BY FRANCESCO RIGHETTI (1749–1819), ROME, 1788

Epitomising historical gravitas, noble austerity and harmonic beauty, Francesco Righetti's busts of the four Caesars Nero, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian are undoubtedly some of the finest bronzes cast in Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century. It is here argued that these four busts formed part of a set of twelve Caesars that Gustav III of Sweden acquired in 1789 on the recommendation of his agent in Rome Carl Fredrik Fredenheim and the famous engraver, architect and dealer Francesco Piranesi.

FRANCESCO RIGHETTI

The sculptor Francesco Righetti was trained in the multi-faceted workshop of the silversmith and bronzier Luigi Valadier, where he was probably employed above all in the modelling and casting of small and large bronzes. He quickly became a successor to his teacher, and in 1779 he opened his own studio in via della Purificazione. Righetti responded with skill and energy to the taste of collectors for faithful replicas of celebrated statues, both ancient and modern. As wealthy visitors to the Eternal City were faced with the difficulties of exporting ancient artefacts abroad under the strict licensing laws introduced by Pope Pius VI (1717-1799), Righetti was perfectly placed to facilitate their fervoured interest for collectable art objects. These served to remind the Grand Tourist of their travels in Italy once home and to demonstrate their newly acquired taste and learning. When the English architect Henry Holland was sent by the Prince Regent to Rome to acquire antiquities for Carlton House, his friend and fellow architect Charles Heathcote Tatham recommended visiting Righetti and his rival Zoffoli, noting that ‘their execution is superlatively good, having artists employed who study the antique with attention and model with great ingenuity and taste' (Hilliam, op. cit., p. 12).

In 1781 Righetti received his first known large-scale commission, for 12 full-sized lead casts of famous statues for the English banker Henry Hope at his country house at Welgelegen, near Haarlem. By 1786 Righetti was already receiving royal commissions from abroad, and in that year he provided Catherine II, Empress of Russia, with a marble Parnassus with bronze figures of Apollo and the Muses (Luchs, loc. cit.). After a visit to his studio, Pope Pius VII became an enthusiast of Righetti's work and commissioned a number of pieces from him. In 1805 the pope made Righetti head of the Vatican foundry.

THE TWELVE CAESARS

The present four busts are an example of the heights Righetti reached in the casting and finishing of small-scale works in bronze. The surface of each of the Caesars has been carefully filed and patinated all'antica to a standard not seen on many of the bronzes associated with Righetti, where workshop involvement was necessary for all but the most significant creations.
The four Caesars were originally made as part of a set of twelve, as can be deduced from the numbering on the plaques of their bases. The concept of the 'Twelve Caesars' originated with Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus' book entitled De Vita Caesarum, in which the Roman historian discusses the significant and critical period of the Principate from the end of the Republic to the reign of Domitian. Righetti had cast a set of these twelve seminal emperors by the time of the 1786 catalogue that advertised his creations (‘I dodici Cesari alla ragione di Zecchini 10 l’uno’). A set of twelve bronze busts of emperors attributed to Righetti, unsigned and of lesser quality but on a similar scale to the present busts, were sold from the collection of Lily and Edmond J. Safra at Sotheby's, New York, 18 Oct. 2011, lot 755A. Two of these busts, of the gods Mars and Roma, were from a different set, and the two missing busts from the set of twelve emperors are almost certainly the two Caesars that are now in a private collection (illustrated in Alvar González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, 1993,vol. II, p. 254, fig. 511).

GUSTAV III OF SWEDEN

In 1783 the Swedish King Gustav III (1746-1792) headed south from Sweden for Italy and Rome, on the almost obligatory eighteenth century educational journey known as The Grand Tour. The trip took place quite late in his life and lasted from September 1783 to August 1784, approximately half of which time was spent in Italy. On New Year's Day in 1784, Gustav III and his entourage were shown the collection of ancient sculptures in the Vatican, Museo Pio Clementino. Their guide was no less than Pope Pius VI himself.
His Grand Tour of Italy infected Gustav with a passionate desire for both antiquities and high-quality replicas in bronze. On 4 April 1783 Francesco Piranesi obtained the post of art agent to Gustav III thanks to the mediation of Carl Frederick Fredenheim (1748–1803), a Swedish nobleman close to the King. On his return from Rome the King started planning a special antechamber in his palace at Haga with his decorator Louis Masreliez (1748–1810) that would evoke and incorporate some of the works of art he had admired in Italy, which included a series of bronzes that were sent to Sweden by Piranesi.

GUSTAV'S ACQUISITION OF THE CAESARS

In 1788, Fredenheim travelled to Italy and visited Francesco Righetti, and on 7 April 1789 he recorded in his travel diary that he had been to Righetti’s studio where he had admired some splendid works including a series of the Twelve Caesars. In her pioneering research on the Roman bronzes acquired by Gustav III, Chiara Teoloto notes that Fredenheim 'probably mentioned the series to the King, given that on 14 October 1789 Francesco Piranesi asked for permission to send similar busts to Sweden. A licence was granted by Giuseppe Antonio Guattani, who valued the Twelve Caesars together with their marble pedestals at 120 scudi' (Teolato, op. cit., p. 732). That this series and the present four busts are one and the same is highly likely given the correlation of the dates (the present busts are dated 1788), the exceptional quality of the casts of our busts, the absence in the Royal Collection today of any busts of this description, and the subsequent appearance of the present busts in a Swedish collection. It was suggested by Teolato that 'the small busts made by Righetti for the Swedish court could be those that are still in Rosenberg Castle’s [sic] library' (ibid) but on close inspection it is evident that it is impossible that these unsigned busts are the same as mentioned by Fredenheim, as they are too small and too rudimentary in facture and finish to be by Righetti.

The present busts were offered for sale in 1910 at Bukowskis, Stockholm, alongside the eight remaining busts in the set of twelve. Four of the set were acquired by Willhelmina von Hallwyl and eventually incorporated into the collections of the Hallwylska Museum in Stockholm (inv. nos. AA03-6). The location of the final four busts is unknown. It is hoped the appearance of the present four portraits of Roman Caesars by Francesco Righetti and the uncovering of the history of their acquisition by Gustav III will enable a greater understanding of the King's desire to bring about the glorification of Sweden through a study of the classical ideal.