Giampietro Campana
Giampietro Campana (1808 – 10 October 1880), created marchese di Cavelli (1849), was an Italian art collector who assembled one of the nineteenth century's greatest collection of Greek and Roman sculpture and antiquities. The part of his collection of Hellenistic and Roman gold jewellery conserved in the
Career
Campana was born in Rome into a sophisticated milieu: the family was also entrusted with the operation of the
Campagna's first archaeological excavations were undertaken in 1829 at
Collection
Campana's collection ranged over bronzes and marble sculpture, the Roman architectural terracotta reliefs that are still called "Campana" reliefs, ceramics, numismatics and medals, acquired on the market and through excavations on his own properties and other sites and handsomely arranged and displayed at the Villa del Laterano. He also collected Italian paintings, forming a notable collection of the so-called "primitives" of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Thanks to his mature experience in the archaeological field— which in the mid-19th century was still a treasure hunt for works of art and curiosities, even in the hands of a sophisticated amateur— Campana was responsible for the discovery of the columbarium of Pomponius Hylas and two other columbarii near the tomb of the Scipios, of which he directed the publication,[3] as well as publishing his own collection of the terracotta relief plaques of the Republican era that bear his name still.[4] His obtained prominent positions with the pontifical administration and was placed in charge of the excavations at Ostia. From 1842 he published several editions of his collection of moulded terracotta tiles, under the title Antiche opere in plastica, in which he offered antiquarian essays on the mythological and iconographic representations on the moulded relief panels and tiles; this was the first work to draw attention to these neglected architectural elements, which had a long pre-Roman history in Etruscan civilization
In 1846
Culmination
In 1851 Campana married the Englishwoman Emily Rowles,
The specimens consist for the most part of gold ornaments, earrings in the form of genii, necklaces of
tazze of blue, white and yellow glass mounted on filigree stands precisely as they were taken from the tombs. The series of Etruscan vases, not only from Etruria proper, but from Magna Grecia, is rich and extensive.[10]
In around 1858 Campana published a catalogue of his collection which he divided into twelve sections: Vases (I), Bronzes (II), Jewellery and coins (III), Terracottas (IV), Glass (V), Etruscan, Greek and Roman paintings (VI), Greek and Roman sculpture (VII), Italian paintings from the Byzantine period to Raphael (VIII), Italian paintings from 1500 to ca 1700 (IX), Italian Maiolica of the 15th-16th centuries (X), Maiolica by Luca della Robbia and his contemporaries (XI), and Etruscan and Roman curiosities (XII).[11] In 2001 Susanna Sarti published an attempt to trace the current location of the listed items.[12]
Disgrace
In a stunning reversal of his private fortunes,
Dispersal
His collection was sequestered by the Pontifical State. A catalogue of his collection was published in 1858 and it was put up for sale. Works from the Campana collection wound up in the great national museums, from the
In hopes of finding a buyer, the antique gold was entrusted to the Castellani atelier, founded in 1814 by Fortunato Pio Castellani (1794-1865), a goldsmith, antiquarian and collector, whose atelier producing jewellery and goldsmith's work was among the first to take inspiration from the gold of Antiquity that was being recovered by Campana and others from excavations in the Roman Campagna and in Etruria.[l] Augusto Castellani (1829-1914) studied the Campana gold and made sensitive restorations, which in some examples amount to pastiches assembled from antique fragments, and presented a catalogue. The intimate study of the rare originals suggested to Castellani new techniques of workmanship and the more extensive restorations undertaken during the period which in some cases transformed the originals. Further copies and interpretations were made by Castellani in a refined archaeological taste. The Campana collection of ancient gold, remounted and restored by Castellani was bought by the French State in 1861 and is conserved in the Louvre.[14]
Nine galleries in the Louvre contain the Greek pottery of the Campana collection.
Among the Campana collections, only the numismatic collection of some four hundred Roman and Byzantine gold coins remained in Rome, purchased in 1873 by the administration of the Capitoline Museums, thanks to the interest of Augusto Castellani, who was a founding member of the Commissione Archeologica Comunale, and was named director of the Capitoline Museums the same year. The bequest of his own collection of over nine thousand more coins provided the nucleus of today's public collection.
Campana's "primitive" Italian paintings were purchased by the French State. In 1976 283 Campana paintings received an official home in the new Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon.[15]
Among Campana's paintings were also a series of five frescoes
Return to Rome
After the reunification of Italy, Campana returned to Rome, where he died on 10 October 1880, in the unfruitful process of reclaiming from the Pontificate the profits made on the sales of the Campana Collection, over and above the value it had been pawned for. The city council's project for subsidized housing to be built over the Villa Campana site by the Società edifacatrice italiana having fallen through in 1873,[m] the villa came into the possession of a socially prominent English sculptor long established in Rome, Warrington Wood (1839-1886), a professor at the Accademia di San Luca. With the help of an English gardener he soon possessed "the best turf in Rome".[17] The site was subsequently built over.
An exhibition in 2006, Frascati al tempo di Pio IX e del Marchese Campana : ritratto di una città tra cultura antiquaria e moderne strade ferrate set Campana in his cultural context.[n]
Notes
- ^ Trésors antiques: bijoux de la collection Campana (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 21 October 2005—16 January 2006), curated by Françoise Gaultier and Catherine Metzger;[1] the exhibition continued to Milan and the Capitoline Museums, Rome, where an Italian catalogue was published, Tesori antichi: i gioielli della collezione Campana. Much of the information in this article was derived from the catalogue's introduction.
- ^ The villa was located at the junction between the via di San Giovani and via dei Santi Quattro Coronati (41°53′15″N 12°30′09″E / 41.8874°N 12.5026°E). The building now occupying the site was built in 1890.[5]
- ^ A guidebook of 1854 still found it "la petite villa Campani ornée de quelques sculptures d'un médiocre intérêt", "the little villa Campani, decorated with sculptures of mediocre interest";[6] to Edmond Lafond's French eye it was a "chef-d'oeuvre de mauvais goût", a "masterpiece of bad taste".[7]
- ^ A description of the villa as it was shortly after his death was published by Mary Eliza Haweis.[8]
- ^ Confiscated under Nero, it became the nucleus of the Lateran Palace.
- ^ The structure was largely rebuilt by Campana. It was demolished in the 1880s to make way for housing, according to Mariano Armellini, Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX (Rome:Tipografia Vaticana) 1891 (on-line text at LacusCurtius.com); its icon of the Virgin was transferred in 1926 to the chapel of the hospital of San Giovanni in Laterano. (Roma per noi: il Celio p.26
- ^ Her seated portrait sculpture, in Carrara marble, by Pietro Tenerani was included in the exhibition Frascati al tempo di Pio IX e del Marchese Campana, 2006
- ^ An engraved gem in the shape of a scarab beetle.
- ^ Greek vases found in Etruscan burials were at first considered to be Etruscan.
- ^ A report on the finances of the Monte di Pietà made by Vincenzo Pericoli in 1847 had already uncovered some troubling irregularities.
- ^ Notably the Venus Genetrix, the Jupiter Fidiacus from Domitian's villa near Lake Albano, and the bust said to be of Caius Marius, a gift to Campana from Pius VI; some 500 Greek vases, including the hydria from Magna Graecia hailed as Regina Vasorum, the "Queen of Vases," and 200 small bronzes are also at the State Hermitage Museum; the transformation of the Tsar's antiquities wrought by the acquisition of the Campana collection is noted by the State Hermitage Museum: "1861: Purchase of the Marquis Gian Pietro Campana collection ".
- ^ A selection of Castellani jewellery is displayed at the Gilbert Collection in London.
- ^ Approved 31 October, the agreement collapsed 4 November.[16]
- ^ Curated by Giovanna Cappelli and Isabella Salvagni. Catalogue published Rome: Campisano, 2006.
References
- ^ Gaultier & Metzger 2005.
- ^ a b Vertova 1977, p. 158.
- ^ Campana 1840.
- ^ Kenneth Painter, "Via Gabina Campana reliefs" Archived 2010-06-11 at the Wayback Machine: a brief introduction to "Campana" reliefs.
- ^ Nadalini 1996, p. 421.
- ^ Robello 1854, p. 264.
- ^ Lafond 1856, p. 49.
- ^ Haweis 1882, p. 61.
- ^ Blewett 1856, p. 213.
- ^ a b c Blewett 1856, p. 212.
- ^ Campana 1858.
- ^ Sarti 2001.
- ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 48.17.1–22
- ^ "Dossier thématique : Les Bijoux de la collection Campana" (PDF) (in French). Musée du Louvre. 26 December 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- ^ Vertova 1977, pp. 158–167.
- ^ Kostof 1976, p. 20.
- ^ Haweis 1882, p. 69.
Sources
- Blewett, Octavian (1856). Handbook for travellers in central Italy, Part II: Rome and its Environments (4th ed.). London: John Murray.
- Campana, Giampietro (1840). Di due sepolcri romani del secolo di Augusto scoverti tra la via Latina e l'Appia presso la tomba degli Scipioni (in Italian). Rome: Alessandro Monaldi.
- Campana, Giampietro (1858). Cataloghi del Museo Campana : catalogo della classe 1 - 12 (in Italian). Rome: Johann Daniel Preißler.
- Gaultier, Françoise; Metzger, Catherine, eds. (2005). Trésors antiques : Bijoux de la collection Campana (in French). Paris: 5 Continents Éditions. ISBN 978-887439-272-8.
- Haweis, Mary Eliza (1882). Beautiful Houses: Being A Description of Certain Well-known Artistic Houses. New York: Scribner and Welford.
- Kostof, Spiro (1976). "The Drafting of a Master Plan for Roma Capital: An Exordium". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 35 (1): 5–20. JSTOR 988967.
- Lafond, Edmond (1856). Rome : lettres d'un pèlerin Volume 2 (in French). Paris: A. Bray.
- Nadalini, Gianpaolo (1996). "La villa-musée du marquis Campana à Rome au milieu du XIXe siècle". Journal des savants (in French). 2 (2): 419–463. .
- Robello, Giuseppe (1854). Les curiosités de Rome et de ses environs (in French). Paris: L. Maison.
- Sarti, Susanna (2001). Giovanni Pietro Campana (1808-1880): The Man and His Collection. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 9781903767016. The book contains an annotated version of the 12 sections of the Cataloghi del Museo Campana published in 1858. It is available online from The Beazley Archive.
- Vertova, Luisa (1977). "A new museum is born". The Burlington Magazine. 119 (888): 158–167. JSTOR 878733.
Further reading
- Borowitz, Helen Osterman; Borowitz, Albert (1991). Pawnshop and palaces: the fall and rise of the Campana art museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-1-56098-010-0.
- Nadalini, Gianpaolo (1998). "La collection Campana au musée Napoléon III et sa première dispersion dans les musées français (1862-1863)". Journal des savants (in French). 2 (2): 183–225. .
- Reinach, Salomon (1905). Esquisse d'une histoire de la collection Campana (in French). Paris: E. Leroux. The article was also published in five separate sections in Revue Archéologique (1904) 4th series 4 pp. 179-201, 364–384; (1905) 4th series 5 pp. 57–92, 208–240, 343–364.
- Eveline Schlumberger, "L'inépuisable Collection Campana" Connaissance des Arts (February 1964:38ff)
External links
- Parise, Nicola. "Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 17 (1974): CAMPANA, Giovanni Pietro" (in Italian). Treccani.