Bartolomeo PINCELLOTTI by Daniele Giorgi - Biographical Dictionary of Italians - Volume 83 (2015)
He was probably born in Rome around 1707 by Francesco, a stonemason of Carrarese origin, and Lucrezia Guidi (Cervini, 1995; Antinori, 2003, pp. 233 s.).
He was initiated into the activity of a sculptor most likely by his father and perhaps had to complete his training in the atelier of an established teacher. From 1717 his presence is documented in the congregations of the University of Marmorari in Rome (Desmas, 2012, p.336). In 1728 he married Lucia Battaglia ( ibid ., Pp. 39 s.), From whom he had four children (Antinori, 2003, p.224, Pampalone, 2004).
From the beginning of Pincellotti is the remarkable pair of marble statues of S. Giacomo and S. Filippo , carved respectively at the age of twenty-two and twenty-three years commissioned by Domenico Maria Lombardi, general depository of the Apostolic Chamber, and placed in 1730 in the church of the Ss. Giacomo and Filippo a Taggia (Cervini, 1995).
Between 1730 and 1731 he realized the two Putti with the emblems of the flaming heart and the miter on the frontispiece of the door in cornu Epistulæ of access to the choir of the basilica of S. Agostino in Rome (Titi, 1763, p.402), en pendant with a similar couple placed in cornu Evangelii and performed by Pietro Bracci, with the works of which Pincellotti's sculptures reveal significant stylistic tangents.
In the enterprise of the stucco architectural decoration accomplished by his father Francesco for the façade of the late Oratory of the Custodial Angels in Rome, realized by Sebastiano Cipriani by the will of Cardinal Camillo Cybo, Bartolomeo was paid in 1731 for the execution of a relief in stucco depicting an Angel in the act of rescuing a child threatened by Evil in the form of a snake , now lost (Antinori, 2003, pp. 237 s.). In the same period of time he was involved in the grandiose construction of the basilica of the royal palace of Mafra, commissioned by King John V of Portugal, for which he finished the statue of St. Gregory the Great at the age of twenty-five (de Carvalho, 1950; , 2010).
From the beginning of the fourth decade Pincellotti was active in the most demanding Roman factories of the pontificate of Clement XII. In January 1733 he was invited to participate in the sculptural decoration of the Corsini chapel in S. Giovanni in Laterano, designed by Alessandro Galilei to house the tombs of the members of the pontiff's family, and for which he made the lying statues of Humility and Obedience on the tympanum of the high altar (Kieven, 1989). In August 1734 he received the task of sculpting the figure of St. John the Baptist , brought to completion by the beginning of 1736, for the balustrade of the eastern façade of the Lateran basilica, built on a project by Galilei (Desmas, 1998). During 1735 he was paid several times for the invoice of the statue of the Amenity of the lawns and gardens located at the extreme right of the Trevi Fountain's attic and, after the death of the sculptor Paolo Benaglia, also completed the two Allegories of Fame that support the Clementine coat of arms on the top of the architectural exhibition (Pinto, 1986; Antinori, 2003, P. 241).
Before the end of July 1733 the cardinal of Tabiese origin Niccolò Maria Lercari, who had decided to contribute to the expenses for the construction of the tomb of Benedict XIII in the Basilica of S. Maria sopra Minerva, entrusted the execution of the statue of the Allegory of 'Humility at Pincellotti (Agresti, 2010; Desmas, 2012, p.283), of which he certainly knew the youth trials in his hometown.
The work was perhaps already completed in 1735, but the monument, to which also collaborated Carlo Marchionni (architectural project, putti and historiated bas-relief) and Pietro Bracci (statues of Benedict XIII and of the Allegory of Religion ) with the patronage and support financial cardinal Alessandro Albani, Francesco Antonio Fini and Angelo Maria Querini, as well as the Dominican father Tommaso Ripoll, was inaugurated only in August 1737 (Antinori, 2011). By 1737 Pincellotti completed the bust of Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini for the monument he erected in the new cathedral of Brescia by the deputies of the city; a second bust of the prelate executed by the sculptor is kept in the local oratory of the Apostolic Congregation (Sala, 1834; Noack, 1991). In February 1735 he was admitted to the Congregation of Virtuosi al Pantheon, placed in 1692 under the protectorate of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. For the church of the episcopium of Porto, diocese of which this patron was owner, Francesco and Bartolomeo Pincellotti respectively performed the coats of arms and medallions with the effigies of the pontiffs of the commemorative epigraphs of Alexander VIII and Benedict XIII. Also the statue of St. Hippolytus , a copy of an ancient Roman sculpture integrated in the sixteenth century, carved by Bartolomeo in 1737 and placed on a pedestal worked by Francesco in the basilica of S. Lorenzo in Damaso (Antinori, 2003) , pp. 241, 243, with previous bibl.).
His other known works are: a signed Busto , reported on the antiquarian market (Barberini, 2002), perhaps to be identified with the portrait of Giulia Augusta Albani Chigi (Petrucci, 2003); the lost Military Trophies , sculpted on the model of Filippo della Valle, already on the three entrances of the Soldati quarter on the right side of the Scuderie del Quirinale (Roisecco, 1750 2 , II, p.351); the statue of Alexander VIII Ottoboni (1737) commissioned by Cardinal Annibale Albani for Urbino (Antinori, 2003, p.224).
From 1735 until his death he compensated for the remuneration obtained thanks to his profession, dedicating himself to the lucrative trade in wood and lime (Desmas, 2012, pp. 39-42).
He died on May 13, 1740 in Rome. He was buried in the church of S. Crisogono, seat of the Archconfraternity of the Ss. Sacramento and of S. Maria del Carmine, of which he was camerlengo (Antinori, 2003, pp. 243 s.).
After his death, the commission of the two statues, which Pincellotti had pledged to perform for the crowning balustrade of the Church of the Most Holy Name of Mary at the Trajan forum in October 1739, was diverted to Michel-Ange Slodtz (Agresti, 2011).
Sources and Bibl .: G. Roisecco, Ancient and Modern Rome, Rome 1750 , I, pp. 504, 553, II, pp. 253, 341, 441, 449; F. Titi, Description of the paintings, sculptures and architectures on public display in Rome , Rome 1763, pp. 161, 219, 353, 402; A. Sala, Paintings and other fine art objects of Brescia , Brescia 1834, pp. 47, 118; G. Campori, Biographical Memories of the Sculptors, Architects, Painters , Modena 1873, p. 181; R. Wittkower, PB , in U. Thieme - F. Becker, Künstlerlexikon , XXVII, Leipzig 1933, p. 52; A. Riccoboni, Rome in art. Sculpture in the modern era. From the fifteenth century to today , Rome 1942, pp. 301 s .; A. de Carvalho, A escultura em Mafra , Mafra 1950, fig. 41; A. Nava Cellini, The eighteenth-century sculpture , Turin 1982, pp. 53 s., 260; JA Pinto, The Trevi Fountain , New Haven-London 1986, pp. 150, 265, 271; E. Kieven, Überlegungen zu Architektur und Ausstattung der Cappella Corsini , in Architecture from Clement XI to Benedict XIV. Plurality of trends , edited by E. Debenedetti, Rome 1989, pp. 87 s .; B. Noack, The presbytery of the New Cathedral. An episode of the Roman Baroque in Brescia , in Lombard Art , ns, XCVIII-XCIX (1991), 3-4, pp. 97-102; F. Cervini, pictorial and sculptural interventions in the parish church of Saints James and Philip in Taggia between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , in Restoration in the province of Imperia 1986-1993 , edited by F. Boggero - B. Ciliento, Genoa 1995, pp. 44 s., 47; AL Desmas, La façade de la basilique de Saint-Jean-de-Latran. Nouveaux documents , in the Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée , CX (1998), 2, passim ; MG Barberini, Prudenza Capizucchi and a portrait by Domenico Cardelli , Roman sculptor , in 18th-century Roman sculptures , by E. Debenedetti, II, Rome 2002, p. 261; A. Antinori, Francesco and BP: a reconstruction of the catalog with new attributions in the context of architectural achievements for Camillo Cybo , ibid ., III, Roma 2003, pp. 233-270; F. Petrucci, in Women of Rome from the Roman Empire to 1860 ... (catalog), Rome 2003, pp. 107 s .; A. Pampalone, Parish of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. Rione Colonna , in Artists and artisans in Rome. Of the States of the Souls of 1700, 1725, 1750, 1775 , I, Volume in honor of Elisa Debenedetti , Rome 2004, pp. 111 s .; A. Agresti, Pietro Bracci and the protection of the Orsini: from the monument to Benedict XIII to the monument to Benedict XIV , in Paragone , s. 3, LXI (2010), 94, pp. 54, 57; TLM Vale, Italian Baroque sculpture in Portugal. Works , artists, patrons , Rome 2010, p. 109 and note 113; A. Agresti, The Church of the Ss. Name of Mary at the Trajan's Column: a crossroads of the languages of Roman sculpture around 1740 , in New Studies , XVI (2011), 17, pp. 161 s., 165; A. Antinori, Carlo Marchionni in Santa Maria sopra Minerva: an unpublished monument in honor of Blessed Benedict XI and contracts for the sculptures of the tomb of Benedict XIII , in Palazzi, churches furniture and sculpture , curated by E. Debenedetti, I, Rome 2011, pp. 141 s .; AL Desmas, Le ciseau et la tiare. Les sculpteurs dans la Rome des papes, 1724-1758 , Rome 2012, passim
Translated from: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bartolomeo-pincellotti_(Dizionario-Biografico)/