Il Museo Chiaramonti aggiunto al Pio-Clementino da N. S. Pio VII P.M. con l’esplicazione de’ Sigg. Filippo Aurelio Visconti e Giuseppe Antonio Guattani; pubblicato da Antonio d’Este e Gaspare Capparone. Tomo primo

Rome, Antonio d’Este and Gaspare Capparoné, 1808

Finely-bound copy of the descriptive catalogue of a new collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures (including inscribed altars), hurriedly assembled to offset the loss of Vatican antiquities taken by France in 1797. Forty-four objects are described, each depicted in a full-page engraving, with the iconographies and descriptions of each work often accompanied by details of excavation provenance, identity of the vendor, condition and restorations. The binder of our copy, Franz Sebastian Voll (1783-1846), was born in Würzburg, and admitted to the guild of binders in Mannheim in 1807. His clients included the princely house of Fürstenberg, Grand-Duchess Stephanie von Baden, and perhaps Ernst August I, King of Hannover.

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Subjects: Archaeology, Greek & Roman; Art - Collectors and collecting - Italy - Museo Chiaramonti; Sculpture, Greco-Roman
Authors/Creators: Visconti, Filippo Aurelio, 1754-1831
Artists/Illustrators: Capparoni, Gaspare, 1761-1808; D'Este, Giuseppe, 1754-1837; Este, Antonio d', 1754-1837; Mochetti, Alessandro, c. 1760-c. 1812
Printers/Publishers: Capparoni, Gaspare, 1761-1808; Este, Antonio d', 1754-1837
Other names: Albacini, Carlo, active 1780-1807; Fagan, Robert, 1761-1816; Guattani, Giuseppe Antonio, 1748-1830; Museo Chiaramonti (Rome); Pacetti, Camillo, 1758-1826; Pacetti, Vincenzo, c. 1745-1820; Voll, Franz Sebastian, 1783-1846

Visconti, Filippo Aurelio
1754 – 1831

Il Museo Chiaramonti aggiunto al Pio-Clementino da N. S. Pio vii P.M. con l’esplicazione de’ Sigg. Filippo Aurelio Visconti e Giuseppe Antonio Guattani; pubblicato da Antonio d’Este e Gaspare Capparone. Tomo primo.

Rome, Antonio d’Este and Gaspare Capparoné, 1808

folio (595 × 430mm), (61) ff. letterpress, signed (a)¹ (half-title, Museo Chiaramonti i | Tomo Primo) b–d¹ (dedication, Beatissimo Padre subscribed by the publishers, 5 January 1808; Prefazione) A–Z¹ Aa–Zz¹ Aaa–Eee¹ Fff¹ Fff2¹ Hhh–Lll¹ (descriptions of each of the plates; Giunta alla Tavola xi; Indicazione de’ Monumenti citati nel corso delle illustrazioni; Indice; Tavola degli autori citati) and paginated (i)–viii 1–114; plus engraved dedication plate (signed Giuseppe d’Este dis. ed inc.), engraved title (signed And. Pozzi dis. | Alessan. Mochetti inc.), and forty five plates (signed by various artists and numbered 1–44, A).

Occasional light foxing; the binding in impeccable state of preservation.

bound in russia leather, gilt frame on covers, engraved ticket (printed blue on black ground) Relié par Voll à Mannheim.

A finely-bound copy of a descriptive catalogue of a new collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures (including inscribed altars), hurriedly assembled to offset the loss of Vatican antiquities taken by France in 1797.¹ The author, Filippo Visconti, was the son of Giovanni Battista (1722–1784), and younger brother of Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751–1818), successive curators of the Museo Pio-Clementina.² He modelled this work after their magnificent catalogue of the Museo Pio-Clementina (in six folio volumes, 1782–1796; supplement 1807).³ Forty-four objects are described, each depicted in a full-page engraving, with the iconographies and descriptions of each work often accompanied by details of excavation provenance, identity of the vendor, condition and restorations.

The loss of masterpieces confiscated by the French had stimulated widespread excavations, in order to make up the deficiency. New legislation, promulgated in 1802, restricted the export of antiquities from the Papal States, and set aside a sum of 10,000 scudi per annum for reconstitution of the museums. Many of the objects featured in this catalogue are the result of this enormous new energy and control: some were recently excavated (or handled) by the British digger and dealer, Robert Fagan (pls. xi, xv, xvi, xviii, xxiv);⁴ others were obtained from the Italian restorer-dealers Carlo Albacini (pls. iii, xiii, xxvi, xxviii, xli), Antonio d’Este (pls. xl, xlii), Francesco Antonio Franzoni, (pls. xi, xvi, xxiii, xxxii), Antonio Gastaldi (pl. xliv), the brothers Vincenzo and Camillo Pacetti (pls. xii, xxv, xxix, xxxiii, xxxvi, xliii), and Giovanni Pierantoni (pls. xxxiv, xxxv). Several marbles had been excavated by the previous generation of diggers: Piranesi (pl. ix), Thomas Jenkins (pl. xiii), and Gavin Hamilton (pls. xxvi–xxxix), or recovered from the Mattei collection (dispersed from 1770), or from the papal gardens on the Quirinale:

■ i: ‘Iside, Busto colossale già nel Giardino Pontificio Quirinale’ (Amelung,⁵ i, pp.675–675 no. 547), drawn by Luigi Agricola and engraved by Domenico Marchetti ■ ii: ‘Pompa Isiaca, già nel Palazzo Mattei’, drawn by Filippo Pistrucci and engraved by Alessandro Mochetti ■ iii: ‘Donna Isiaca’ (Amelung, i, pp.45–46 no. 31), restored by Carlo Albacini, drawn by Andrea Pozzi and engraved by Angelo Testa ■ iv: ‘Giove, già nel Giardino Pontificio Quirinale’, drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Testa ■ v: ‘[Busto di] Giove’ (Amelung, i, p.567 no. 392A), drawn by Agricola and engraved by Antonio Banzo ■ vi: ‘[Testa di] Giove con Corona’, drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Luigi Fabbri ■ vii: ‘Giunone [Velata]’, drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Fabbri ■ viii: ‘Giunone e Tetide’ (Amelung, i, pp.745–746 no. 641), drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Pietro Ghigi ■ ix: ‘Dioscuri, Frammento di Candelabro’, formerly with the Piranesi, Villa Adriana, drawn by Francesco Giangiacomo, and engraved by Giovanni Petrini ■ x: ‘[Busto di] Dioscuro’ (Amelung, i, pp.403–404 no. 145), drawn by Giangiacomo and engraved by Niccolo Aureli

■ xi: ‘Ganimede’ (Amelung, i, pp.56–58 no. 38B), excavated by Robert Fagan at Ostia in 1800, and restored by Francesco Antonio Franzoni; drawn by Arcangiolo Michele Migliarini, and engraved by Petrini ■ xii: ‘Minerva Pacifera’ (Amelung, i, pp.635–636 no. 496), found on the property of the counts Giraud, and restored by Vincenzo Pacetti; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Giuseppe D’Este ■ xiii: ‘Minerva Armata’ (Amelung, i, pp.773–774 no. 681), formerly in the Villa Montalto, handled by Thomas Jenkins and by Carlo Albacini, who restored it; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Pietro Fontana ■ xiv: ‘Minerva Egidarmata’ (Amelung, i, pp.352–354 no. 63), formerly in the papal gardens on the Quirinale; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Fontana ■ xv: ‘Minerva, Testa trovata all’antica Laurento’ (Amelung, i, pp.445–447 no. 197), handled by Robert Fagan;⁶ drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Giovanni Folo ■ xvi: ‘Cerere’ (Amelung, i, pp.673–674 no. 546), excavated by Robert Fagan and restored by Francesco Antonio Franzoni;⁷ drawn by Pozzi and engraved by P. Savorelli ■ xvii: ‘Diana ed Ecate, Combattono co’ Giganti’, formerly in the ‘Casa Mattei’; drawn by L. Pontani and engraved Girolamo Carattoni ■ xviii: ‘Diana ed Apollo, Ara quadrata già nella Villa Aldobrandini’ (Amelung, i, pp.740–742 no. 636A), handled by Robert Fagan;⁸ drawn by Migliarini and engraved Girolamo Carattoni ■ xix: ‘Marte e Mercurio, Lato di detta Ara’, drawn by Migliarini and engraved by Carattoni ■ xx: ‘Fortuna e Speranza, Altro lato di detta Ara’, drawn by Migliarini and engraved by Carattoni

■ xxi: ‘Ercole e Silvano, Parte posteriore di detta Ara’, drawn by Migliarini and engraved by Carattoni ■ xxii: ‘Mercurio, già nel Giardino Pontificio Quirinale’ (Amelung, i, pp.156–157 no. 132), drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Folo ■ xxiii: ‘Mercurio’ (Amelung, i, pp.706–707 no. 589), excavated ‘presso il Monte di Pietà’ and restored by Francesco Antonio Franzoni; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Testa ■ xxiv: ‘Nettuno’ (Amelung, i, pp.719–720 no. 607), handled by Robert Fagan;⁹ drawn by Agricola and engraved by Bernardino Consorti ■ xxv: ‘Venere’ (Amelung, ii, pp.712–714 no. 441), restored by Camillo Pacetti; drawn by Migliarini and engraved by Marchetti ■ xxvi: ‘Venere [Anadiomene]’ (Amelung, ii, pp.696–698 no. 433), restored by Carlo Albacini; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Marchetti ■ xxvii: ‘Venere [Busto]’ (Amelung, i, pp.649–650 no. 513A), ‘Fu trovata presso le Terme Diocleziane negli scavamenti diretti dal Sig. Giuseppe Petrini’; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Fontana ■ xxviii: ‘Bacco’ (Amelung, i, pp.510–511 no. 298), restored by Carlo Albacini; drawn by Agricola and engraved by Luigi Cunego ■ xxix: ‘Bacco e Ninfa’, ‘Questo gruppo fu acquistato, e poi risarcito dal Sig. Cav. Pacetti con direzione antiquaria’; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Marchetti ■ xxx: ‘Bacco Barbato’, ‘Fu acquistata dal P. Cassini C.R. Somasco’; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by D’Este

■ xxxi: ‘Erma Bacchico’, ‘Fu acquistata e risarcita dal Sig. [Francesco] Moglia Scultore Romano’; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by G.B. Balestra ■ xxxii: ‘Erma Bacchico, a due faccie’, ‘Fu acquistato dallo Scultore Sig. Franzoni’; drawn by Agricola and engraved by G.B. Leonetti ■ xxxiii: ‘Erma Bacchico’ (Amelung, i, pp.401–403 no. 144), ‘Fu acquistato dallo Scultore Sig. Camillo Pacetti’; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by D’Este ■ xxxiv: ‘Trionfo di Bacco’, ‘Esisteva già presso il Cav. Cavaceppi. Fu acquistato dal Sig. Giovanni Pierantonj Scultore Accademico’; drawn by Agricola and engraved by Carattoni ■ xxxv: ‘Baccanale’ (Amelung, i, pp.798–799 no. 709), ‘Già apparteneva al Cav. Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, e poi fu acquistato dal Sig. Giovanni Pierantonj Scultore Accademico’ drawn by Filippo Pistrucci, and engraved by Mochetti ■ xxxvi: ‘Venere con Menadi danzanti, Ara quadrata’ (Amelung, i, pp.436–439 no. 182), discovered by Gavin Hamilton in 1792 at Pantan de’ Griffi, given as payment for valuing the finds to Vincenzo Pacetti, who sold the work to the Vatican; drawn by Giangiacomo and engraved by Mochetti ■ xxxvii: ‘Danza di Menadi, Altro lato di detta Ara’, drawn by Giangiacomo and engraved by Mochetti ■ xxxviii: ‘Danza di Menadi, Altro lato di detta Ara’, drawn by Giangiacomo and engraved by Mochetti ■ xxxix: ‘Danza di Menadi, Parte posteriore di detta Ara’, drawn by Giangiacomo and engraved by Mochetti ■ xl: ‘Sileno, con Tigre trovato nella Valle della Ariccia’ (Amelung, i, pp.671–673 no. 544), discovered in 1791 among the ruins of the villa of P. Memmius Regulus, near Ariccia, restored by Antonio d’Este; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Folo

■ xli: ‘Sileno, con Vaso’ (Amelung, i, pp.42–33 no. 28), restored by Carlo Albacini; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Andrea Ricciani ■ xlii: ‘Ercole con una Baccante’ (Amelung, i, pp.811–812 no. 731D), ‘esisteva nella Villa Mattei, e poi passò allo studio de Sig. [Antonio] D’Este, e [Ferdinando] Lisandroni, dai quali fu acquistato’; drawn by Ferdinando Mori and engraved by Savorelli ■ xliii: ‘Ercole, Testa coronata di pioppo’ (Amelung, i, p.785 no. 693), handled by Vincenzo Pacetti; drawn by Agricola and engraved by Folo ■ xliv: ‘Baccanti o Danzatrici, N. 1, 2. Frammento di antico elegante Bassorilievo. N. 3, 4. Frammento di Bassorilievo con nascita di qualche Nume o Eroe’ (No. 3: Amelung, i, p.746 no. 642), ‘Il num. 1. 2. sono provenienti dalla Villa Palombara all’ Esquilino, acquistati dal Sig. Antonio Gastaldi. I num. 3. e 4. sono frammenti, che già esistevano al Vaticano, e forse provengono dalla Villa Adriana Tiburtina’; drawn by Pozzi and engraved by Folo ■ A: unsigned plate with nine figures (‘Indicazione de’ monumenti citati nel corso delle illustrazioni e rappresentati nelle Tavola A’)

A large team of artists collaborated on the plates, including the draughtsmen Luigi Agricola, Francesco Giangiacomo, Arcangiolo Michele Migliarini, Ferdinando Mori, Filippo Pistrucci, L. Pontani, Andrea Pozzi; and the printmakers Niccolo Aureli, G.B. Balestra, Antonio Banzo, Girolamo Carattoni, Bernardino Consorti, Luigi Cunego, Giuseppe D’Este, Luigi Fabbri, Giovanni Folo, Pietro Fontana, Pietro Ghigi, G.B. Leonetti, Domenico Marchetti, Alessandro Mochetti, Giovanni Petrini, Andrea Ricciani, P. Savorelli, and Angelo Testa. In this copy, the engraved dedication plate depicts Canova’s sculpted bust of Pope Pius vii on a pedestal in the long gallery.¹⁰ The plate is lacking in the British Library copy (shelfmark 743.g.2); the copy in the Royal Academy of Arts has instead a portrait of Pius vii engraved by Pietro Fontana (after the painting by Jean-Baptiste Wicar, drawn by Luigi Agricola).¹¹

Antonio Canova was given responsibility for the installation of the new collection, in the galleries designed by Bramante to join the Belvedere to the Papal palace, adjacent to the Museo Pio-Clementino; they were opened to the public in 1810. By then activity on the catalogue had ceased, following the French annexation of the Papal States, and the removal of the Pope in 1809. It was resumed after the Restoration, but in other hands – owing to the pro-French views of his brother, Ennio Quirino, who had stayed in Paris to become Keeper in the Louvre, Filippo Visconti was not reappointed by Pius vii. A second volume, compiled by Antonio Nibby, was published in 1837; a concluding third volume (in combination with Luigi Biondi’s Monumenti amaranziani) appeared in 1843.

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Signed binding by Franz Sebastian Voll (1783–1846) of Mannheim (height 610 mm)

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Border rolls employed by Franz Sebastian Voll of Mannheim

The binder of our copy, Franz Sebastian Voll (1783–1846), was born in Würzburg, and admitted to the guild of binders in Mannheim in 1807.¹² His clients included the princely house of Fürstenberg,¹³ Grand-Duchess Stephanie von Baden,¹⁴ and perhaps Ernst August i, King of Hannover.¹⁵

references Leopoldo Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d'arte e d'antichità posseduti dal conte Cicognara (Pisa 1821), no. 3467; Fabia Borroni, ‘Il Cicognara’: bibliografia dell’archeologia classica e dell’arte italiana, ii/2 (Florence 1957), p.204 no. 2148; L’immagine dell’antico fra settecento e ottocento. Libri di archeologia nella biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, catalogue of an exhibition (Bologna 1983), pp.167–168 no. 19 (vols. i–ii); Sergio Rossetti, Rome: a bibliography from the invention of printing through 1899 (Florence 2001), iii, pp.518–519 no. 11422 (vol. i, wrongly as 66 plates)

1. Most of the objects were purchased between 1803 and 1808; see Maria Antonietta de Angelis, ‘Il primo allestimento del Museo Chiaramonti in un manoscritto del 1808’ in Bollettino dei Musei e Gallerie pontificie 13 (1993), pp.81–126 (esp. pp.83–84).

2. Although Giuseppe Antonio Guattani (1748–1830) is listed on the title-page as co-author, his contributions were incorporated only in the later volumes of the catalogue; this first volume was compiled by Visconti alone. See Orietta Rossi Pinelli, ‘Les orientations de l’historiographie artistique, la primauté de la sculpture et l’aménagement du Musée Chiaramonti au Vatican (1802–1808)’ in Jean-Baptiste Wicar et son temps, 1762–1834, edited by Maria Teresa Caracciolo and Gennaro Toscano (Villeneuve d’Ascq 2007) p.77 note 16 (citing F.A. Visconti’s memoirs, in Rome, Biblioteca di archeologia e storia dell’arte, Ms Lanciani 61/12, p.9); Daniela Gallo, ‘Les Visconti de Rome’ in Louis Visconti, 1791–1853, catalogue of an exhibition (Paris 1991), pp.48–59 (especially pp.51–52, p.56 fig. 21: title page of 1808 edition).

3. The publishers of the catalogue were Antonio d’Este, the newly appointed (18 March 1807) Conservatore de Museo Chiaramonti, and Gaspare Capparoné, gem-engraver and publisher of the final volume of the Museo Pio-Clementina catalogue (1807); see, respectively, Sabrina Zizzi, ‘Antonio D’Este 1754–1837: antiquario, restauratore, primo direttore dei Musei Vaticani’ in Antologia di Belle Arti 63–66 (2003), pp.161–181 (esp. pp.162, 166, 168); and Sonia Amadio, ‘Per la storia del collezionismo di disegni: Gaspare Capparoni mercante e connaisseur’ in Ricerche di storia dell’arte 90 (2006), pp.61–75 (esp. p.63).

4. Ilaria Bignamini, ‘I marmi Fagan in Vaticano. La vendita del 1804 e altre acquisizioni’ in Bollettino dei Monumenti Musei e Gallerie Pontificie 16 (1996), pp.331–394.

5. Walther Amelung, Die Sculpturen des Vaticanischen Museums (Berlin 1903–1908).

6. Ilaria Bignamini, ‘Museo Chiaramonti’ (review of: Bildkatalog der Skulpturen des Vatikanischen Museums, i: Museo Chiaramonti, edited by Bernard Andreae, Berlin & New York 1995) in The Journal of Hellenic Studies 118 (1998), p.201: ‘from Tor Paterno, Castelporziano, excavations by N. la Piccola for Prince Sigismondo Chigi, 1777–80, bought by R. Fagan from the Chigis c. 1798 and sold by him to the RCA, 1804’.

7. Bignamini, op. cit., 1998, p.205: ‘this statue, without head, was discovered by R. Fagan near Tor Boacciana, Ostia, probably 1801, and acquired from F.A. and G. Franzoni 1804’.

8. Bignamini, op. cit., 1998, p.201: ‘acquired from R. Fagan, 1804’.

9. Bignamini, op. cit., 1998, p.200: ‘from Tor Paterno, Castelporziano, excavations by N. la Piccola for Prince Sigismondo Chigi, 1777–80, bought by Fagan from the Chigis c. 1798 and sold by him to the RCA, 1804’.

10. A scholar collects: selections from the Anthony Morris Clark Bequest, catalogue of an exhibition held in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2 October 1980–4 January 1981, edited by Ulrich W. Hiesinger and Ann Percy (Philadelphia 1980), pp.123–124 no. 111 (reproduced); Roberta J.M. Olson, ‘Representations of Pope Pius vii: The First Risorgimento Hero’ in The Art Bulletin 68 (1986), pp.86 fig. 13, 90 note 49. The plate also appears in ■ Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, C 2395 Gross RES::1-2 (http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/visconti1808bd1).

11. Local opac (Record Number 04/3186).

12. Friedrich Walter, ‘Ein Prachteinband des Mannheimer Buchbindermeisters Sebastian Voll’ in Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter 28 (1927), pp.241–244; Helmuth Helwig, Das deutsche Buchbinder-Handwerk. Handwerks- und Kulturgeschichte (Stuttgart 1962–1965), ii, p.50; Otto Mazal, Einbandkunde: die Geschichte des Bucheinbandes (Wiesbaden 1997), p.306.

13. Five bindings (all in red morocco and similarly decorated) are mentioned by Erna Huber, ‘Einbandsammlung und Einbandkatalog der Fürstlich Fürstenbergischen Hofbibliothek Donaueschingen’ in Festschrift Ernst Kyriss: Dem Bucheinbandforscher Dr. Ernst Kyriss in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, zu seinem 80. Geburtstag am 2. Juni 1961 gewidmet (Stuttgart [1961]), p.444 and Abb. 9 (reproduction of the upper cover of William Gell’s Pompeiana: the topography, edifices, and ornaments of Pompeii, London 1817–1819).

14. A copy of Franz Heinrich Georg von Drais, Geschichte der Regierung und Bildung von Baden (Karlsruhe 1816–1818), bound in red leather and apparently presented by the Grand Duchess to Hortense de Beauharnais (Schloßmuseum, Mannheim), is cited by Friedrich Walter, ‘Einbände der Mannheimer Buchbinderzunft’ in Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde 37 (1933), pp.85–86; a volume of Q. Horatii Flacci opera (London: John Pine, 1733–1737) bound by Voll in violet leather circa 1825 (Mannheim, collection Dr. Fritz Bassermann) is illustrated (fig. 6).

15. A copy of John Smith, Select views in Italy, with topographical and historical descriptions in English and French (London 1792–1796) bound by Voll for Ernst August i was in the Feltrinelli sale (Christie’s, ‘The Giannalisa Feltrinelli library’, London, 3 December 1997, lot 359).

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