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拍品专文
In the 250 years since it was published, Loggie di Rafaele nel Vaticano, has become recognized as one of the most beautiful series of prints produced in the eighteenth century. Based on drawings by Gaetano Savorelli (d. 1791) and Pietro Camporese (1763-1822), the engravings were executed by Giovanni Volpato (1733-1803) and Giovanni Ottaviani (1735-1808).
Ottaviani and Volpato aimed their magnum opus squarely at the richest of the Grand Tourists, including noble and royal families, visiting Rome in great numbers in the second half of the eighteenth century. The publication was an immediate success, and no less a figure than Catherine the Great of Russia, became an enthusiastic collector. Aside from their commercial appeal, they also had a profound influence on artists and artisans of the period, who transplanted the 'Raphaelesque; model of grotesques and arabesques into a myriad of media such as wallpaper, woodwork, porcelain and other types of interior decoration. An example of Volpato’s work’s influence on other craftsmen and designers is evident in the activity of Jean-Baptiste Reveillon (d. 1811), who was appointed Manufacture Royale to Louis XVI in 1784. His designs for wall paneling clearly clearly exhibit Volpato’s artistic impact (for instance on examples sold sold Christie’s, London, 6 March 2003, lot 60). Reveillon’s designs were probably acquired in Paris in the 1780s by George Onslow, 4th Baron and later 1st Earl of Onslow (d. 1814), a lord-in-waiting to George III for the refurbishment of the drawing room of Clandon Park, Surrey, see J. Cornforth, et. al., Clandon Park, 1995, p. 16. Volpato’s engravings of the loggie were much admired for their preciseness and rendering. In fact, the Mercure de France praised Ottaviani’s and Volpato’s renditions of Raphael’s masterpiece as “chefs-d’œuvre dans le genre d’ornements & d’arabesques … On ose assurer que cette collection est très-utile aux peintres, sculpteurs, architectes, orfèvres, ciseleurs, serruriers, brodeurs même, et à tous ceux qui dans leurs travaux, ont les décorations pour objet.”
GIOVANNI VOLPATO
A native of Bassano del Grappa, an autonomous city about forty miles northwest of Venice, Giovanni Volpato, née Trevisan, (1735-1803) was a true embodiment of an eighteenth-century polymath. In his twenties he moved to Venice to work at the atelier of the painter and engraver Francesco Bartolozzi. He later collaborated with Remodini and Bodoni from his native town to work on the engraved albums published to commemorate the wedding of Don Ferdinando, duke of Parma and grandson of Louis XV, to the Austrian archduchess Maria Amalia. In 1771 he moved to Rome and became instantly well-known after publishing his engravings of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican. His other notable works were engravings of the baths of Caracalla, the Piazza San Marco in Venice, and the baths of Titus, on which he collaborated with the English painter Gavin Hamilton whom Volpato also supplied with engravings of famous paintings by Tintoretto, Correggio, Veronese, and da Vinci, among others. Volpato dealt extensively in antiquities and conducted numerous excavations around Rome. He was one of the leading dealers at the time and sold pieces to some of the most illustrious patrons of his time, including Henry Blundell, John Campbell, and Gustav III of Sweden. Volpato moved around in elite social and artistic circles where he formed friendships with the most influential figures of his time such as Antonio Canova, Angelika Kaufman, Antonio Zucchi, Thomas Jenkins, and Girolamo Zulian, the Venetian ambassador to Rome. Volpato had a keen sense for business and in 1785 founded a factory of biscuit porcelain in Rome to capitalize on the craze among Grand Tourists for reproduction works of antiquities on a small scale. Artists including Antonio Canova, Vincenzo Pacetti, Gavin Hamilton and Bartolomeo Cavaceppi all contributed to the production of the manufactory by suppling designs. Although he was highly successful as an antique dealer and porcelain manufacturer, Volpato continued to work as an engraver and in the 1790s he published an extensive volume of the interiors of the Museo Pio-Clementino, now the Vatican Museums.
Ottaviani and Volpato aimed their magnum opus squarely at the richest of the Grand Tourists, including noble and royal families, visiting Rome in great numbers in the second half of the eighteenth century. The publication was an immediate success, and no less a figure than Catherine the Great of Russia, became an enthusiastic collector. Aside from their commercial appeal, they also had a profound influence on artists and artisans of the period, who transplanted the 'Raphaelesque; model of grotesques and arabesques into a myriad of media such as wallpaper, woodwork, porcelain and other types of interior decoration. An example of Volpato’s work’s influence on other craftsmen and designers is evident in the activity of Jean-Baptiste Reveillon (d. 1811), who was appointed Manufacture Royale to Louis XVI in 1784. His designs for wall paneling clearly clearly exhibit Volpato’s artistic impact (for instance on examples sold sold Christie’s, London, 6 March 2003, lot 60). Reveillon’s designs were probably acquired in Paris in the 1780s by George Onslow, 4th Baron and later 1st Earl of Onslow (d. 1814), a lord-in-waiting to George III for the refurbishment of the drawing room of Clandon Park, Surrey, see J. Cornforth, et. al., Clandon Park, 1995, p. 16. Volpato’s engravings of the loggie were much admired for their preciseness and rendering. In fact, the Mercure de France praised Ottaviani’s and Volpato’s renditions of Raphael’s masterpiece as “chefs-d’œuvre dans le genre d’ornements & d’arabesques … On ose assurer que cette collection est très-utile aux peintres, sculpteurs, architectes, orfèvres, ciseleurs, serruriers, brodeurs même, et à tous ceux qui dans leurs travaux, ont les décorations pour objet.”
GIOVANNI VOLPATO
A native of Bassano del Grappa, an autonomous city about forty miles northwest of Venice, Giovanni Volpato, née Trevisan, (1735-1803) was a true embodiment of an eighteenth-century polymath. In his twenties he moved to Venice to work at the atelier of the painter and engraver Francesco Bartolozzi. He later collaborated with Remodini and Bodoni from his native town to work on the engraved albums published to commemorate the wedding of Don Ferdinando, duke of Parma and grandson of Louis XV, to the Austrian archduchess Maria Amalia. In 1771 he moved to Rome and became instantly well-known after publishing his engravings of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican. His other notable works were engravings of the baths of Caracalla, the Piazza San Marco in Venice, and the baths of Titus, on which he collaborated with the English painter Gavin Hamilton whom Volpato also supplied with engravings of famous paintings by Tintoretto, Correggio, Veronese, and da Vinci, among others. Volpato dealt extensively in antiquities and conducted numerous excavations around Rome. He was one of the leading dealers at the time and sold pieces to some of the most illustrious patrons of his time, including Henry Blundell, John Campbell, and Gustav III of Sweden. Volpato moved around in elite social and artistic circles where he formed friendships with the most influential figures of his time such as Antonio Canova, Angelika Kaufman, Antonio Zucchi, Thomas Jenkins, and Girolamo Zulian, the Venetian ambassador to Rome. Volpato had a keen sense for business and in 1785 founded a factory of biscuit porcelain in Rome to capitalize on the craze among Grand Tourists for reproduction works of antiquities on a small scale. Artists including Antonio Canova, Vincenzo Pacetti, Gavin Hamilton and Bartolomeo Cavaceppi all contributed to the production of the manufactory by suppling designs. Although he was highly successful as an antique dealer and porcelain manufacturer, Volpato continued to work as an engraver and in the 1790s he published an extensive volume of the interiors of the Museo Pio-Clementino, now the Vatican Museums.