Lot 87: ATTRIBUTED TO CARLO ALBACINI (1735-1813) ITALIAN, ROME, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

OVER LIFE-SIZE BUST OF CARACALLA

marble: 72.5cm., 28½in. column: 103cm., 40½in.

white marble, on a marblised wood column

Italian, Rome, second half 18th century<BR>After the Antique

These two large busts of the Roman emperors Hadrian (76?138 AD) and Caracalla (188?217 AD) are important testimonies of the first phase of Italian Neo-classical sculpture made for British Grand Tourists. These busts are closely comparable to documented works by Carlo Albacini in terms of both style and technique. Following the pioneering achievements of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716-1799) and Joseph Claus (1718-1788) in their new approach to ancient models, Albacini was amongst the most talented and prolific restorers and copyists of ancient Graeco-Roman statuary of his time. He belongs to the first generation of Neo-classical sculptors who had been active in Rome even before Canova's arrival in 1780 and who until recently have been much neglected by scholars, but not by collectors. A bust of Caracalla by Joseph Claus, which was also based on the famous Caracalla Farnese, was sold at Sotheby's, Milan, on 23 June 2009, for ?186,750.

Born and raised in Rome, Albacini became renowned as a restorer of ancient sculptures for the Vatican Museums, from there he was appointed to Naples. There Albacini became intimately familiar with the great collection of Graeco-Roman statuary owned by the Farnese family (including the bust of Caracalla copied here) because he was put in charge of conserving and restoring these statues after they were moved from Rome to Naples. From Albacini's hand are the brilliant restorations of the famous busts of Homer and Euripides from the Farnese collection. Apart from restoring ancient sculptures and sculpting copies after the antique, Albacini was in demand as a sculptor in his own right. His patrons included the royal Bourbon family of Naples, and the Czarina of Russia, Catherine II. Amongst Albacini's most famous works are the tomb of the painter Anton Raphael Mengs in the church of Santi Michele e Magno and the tomb of Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Santa Maria del Priorato in Rome, both commissioned by the Russian Empress.

Thesebusts were acquired by the present owners 30 years ago from Cullen House, Banffshire, Scotland. Cullen House was the seat of the Earls of Seafield and was considerably remodeled in the late 18 (th) century when these magnificent busts of the two Roman emperors most closely involved with Scotland's history and freedom were most probably acquired.

RELATED LITERATURE
Foreign Catalogue. Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool, 1977, pp. 284-5 and 411-4, nos. 6537-8, 6900 and 9106; G. Vaughan, 'Albacini and his English patrons', Journal of the history of collections, 3, no. 2, 1991, pp. 183-197