A Genuine Fake Poniatowski Gem? by Gertrud Seidmann
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BaBesch 74 (1999) A genuine fake Poniatowski Gem? By Gertrud Seidmann A gold swivel ring mounted with an intaglio gem group; but in the absence of documentary evidence depicting Jason (Fig. 1) was on the New York art for its origin, the attribution of a gem with a forged market in 1995. The engraving on the orange, Greek signature presents obvious problems. Two lightly striated cornelian, a long oval measuring among Thorvaldsen's known gem–engraver copyists 31x18 mm, represents the legendary hero standing produced a number of intaglios: they were Giovanni frontally in a graceful pose, his weight resting on Settari (1773–after 1833) and Luigi Pichler his left leg, while his head is turned in profile to his (1773–1854); the latter seemed to be the foremost right. He is naked but for a helmet with a large crest candidate, on several grounds. The much younger and sandals on his feet; a cloak, fastened at the half–brother and pupil of Giovanni Pichler, he had throat with a brooch and billowing behind him, is become celebrated in his turn for exquisitely gathered over his right arm, in which he grasps a engraved stones6; we find among them no fewer than short lance, and a sword is slung from the baldric across his shoulder; the captured golden fleece is draped over his left arm. In the field on the right, a 1 H. 2 m 42, original plaster model 1802–3 (Copenhagen, Greek name is inscribed in reverse, reading from top Thorvaldsen Museum), marble 1803–28 (ibid); Jornaes and to bottom; it is that of Augustus's gem engraver Urne 1985, cat. nos. A 52, A 822. On the statue, see von Einem Dioskourides (fl. c.40 BC – c.AD 10). But the sig- 1975; Di Majo, Jornaes and Susinna 1989–90, Pl.9, Fig. 11. 2 Haskell and Penny 1981. nature is not autograph, and its presence makes this 3 Exhibition curated by F. Haskell and N. Penny, Ashmolean gem a fake. Style alone would have excluded an Museum, Oxford, 1981. attribution to Dioskourides, it is true, but it can be 4 Cast collections elegantly housed in fictive ‘books', or more dated with certainty to the early nineteenth century, plainly in chipboard nests of stacking trays, titled ‘Opere di for it was then that Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) Canova / di Thorwaldsen (the sculptor's name seems universally spelt thus in Rome) / di Gibson / del Sig. Cav.e Thorwaldsen / created the monumental statue of Jason which is del Commendatore Thorwaldsen', with varying numbers of copied on this gem1. (Fig. 2) examples. The copying of sculptures on engraved gems, prac- For some engravings after Thorvaldsen, see Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli 1991, who cites seven names; a further name, that of tised in antiquity, was revived by eighteenth century Giuseppe Caputi, appears in Di Majo, Jornaes and Susinna Roman workshops providing elegant souvenirs of 1989–1990; for a fuller list, supplemented by inspection of casts the ancient works of art which the Grand Tourists in the Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, and the Ashmolean came to admire2. By the last decades of the eigh- Museum, Oxford, see Note 5 below. See also Tassinari 1993, teenth and the early years of the nineteenth century, 243–272, on the influence of Thorvaldsen's Vulcan's Forge. 3 Beside the sculptor's large collection of ancient gems, the the traditional canon of ‘the most beautiful statues' Thorvaldsen Museum owns a small group of stones and several began to include works of three contemporary sculp- casts in glass and plaster of gems after his works, including the tors, considered worthy to stand beside the Ancients: popular roundels of Night and Day, by Giovanni Beltrami, Giovanni Settari, H. Conradsen and Luigi Pichler. The Jason they were Antonio Canova, born 1757 and resident gem under discussion, however, has not been recorded before. in Rome from 1781, the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen, 5 They are Giovanni Beltrami, Giuseppe Caputi, Giuseppe thirteen years his junior, who was awarded a Rome Cerbara, H. Conradsen, Giovanni Dies, Luigi Dies, Giuseppe scholarship in 1796, and John Gibson, born 1790, Girometti, Clemente Pestrini, Luigi Pichler, Tommaso Saulini, Antonio Santarelli, Giovanni Settari and the Neapolitan resident in Rome since 1817. As their fame grew, so Zavagnini. the gem–engravers, too, took notice. The sculptures 6 Examples, among others, in Athens, Numismatic Museum; of all three were copied on gemstones, as witness the London, British Museum; Padua, Archaeological Museum; numerous collections of casts from engraved gems Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet de Médailles; Venice, Museo Correr; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. I am grate- reproducing their works, manufactured by the fore- ful to Alfred Bernhard–Walcher for personal communications most Roman providers of such popular souvenir about the Pichler gems in the Vienna museum, and to Mathilde boxes, the Paoletti and Cades workshops4. On their Brousset for access to Pichler gems in the Cabinet de Médailles. evidence, Canova's works were copied by at least On Luigi Pichler's life and works, see Mugna 1844, who was a 5 personal friend: this work was published during the artist's life- seven engravers, Thorvaldsen's by at least thirteen . time in the city where they met; Rollett 1874 is largely based One might have hypothesized that the copyist of on Mugna; Bernhard–Walcher 1996 discusses and illustrates the Thorvaldsen's Jason should be sought among this artist's work in Vienna; Seidmann 1996b is a brief assessment. 263 Fig. 1. Jason Dioskuridou, Cornelian intaglio, 31 x 18 mm, inscribed in reverse mounted in gold swivel ring (Private Collection). (Photo Robert L. Wilkins) Fig. 2. Bertel Thorvaldsen Jason with the Golden Fleece, marble, 2m42, (1803–28) (Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, A 822) (Photo Robert L. Wilkins). 264 fifteen gems after Canova, who was a close friend, earned Thorvaldsen the name of the ‘Danish and at least twelve derived from Thorvaldsen7; he Phidias'; it was the first of the heroic sculptures in a also cut the two sculptors' portraits, both widely cir- neo–classical style, characterised by Canova as ‘un culated in the form of moulded glass pastes. stile nuovo e grandioso'10. Pichler's claim to Jason rested on circumstantial The intaglio copy of Jason may have been cut dur- evidence of various kinds – first and foremost on ing the early years of the statue's fame; though in stylistic considerations. The great majority of his truth the engraver did not have to hurry, as the work stones were cut in intaglio, of which he was, as a remained in the sculptor's studio for twenty–five follower of his brother, an outstanding protagonist. years, much to the patron's distress. The gem is not Among the list of other contemporary copyists of an exact copy of the statue in its final form, but nor Thorvaldsen gathered from the cast collections, was Pichler's Vulcan's Forge after Thorvaldsen11; Giovanni Beltrami is represented by a single intaglio in both cases the artist has assumed a certain liberty from the collection of Count Sommariva, for whom in re–interpreting the model. But in attributing this he worked, and Giovanni Settari by a number of stone to the master who was also responsible for at small two–figure scenes, not only signed with his least twelve other copies after Thorvaldsen, we must name, but displaying prominently the legend further take into consideration the problem of the THORWALDSEN INV. During the first half of the fake signature. 19th century, however, most practitioners turned to Firstly, it would not be the only one of Pichler's cameo, more attractive and ‘readable' in jewellery, gems with a false Greek name attached to it: his and the even more showy shell cameos which were work list compiled by Herman Rollett enumerates much easier to cut and produce in quantity. The several others12, and in the nature of the case there manufacturer Tommaso Cades, whose Thorvaldsen may be more, hitherto unrecognised. Pichler's friend collection is characterised by casts of enormous size and first biographer, the abbate Pietro Mugna, (up to 7 cms and more), obligingly informs the reports that some of his gems were passed off as buyer that these are taken from shell cameos, by antique – surely with the customary help of a judi- Pestrini, Saulini and Giovanni Dies; the few intaglio ciously applied fake signature; this would have cutters still present are Luigi Dies with one exam- assisted sales during the anxious years after the ple, Settari and Luigi Pichler. death of his elder brother and the failure of the fam- Gem–engravers of the neo–classical era habitually ily workshop in 179813. A Jason gem with a fake modelled in the company and in the studios of signature could very well have originated from the sculptors, and Thorvaldsen's, where the figure of Pichler workshop at that time; but there seemed to Jason remained for many years on view, was one of be a further reason for attributing this gem to him, the show–pieces of Rome; but relations between for Pichler – although he did not own up to this 14 Thorvaldsen and Luigi Pichler seem to have gone beyond this: the sculptor entrusted Pichler with tak- ing his design for the Schwarzenberg monument to 7 Works after Thorvaldsen, according to list in Rollett 1874, Prince Metternich (patron of both) in Vienna8; per- 61–68: intaglio nos. 20, 39, 40, 53, 91, 146, 150, 164, 199, 227; sonal contacts may originally have been established Thorvaldsen's portrait is no. 206; a second version of Vulcan's Forge, Tassinari 1993, 251–254; another assigned to Pichler on through Canova.