops are profusely inlaid with uncommon marbles, hardstones and with micromosaic panels of allegories of the humanities and Cupids, whereas the exceptional stands are equally inlaid with hardstones in white marble
The curiosity of Giacomo for vases, clocks and lots of different completely different sort of ornamental objects in marble and semiprecious stones may be very effectively documented. He referred to completely different stonecutters in Rome, considered one of them was “Domenico scalpellino” who equipped marble vases, in numerous sizes and stones, and sculptures in “rosso antico”. A repertoire of designs for vases, remained between Giacomo papers, it reveals some frequent shapes: urns, craters, amphorae, columns vases. Raffaelli was capable of remodel these conventional vases into one thing fully new: he inset the white curved floor of the vases with pietra dura and micromosaic plaques, a really refined approach invented and perfected by Giacomo himself.
In 1803, the yr earlier than he moved to Milan, Giacomo met the Duke Francesco Melzi d’Eril and he confirmed him the design of a monumental centerpiece, or dessert, a triumph of the Roman model with retour d’Egypte accents. The Duke was enchanted and he quickly ordered it, following with a second fee of a bigger centerpiece for the Royal Palace in Milan to set the desk in honour of Napoleon for his coronation as king of Italy on Might 26 1805 (Palazzo Reale, Milan). This masterwork, collectively along with his marble items donated by the Pope to Napoleon, established his fame on the Napoleonic court docket and assured him an excellent dedication and compensation throughout his time in Milan.
As quickly as he was settled, he started a detailed correspondence along with his son Vincenzo who remained in Rome to prepare the ultimate transfer of the studio and of the remainder of the household. The letters exchanged along with his son between 1803-1804 are a treasured supply of details about his personal life, his works, patrons and collaborators. He was instantly planning to open an ‘vintage retailer’ in Milan to promote his personal artwork works, jewellery and completely different objects imported from Rome. In one of many first letters to Vincenzo he wrote: ‘hopefully we are able to do some enterprise, not with the mosaics, that they don’t comprehend it right here, however solely with marbles and different genres’.
In actual fact, together with the group of the mosaic college, Raffaelli targeted his personal manufacturing on the lapidary works. Writing to his spouse in Rome, he described how ‘I’m sitting right here with Giuseppe [his assistant and stone cutters], evening and day, making an attempt to rearrange stones on papers to make tables’.
His focus on lapidary works at the moment is testified by the lists of objects shipped by the sculptor Pietro Marchetti (1766-1846) from Carrara from 1805 to 1815. These included a number of items of marbles lower for desk tops of various dimension, bases for ‘deserts’, frames for chimneys. Raffaelli was very demanding in regards to the high quality of the statuary marble. Marchetti someday defined how tough it was to search out immaculate white marble as Raffaelli required, however he additionally remarked that he can simply disguise some spots with the inlaid coloured stones.
Though the canonical repertoire of marmora romana was adopted enthusiastically by Raffaelli, he was additionally fascinated by extra unique arduous stones, of which he was a voracious researcher and purchaser and was particularly inquisitive about probably the most not too long ago mined minerals, together with labradorite, which he typically inserted in his lapidary works. Whereas in Milan, Giacomo intensified his analysis of stones and traveled throughout the Alps in quest of well-known German jaspers and agates. In 1809 he was in contact with the Caesar Demeaux Gottlie Scriba & Comp workshop based mostly in Idar-Oberstein for the buying of hardstone vases and tough stones. The enterprise relationship didn’t final too lengthy as a result of the German workshop was unable to fulfill Raffaelli’s demanding requests, however however Giacomo cherished the translucent and distinctive palettes of the agates discovered there. An undated autograph pocket book appears to be a sort of traveler diary the place he listed numerous purchases of stones throughout considered one of his journeys to Germany. From this we be taught, for instance, of the acquisition of agates, of a crimson and crystalline stone, petrified wooden, a number of small stones and ‘niccoli’ (sardonix agate), appropriate supplies for cameos; additionally a bit of jade from a Frankfurt vendor in trade for numerous stones. The huge specimens collected exceeded two thousand samples, precisely described within the stock drafted in 1821 when Giacomo relocated to Rome: by then, the huge assortment was equal to an important up to date lapidary collections. These exceptional jewel-like stones collected by Raffaelli, with their enchanting chromatic variations, added a contact of novelty and richness to his lapidary work.
Raffaelli’s focus on hardstones throughout his time in Milan, and his days spent accommodating colourful stones on the papers, is clear in a particular group of desk tops created throughout this era, of which the spectacular instance examined here’s a important instance.
One can actually acknowledge his ability, derived from such tireless questing for uncommon hardstones, within the current desk, composed completely of semiprecious stones, suggesting the essential vacation spot of this refined specimen. The highest may be in contrast for the geometrical sample, dimension and use of comparable stones, with a pair of Raffaelli tables on the Hermitage Museum (of which one is illustrated right here) which along with agates, jaspers and carnelians additionally embody a refined choice of marmora romana (in contrast to the desk studied right here which consists completely of hardstones).
Two different bigger tables are associated to this distinctive manufacturing by Raffaelli. One belongs to the Spanish Royal assortment and was bought in Rome shortly earlier than 1800 by the watchmaker François-Louis Godon, whose widow would later promote it to Charles IV of Spain in 1803 (Madrid, Palacio Actual, see A. González-Palacios, Las Colecciones Reales Españolas de Mosaicos y Piedras Duras, Madrid, 2001. pp.240-3, illustrated right here fig.3). The opposite was acquired by Charles William Vane, third Marquis of Londonderry (1778-1854) when British ambassador on the Habsburg court docket in Vienna between 1814 and 1822. In keeping with paperwork which I found, Giacomo was coincidentally in the identical metropolis between 1818 and 1819, after an adventurous journey with a caravan of a couple of hundred wagons to deliver the monumental mosaic of the Final Supper, after the celebrated fresco of Leonardo da Vinci, the mosaic masterpiece that Giacomo produced throughout his keep in Milan (Wien MinoritenKirche). From the correspondence exchanged with Vincenzo, who remained in Milan, we all know that Giacomo opened a small gallery in his Viennese home and he despatched to his son an inventory of mosaics and tables to ship quickly with the intention to show it and attempt to make good enterprise within the Imperial metropolis. Probably throughout his keep in Vienna he had the chance to fulfill Lord Londonderry who purchased his excellent desk (see Massinelli op.cit.,pp. 287-293).
In 1821 after relocating to Rome in October 1820, Giacomo shipped 195 packing containers full of completed and unfinished objects, instruments, and so on. and greater than 2000 completely different stones rigorously listed. He went again to his native city as a rich artist and service provider, and he purchased a constructing in By way of del Babuino the place he lived till his dying in 1836. Giuseppe Valadier, the celebrated bronzier and designer, reworked the home for Raffaelli, offering him with a design for the home inscribed to ‘Sig. Giacomo Raffaelli Consigliere di S.M. Imperatore dellle Russie’, emphasizing his connections to the Russian Imperial Court docket.
Right here, in his previous age, he was lastly capable of make his dream true and he based a ‘grande opificio’, working it along with his son Vincenzo, whose manufacturing was very a lot oriented towards lapidary works.
THE BASE
The spectacular base, fully conceived in gilt-bronze and inset with additional treasured stones within the frieze (though of various sources to these of the highest), is a veritable tour de pressure of sculpture and chasing and opulent gilding. This base, impressed by historical iconographic sources, is fashioned of 4 herms of youthful and older males embracing two figures of caryatids which grasp in the direction of opulent cornucopiae on the lengthy aspect of the desk. The development of the desk base, which is fully made from metallic, is ingenious, with the legs fashioned of two sections which slot into one another and joined by an internal iron rod which is hidden on the base by the hoof toes.
The sculptor answerable for the magnificent base stays a thriller. There is no such thing as a documentary proof that it was conceived by Raffaelli himself, and the existence of an equivalent base, with later porphyry prime, within the Invernizzi assortment, Milan (illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicilie, Milan, 1984, vol. II, fig. 146), means that the 2 tables might have initially been conceived as a pair, suggesting a fee of appreciable significance.
When publishing it in 1984, González-Palacios dated the Invernizzi desk to 1770-1775 whereas Anna Maria Giusti, who first revealed the current desk in 2008, superior an attribution to Righetti based mostly on potential stylistic references to works by the well-known Roman bronze artist and dated the bottom to the early 19th century. She compares the figures on these tables to these discovered on a lectern by Righetti in San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, see Koeppe and Giusti, op.cit.,. pp. 313-314. The figures’ distinctive mixture of extremely chased and burnished finishes additionally options in his 1819 reliefs of Saint Francesco and Saint Ferdinando on the Palazzo Reale in Naples (see E. Colle, A. Griseri, and R. Valeriani, Bronzi ornamental in Italia: Bronzisti e fonditori italiani dal Seicento all’Ottocento, Milan 2001, p .238, no. 67).
She additionally steered a connection between this base and documentary references to some bronze cariatyds obtained by Raffaelli in 1804. Newer archival researches show that the numerous mentions associated to those bronzes are as a substitute referring to smaller scale caryatids for the 4 candelabra that dominated the monumental centerpiece within the Royal Palace in Milan.
Completely different ‘metallari’ offered bronzes and fashions that Giacomo supposed to solid himself whereas planning to discovered his correct foundry. ‘Angelo metallaro’ equipped the caryatids via ‘Domenico’ scultore, different suppliers talked about within the paperwork have been Conti, Giosuè, Marcandetti, ‘Gislacho’ and a ‘metallaro in Porta Nuova’. Giacomo additionally explored the methods of making gilt-bronzes himself and in 1803 earlier than leaving for Milan urged his son Vincenzo to find the way to make the distinctive beaded rim he typically used to border his marble tops, as on the instance studied right here and people within the Hermitage, for which Vincenzo created an ‘ordigno’, a particular instrument for this part.
Vincenzo invented a brand new instrument to chop curved slices of stone and joint it with excessive precision. A late article revealed in 1838 by Pietro Volpicelli, describes the operation of this ‘machine’ and the use made in stone mosaics and marble copy of roman monuments. Giacomo and Vincenzo used their massive assortment of stones and their new instrument to reinvent the concept of the specimen desk. They created elliptical patterns like within the desk bought to Danike Pettiward in 1829 (Cambridge, Trinity Faculty, Fitzwilliam Museum) or the one bought on 8 March 1831 to Lord John and Girl Augusta Kennedy-Erskine (Non-public assortment). Correct descriptive catalogues have been hooked up to this desk tops conceived like chosen lithic assortment. Carlo Alciati was paid by Raffaelli for writing the catalogues of 4 tables, considered one of them referring to the Erskine desk. Vincenzo carried on the Opificio in by way of del Babuino till, in 1845, he moved to St. Petersburg the place he based the Imperial mosaic manufacturing unit and faculty. He additionally moved many items to St. Peterburg remaining from the sooner manufacturing of his father and in addition his ‘machine’ for reducing stone, persevering with to provide marble vases and specimen desk tops within the metropolis of the Tzar.
The character of Vincenzo was overshadowed by his exuberant and inventive father however lots of the outcomes achieved within the household workshop have been additionally made potential due to Vincenzo’s ingenuity and guide ability. He was the central determine of the venture cherished by Giacomo proper from the beginning: the inspiration of a luxurious creative business, an ‘opificio’ with an inside system of manufacturing able to overlaying all of the methods and wishes associated to inside ornament. Vincenzo was completely concerned within the grandiose venture of his father, who inspired him to be taught every little thing relatively than having to take care of typically elusive and never at all times dependable artisans or established artists with extreme financial calls for. Vincenzo was the one going round to the Roman workshops making an attempt to discover ways to make scagliola, solid bronzes, cameos imprinting, and he ended up touring to Paris to discover ways to make gilt bronzes. In 1803, earlier than shifting to Milan, Giacomo urged him to discover ways to make the golden brass pearl border that Giacomo utilized in massive portions to border his mosaics, desk and every other sort of works. He advised Vincenzo to stroll within the workshop of his bronze suppliers ‘Gislacho’ to look and perceive how he did it and to offer the instruments to make it by himself. Vincenzo achieved a lot of the targets however his father’s venture failed in Milan, the place they have been largely occupied with the mosaic college and with the monumental mosaic of the Final Supper for the federal government, in order that their personal manufacturing was restricted to some glass mosaics and specimen desk tops. When in his previous age Giacomo based the ‘opificio’ in by way of del Babuino, in Rome, the workshop was largely targeted on lapidary works. Vincenzo’s deep information in stones and vintage marbles was estimated by the erudite and lapidary knowledgeable Francesco Belli who described, in Villa Albani, a vase carved by Vincenzo from the fragment of an historical column in crimson porphyry.
The paperwork present a dense community of artisans in whose workshops the celebrated late eighteenth-century fashions of Luigi Valadier(1726-1785) have been nonetheless circulating along with these of Luigi Righetti (1780-1852). Giacomo typically used these fashions which he then reworked on his personal, creating one thing fully new. His deference to the creations of Valadier and Righetti is particularly testified by his extraordinary centerpieces. It’s in fact attention-grabbing to notice that Giuseppe Valadier reworked Raffaelli’s home in Rome, and the exceptional à l’vintage caryatids of this base, their arms straining in the direction of the frieze, actually recall the helps of the celebrated seventeenth century desk reset by his father Luigi in 1774, now within the Sacro Militare Ordine di Malta, Rome and the pair of tables equipped by Giuseppe to the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in 1789-1792 (see A. González-Palacios, Luigi Valadier, New York, 2018, p. 424, fig.9_27 and p. 457, figs. 10_3 and 10_4).
It can not subsequently be excluded that the bronzes on the current base have been conceived within the context of the circulation of fashions by the 2 main sculptors in bronze on the Roman artwork market of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.·
The paperwork talked about on this essay are from the Raffaelli Archive, Negro Basis, Rome.
The references and transcriptions are in: A.M. Massinelli, with contributions from M.Alfieri,L.Biancini, E. Yakovleva, G.Tassinari, Giacomo Raffaelli: Maestro di Stile e di Mosaico, Firenze, 2018
F. Corsi, Delle pietre antiche di Faustino Corsi Romano, II ed. Tipografia Salviucci, Roma, 1833
Prof. Anna Maria Massinelli teaches trendy artwork historical past on the Academy of Tremendous Artwork of Brera, Milan. She has a specific curiosity within the historical past of the Medici dynasty and the artwork of hardstones, and has written and edited a variety of books on the topic together with Il Tesoro dei Medici, 1992; Il Cell Toscano, 1993; Scagliola.L’arte della pietra di luna, 1997; The Gilbert Assortment. Hardstone, 2000; the latest monograph on Raffaelli: Giacomo Raffaelli Maestro di stile e di mosaico, 2018 and most not too long ago De Lapidibus. Il trattato delle pietre di Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli, 2019, a complete research of this Grand Ducal lapidary artist.
Desk of Hardstones
1-Described within the Erskine desk as: ‘banded oriental sardonyx Agate’. Additionally known as additionally ‘niccolo’, a lot prized in antiquity and used for carving cameos and vases (Toso, p. 224)
2-Within the Erskine desk there are a number of styles of this so-called oriental alabaster. A treasured stone utilized in antiquity for luxurious artifacts and recognized in lots of variations, banded, flowery and golden when, as on this case, intense yellow-orange tones prevail (Borghini, pp. 142, 143; Napoleone, tav.XII)
3-Lapis lazuli, apparently the identical selection because the one outlined within the Erskine desk as coming from Persia
4-Amethyst from Idar-Oberstein in Germany, the richest deposit in Europe because the XVI century (Corsi n. 712, Quellmalz, pp. Toso, p. 250). Within the Erskine desk described as ‘oriental amethyst quartz’
5-German agate from Idar Oberstein, the well-known heart within the Palatinate for the extraction and reducing of hardstones, alongside the river Nahe (Toso, p. 227). Raffaelli travelled to Oberstein to seek for and purchase colourful agates and different stones. A big number of these agates are included within the Londonderry desk
6-Described within the Erskine desk as: oriental ‘veined cotognino’ was an historical treasured stone from Egypt (Borghini pp. 140-141; Napoleone, tav. X, n. C3)
7-Within the Erskine desk: ‘yellow agatized jasper from sicily’. Yellow brecciated Sicilian Jasper from Giuliana (San Carlo) close to Palermo ( Montana p. 11 6, n.171), or from Selinunte, close to Marinella, Trapani (Corsi n. 734)
8-Inexperienced Corsican Jasper, smaragdite from Monte San Petrone, Corsica. Described within the Erskine desk as ‘ inexperienced plasmato from Corsica’. In Raffaelli stock ‘Inexperienced from Corsica’ (Corsi, n. 700; Worth p. 196). Utilized in each the Londonderry and Hermitage tables
9-Brecciated crimson jasper from Giuliana, close to Palermo ( Corsi n. 745, Montana, p. 116, n. 170)
10-Described within the Erskine desk as: ‘Banded alabaster from Agra’. Used as the big central medallion within the Hermitage prime. To be in contrast additionally with the agate from Siena utilized in Florentine mosaics, exhibiting the identical tiny stripes (Toso p. 226)
11-Described within the Erskine desk as ‘carnelian from China’, the orange colour is enhanced by gold leaf beneath. This number of agate had been used because the antiquity for carving gems (Worth, p. 243, Toso, p. 224)
12-Astracane or yellow lumachella a fossiliferous limestone from India, or Egypt. Erskine desk: ’Lumachella astracane from Agra’, in Raffaelli’s checklist of stones ‘yellow lumachella from Egypt’ and ‘golden lumachella astracane with mom of pearl’. (Corsi n.279, Napoleone, tav. VI, C3; tav. VII, B4)
13-German banded brownish agate from Königsbrück close to Dresden? ( Quellmalz, pp. 44, 185, fig. 66)
14-Described within the Erskine desk as: ‘jasper or ciottolo (pebble) from Egypt’; panorama Jasper from Egypt, one of many favourite memento for Grand Vacationers touring to Egypt (Worth, p. 250)
15-Brecciated orange-brown Sicilian jasper from Monreale or Altavilla (Corsi, nn. 734, 977, Montana, pp. 107, 109, n. 134, 142)
16-Probably chalcedony of Volterra, extensively used within the grand-ducal workshop (Di Mucci, p. 178, n. 214)
17- Purple stellaria, agatized coral (Worth, p. 172). Described within the Erskine desk as: ‘Astoide coralloide from Euganei Hills’; in Raffaelli’s checklist of stones: ‘crimson stellaria from Verona’
19-The coral jasper described within the Raffaelli stock, probably crimson Jasper from Altenberg within the Erzgebirge? (Thalheim, p. 324)
20-Described within the Erskine desk as ‘inexperienced basalte from Corfù’
21-Eudialyte, from Kola peninsula, Russia (Worth, p. 272)
22-Inexperienced and yellow banded jasper from Giuliana, Palermo (Corsi n. 764; Montana, p. 116, n.169, Worth, p. 246)
23-Described within the Erskine desk as: ‘banded jasper from Arcangelo in Siberia’, referring to the Russian metropolis of Arkhangelsk.
24-Purple Brownish chalcedony, ‘eye agate’ from Schlottwitz within the Erzgebirge (Thalheim, p.327, Toso, p. 227, fig. n. 284)
25-Sicilian banded jasper from Giuliana, close to Palermo (Corsi n. 981)
26-Described within the Erskine desk as: ‘ inexperienced agate jade from China’
27-Orange-red Sicilian brecciated Jasper, from Giuliana, Palermo (Corsi n. 776, Montana, p. 116, n. 170
28-German green-grey banded agate
29-Described within the Erskine desk as ‘agate occhiuta [with eye] from Germany’
30-Described within the Erskine desk as ‘crimson agate from the Appennine mountains’
31-Palombara sardonicated cloudy alabaster (Borghini, p. 148; Napoleone, tav. IX, n. B9) or Sardonix agate, see n.1
32-Described within the Erskine desk as ‘clear clear agate from Germany’
33-Described within the Erskine desk as ‘oriental clear onyx agate’
34-White statuary marble from Carrara. The sculptor Pietro Marchetti from Carrara was considered one of Raffaelli’s main suppliers of white statuary marble
Sources for the identification of the stones
I’m grateful to Dorothy Asher, Curator of the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Artwork, Oak Brook, Illinois and to Madison Hill, impartial mineralogist, for discussing with me the stones on this desk
Corsi Assortment of Ornamental Stones http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/about/rome
G.Borghini, Marmi Antichi, Roma 1989
Descrizione di una tavola rotunda di marmo bianco statuario …essa tavola fu comprata il giorno 8 del mese di marzo 1831 dall’illustrissimo Signore Erskine, in: Massinelli 2018, pp. 141-143
L. Di Mucci ‘’Per uso et servitio particolare del Palazzo e della casa”, in: La Fabbrica delle meraviglie. La manifattura di pietre dure a Firenze, edited by Anna Maria Giusti, Firenze, 2015, pp. 95-122
G.Montana, V.G.Briuccia, I marmi ed i diaspri del Barocco siciliano, Palermo 1998
C.Napoleone,Delle Pietre Antiche di Faustino Corsi romano, Milano 2001
M.T.Worth,Ornamental Stone. The entire sourcebook, London 2007
F.Toso, “Vaghe belle ed utili pietre”. Le riserve dell’Opificio, in: La Fabbrica delle meraviglie. La manifattura di pietre dure a Firenze, edited by Anna Maria Giusti, Firenze, 2015, pp. 191-256
W. Quellmalz,Die Edlen Steine Sachsens, Leipzig 1990
Ok.Thalheim, ‘The Breteuil desk: A Saxon Mineralogical Journey’, in: Gold, Jasper and Carnelian. Johann Christian Neuber on the Saxon Court docket, A. Kugel ed., London 2012, pp. 330-333
[ad_2]
Source_link