A Genuine Fake Poniatowski Gem? by Gertrud Seidmann

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. Furthermore, there is no reason to the basis of a receipt, Di Majo, E., B. Jornaes and S. Susinna, doubt that Pichler's portrait of Thorvaldsen was cut 1989–90, 100. These may not be the only versions by Pichler of from life. this device. Thorvaldsen's statue of Jason underwent many vicis- 8 Letter to Pichler's patron Prince Metternich in Vienna, dated 9 12 October 1821, drafted in Rome by the Danish consul situdes . The sculptor created a first, lifesize model Bröndsted in Thorvaldsen's name: Thiele 1852–6, 2, 65–6. in 1800 but destroyed it: living on a meagre stipend, 9 On the statue, its genesis and significance, see von Einem he could not afford even to have it cast in plaster. He 1975; Di Majo, Jornaes and Susinna 1989–90, 27–41. recreated it in its later over–life size form in 1802, 10 ibid., 39 11 For Pichler's variations on Thorvaldsen's Vulcan's Forge when it almost suffered the same fate; but in the nick relief, see Tassinari 1993, 250–254 of time the poet Friederike Brun, then resident in 12 Rollett 1874, 60–68, lists five gems with Greek signatures, Rome, had it cast at her own expense. Nevertheless, three of them copies from ancient gems (intaglios 44, 61, 170, despairing of success in the artistic metropolis, its 185, 200), while numerous other copies from ancient models are either unsigned, or signed with Pichler's own name. creator was preparing to leave the city forever, when 13 See Mugna 1844, 31–2 on periods of financial distress and the grandiosely conceived sculpture was finally gems by Pichler ‘passed off' as antique. saved by the timely commission of a marble version 14 He once rather disingenuously remarked to the Director of for the wealthy English collector and patron, Thomas the Vienna Cabinet of Antiquities, in talking about his much less distinguished second brother, that Giuseppe had ‘produced vir- Hope of Deepdene. The figure, which took shape tually nothing but forgeries, especially for Prince Poniatowski' over many years, created a sensation in Rome and (personal information from Alfred Bernhard–Walcher).

265 – was involved with Prince Stanislas Poniatowski he considered himself penniless. He was, however, (1754–1833), that most notorious creator of a vast able to regain part of his fortune and continue his contemporary collection of similar fakes, the former way of life, until a further upheaval impelled ‘Poniatowski Gems'. him to leave his home in Rome and settle in 15 The nephew of the last king of Poland, Prince Florence. Stanislas had enjoyed an excellent education, He was already a batchelor in his fifties, when he including several months at Cambridge University took up with a pretty young bourgeoise, Cassandra (he had had an English tutor) and had travelled Luci Benloch, whose husband was missing in the widely as a young man, acting as his uncle's emis- wars21. The birth of a daughter was followed by that sary. His charm was legendary, his intellect sharp, of a son, which made him consider it his duty to and his travels, which brought him contacts with the undergo a morganatic marriage; but its legitimation circle of advanced thinkers in Paris, and his experi- found surprising resistance in the curia which ence of England, helped to hone very progressive demanded a wait of ten years for the missing hus- ideas: as the owner of vast estates in Poland and band. Angrily, the Prince had a private marriage Lithuania, at one time ‘the richest man in Europe', ceremony performed by his chaplain in his own he freed his hundreds of thousands of serfs, estab- oratory; the recognition of his children (eventually lished modern manufactures and instituted a land there were three sons and two daughters) as legiti- reform in favour of the peasants whom he said he mate by the Habsburg Grand Duke of Tuscany per- loved (an action he referred to proudly many years suaded him to move to Florence. Cassandra's hus- later in his Will): this was almost a century before band having reappeared, the official marriage did the serfs were freed in Russia. At the same time, he not take place until the Prince was seventy years of was embarked on a brilliant political career; but age, just three years before his death, when he had Poland's dire situation with its constant upheavals the satisfaction of seeing his children recognised as and the ruling oligarchy's resistance to his uncle's legitimate by Pope Pius VIII. In his years of retire- progressive ideas, culminating in a decree which ment in Florence, he thought and wrote about the would make Poland return to a hereditary monarchy fate of his country and pursued his interest in devolving on Saxony, disgusted him sufficiently to Renaissance music and drama22; his clear mind and make him resolve to make his home abroad. As a amiable temper shine from his memoirs, the few lover of the arts, especially music, a collector of preserved letters and his intimates' description of antiquities and a patron of contemporay artists and his last days and the night he refused to call his architects, he was, like many cultivated and aristo- doctor on his deathbed because of the lateness of cratic Poles partiularly drawn to Italy16, which he the hour23. It seems almost incredible that a man of had already visited more than once; a full–length his temperament and wide culture who was portrait of him as a most engaging young man by respected, almost revered as a connoisseur and col- Angelica Kauffmann is a memento of his first visit lector of antiquities in his lifetime, should also have to Rome in 1785–6. In 1791, he settled in a palazzo been engaged in his last years in assembling that in Rome's Via della Croce, aquired a villa on the Via Flaminia outside the gates, which he had trans- 17 formed by the Papal architect Giuseppe Valadier , 15 The following account of the prince's life draws largely on acquired other Italian properties and promoted exca- Busiri Vici 1971, 94–451; Michalski 1983; Korzenowski 1895. vations; he also accumulated fabled collections of 16 Mikocki 1988. 18 17 Janowska, A. and Antonelli, V. 1991. antiquities , among them engraved gems, swiftly 18 On the prince as collector, see Indicazione 1821; Busiri Vici growing and catalogued progressively, as more were 1971, 313–365. acquired, by the antiquary Ennio Quirino Visconti19, 19 Visconti's manuscript notes, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, who called it ‘one of the richest in Europe'. A fierce Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises, vols X–XII, 5973–5977, in both French and Italian; the Italian version was published as opponent of Napoleon and on good terms with the ‘Catalogo delle gemme antiche di S.A. il Sig. Principe Stanislao Habsburg emperor, the prince left Italy to spend Poniatowski' in Visconti 1827–31, 2, 372–386. some years in Austria, where he acquired lands 20 His famous marble Kore is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. which he still owned at his death, and continued his 21 former lifestyle, including his collecting of antiqui- What follows is based on a MS ‘Second Supplement', dated 20 1947, by Prince Andrea Poniatowski, the prince's great–grand- ties , until he was able to return to Italy. But the son, to the Prince's manuscript volume Notices Biographiques political upheavals in Europe, not least in Poland, 1769–1831. I am most grateful to Prince Michel Poniatowski for which suffered its second and third partition, the permitting me access to the family archives deposited in the Archives de France. forced abdication of the king and the Russian occu- 22 MS letters from the prince dated 3 July 1793, 28 June 1794, pation had left Prince Stanislas with his estates Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana, BIII 34–35. sequestered and for a time in such dire straits that 23 (First) Supplément to Notices Biographiques (see Note 21).

266 extraordinary collection of fakes, with which his The gem under discussion, however, is not among name is forever associated. those recorded there33. A different gem, depicting The ‘Poniatowski Gems'24 were entirely distinct Jason, after he has killed the guardian dragon, in the from the perfectly respectable collection catalogued act of snatching the golden fleece from the tree on by Visconti, which included a (genuine) Io by which it is suspended, is supposedly ‘by' Dioscourides; it also included postclassical Dioskourides, while the single figure called ‘Jason Renaissance and neoclassical gems not listed by emporte la toison d'or'(34–25) is supposedly ‘by' Visconti from 1794. The fate of this collection – Pyrgoteles. But the title of this last gem may afford which we might call ‘Poniatowski One' – is myste- a clue to the absence of the stone under discussion rious. Was it sold with the Via Flaminia villa, which from the final collection: was the heroic figure after was bought by one Richard Sykes ‘of York'?; yet Thorvaldsen too static for the Prince's taste? Judging Tommaso Cades, in his list of Giovanni Pichler's by the collection as a whole, he seems to have pre- gems refers to a Head of Agrippa, ‘già nella ferred gems showing violent movement; this is one collezione Poniatowsky, poi scomparsa con molte of the distinguishing stylistic features of many of the altre gemme preziose', while he describes a Cicero Poniatowski Gems35. Yet not all are – or given the and a Neptune by the same artist as still in the col- sheer quantity, could have been – by the same hand, lection, which was not included among that which and there are other gems, particularly those depicting created such a stir when it came to auction 35 years later. (The Dioskourides gem is probably that now in the Archaeological Museum, Florence). 24 Published by the prince in the Catalogue c. 1830, they were In their definitive form, the often described fraudu- offered at auction by Christie and Manson in London, as the ‘very celebrated collection of ANTIQUE GEMS of the Prince lent ‘Poniatowski Gems' consisted of 2601 engraved Poniatowski, Deceased', on 29 April 1839 and the following stones, most of them depicting in minute detail long eleven days; discussed from 1831, when news of the catalogue series of episodes from ancient mythology and the first leaked out, by Raoul–Rochette 1831, 338; by E. H. epics; 1737 of these bore the ‘signatures' of Greek Toelken, 1832, 309–20, and Creuzer II/3, 367–9; it was the vis- ible evidence in Christie's sale which elicited two sound judg- engravers known and unknown to history, including ments by Ogle 1840 and 1842; he had been asked by the naive hundreds by Dioskourides, whose ‘rare and beauti- purchaser of most of the fake medallions, John Tyrrell, to pre- ful works… are made by this collection as common pare a catalogue for sale; Tyrrell 1842 attempted a refutation; as the adventures of Mr Pickwick'25, – as compared Reinach's summing–up, 1895, still stands as an admirable résumé. to the seven known at present, by or attributed to 25 Ogle 1842. Dioskourides. It may seem strange that the earliest 26 Somers Cocks 1976, 376. scholars to discuss this ‘preposterous collection'26 27 Toelken 1832 concluded his review with an aspersion on were so much in awe of the Prince's reputation that those Italian – he uses the derogatory German word ‘wälsch' – 27 engravers whose cunning ‘got the better of a naive northern they assumed he was duped by Italian engravers . enthusiast'. This is an impossible assumption: there can be no 28 MS Fiches pour un catalogue de pierres gravées in the doubt that one mastermind was behind this remark- archives. ably consistent, amazing programme; brief manu- 29 Among the small bundle of notes relating to gems in the archives, there is, however, one curious letter by Tommaso script notes in his handwriting among the few doc- Cades, dated 7 August 1818, in which he states that ‘l'attestato uments in his archive read like drafts for the fattomi rilasciare da S.A. il Signor Principe Poniatowski…in cui composition of its catalogue28. What has not so far vengo dichiarato come impiegato al Suo attuale servizio è stato come to light is documentary evidence about his un puro atto di Sua bontà, ed un onore che si è degnato di farmi, relations with the contemporary engravers who pro- non intendendo per questo di mai affacciare alcuna pretenzione 29 di un corrispondente mensualle onorario…' – in other words, he duced this hoard with its fake signatures . is honoured by being regarded as in the Prince's employment, But it is not the signature alone which associates the without claiming a monthly honorarium! Cades, who was a Jason gem with the fakes made for the Prince – after manufacturer of casts from gems, and had produced three frames of gems from ‘Poniatowski One', probably continued to assist all, forgeries for sale to the tourists were almost a the prince in making impressions which he expected to sell on commonplace in late neo–classical Rome. There is his own account. the material, an exceptionally fine, large cornelian, 30 The prince's connections with his homeland probably assisted not easily obtainable at the time, yet the common- him in obtaining gem material from Saxony. 30 31 See the portrait rings from the Poniatowski collection in the est stone among the Poniatowski Gems ; the gold Holburne Museum and Crafts Centre, Bath: Seidmann 1996a. swivel mount, not unique among collectors' rings, 32 Catalogue c. 1830, 49–51, nos. 153–181. but commonly used for Poniatowski's31; and finally 33 It does not figure either in Christie's sale catalogues of 1839 the subject: the legend of Jason and Medea, rare on and later, or in the catalogues of the collection of later owners, notably Explanatory Catalogue 1841. gems, is present in super–abundance among the 34 Catalogue c. 1830, nos. 169, 168. Poniatowski Gems: it is depicted on a series of no 35 This was already pointed out by Ogle 1841: ‘some very fewer than twenty–nine stones32. unclassical…extravagant attitudes'; see also Rudoe 1992, 25.

267 a single figure, of a more static, classical nature. The Calandrelli does indeed appear in the reference cornelian Jason may have been rejected, or later books as a notorious faker44, but, perhaps because alienated from the collection, perhaps as a gift. of the removal of his person and his archive to At any rate this would not have been the only Berlin in 1832, – he was called there to teach, as Poniatowski Gem that ‘got away'. An amethyst Luigi Pichler was called to Vienna – his involve- Jason and Triton at Karlsruhe, from the same series ment with Poniatowski has not hitherto been spe- of the Argonauts, is identical with the cast of a cially remarked on. The revelations in Poniatowski cornelian36; an unsigned gem in the Platz–Horster's paper (publication forthcoming in Hull Grundy collection at the British Museum is the symposium papers) therefore provided an impor- considered by Charlotte Gere to be another unlisted tant new contribution to one of the problems con- Poniatowski gem and ascribed by her to Luigi nected with the Poniatowski Gems. Pichler, as it is identical with one signed by this Calandrelli's choice of a Thorvaldsen motif, how- engraver37. Finally and crucially, there was the con- ever, still remains puzzling. The Jason is the only nection between Prince Poniatowski and Luigi one of his gems after the sculptor: unlike Pichler, Pichler. Several of Luigi Pichler's gems, according Settari and others, he did not proceed to copy other to a catalogue of his cast collection 38 are copies Thorvaldsen subjects. Although he was in Rome for from ‘Poniatowski One', to which access was jeal- many years during its presence in the sculptor's stu- ously guarded39. The circle appeared to be closed by dio, did he, in fact, model directly from the statue contacts between the prince and the sculptor, whose itself? One may ask this question, for there is a fur- studio he is recorded as visiting in 1810, when the ther puzzle: the cast preceding Jason in his collec- fame of Jason was at its height40, although he does tion, also unique among his gems as a copy from a not seem to have been carried away by the general contemporary, is a Luigi Pichler fake, complete with fervour: when asked to head the subscription list for signature. The catalogue entry reads Ercole battante Thorvaldsen's equestrian statue of his cousin, gen- colleone. L. PIXLER. I. What does this mean? eral Joseph Poniatowski, Prince Stanislas sent a very Clearly, Calandrelli had access to Pichler's casts – cool answer. This, however, was less a reflection on but it still seems strange that among the many rep- Thorvaldsen (in any case, Canova was the commit- resentations of this popular subject he should have tee's first choice) than of the Prince's distaste for chosen to copy Pichler's and fake his signature, and the glorification of his cousin's military exploits follow it with his only Thorvaldsen motif. Is it pos- rather than his uncle's, the King's, peaceful if short- sible that his Jason was also copied from a Pichler lived achievements for his country41. design, rather than from the statue? These triple links, between the sculptor, the gem Be that as it may, this still leaves a fundamental puz- engaver, and the patron who commissioned the fake zle about the ‘Poniatowski Gems' unanswered, gems, seemed to make an attribution of the Jason which has been all but ignored among the outraged gem to Luigi Pichler plausible – until a symposium of glyptologists on eighteenth and nineteenth century engraved gems held at Udine in September 1998 42 36 Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum: information kindly opened up a new vista on a quite different engraver, supplied by Peter–Hugo Martin. The identical cornelian is no. 580 in the Catalogue c. 1830. Both stones are ‘signed' ‘Gnaios' who collaborated largely on Prince Stanislas's col- in Greek letters. lection of fakes, and incidentally seemed to solve the 37 Gere 1984, 124–5, no. 836. problem of the origin of the Jason gem. Gertrud 38 Collection of casts from Pichler's works in the possession of Platz–Horster, who had previously studied glyptic Warsaw Castle, MS Catalogue titled Tomo 6 – 16 17 18 – 43 Collezione di No. 180 Impronte Opere di Luigi Pichler. Cat. nos. copies of statuary among ancient artists , presented 323, 353, 368 are each annotated ‘da una gemma nel Museo visual proofs, in the form of drawings by the prolific Poniatowschi'. I am grateful for access to this collection to the and skilful Roman Giuseppe Calandrelli courtesy of Professor Andrzej Rottermund, Director of Warsaw (1784–1852) from his archives preserved in the Castle, and Mgr. Bogna Arnold–Rutkiewicz, Curator. 39 e.g. Apollo radiato, Warsaw Castle collection no. 290 = Berlin Antikenmuseum, that he designed and cut Catalogue c. 1830, no. 279; Billing 1875, 119, states that a numerous gems for Prince Stanislas: one of the ‘beautiful Pichler with forged Greek name cost Poniatowski drawings reproduced Thorvaldsen's Jason. An exam- £20–30': he gives no source for this statement, which sounds ination of Calandrelli's cast collection – incidentally plausible; although Billing cannot always be relied on, he had close links with the gem–engraving trade over many years. preserved by the same Tommaso Cades who was 40 Busiri Vici 1971, 338. involved with the prince over the years and wrote 41 Family archives, letter to Countess Potocka, 18 March 1814. that strange disclaimer – revealed a Giasone col vello 42 'Continuità nella tradizione classica. Le gemme incise nel d'oro. Opera dal marmo di Thorwaldsen of precisely Settecento e Ottocento' on 26 September 1998, Musei Civici, Castello, Udine, under the chairmanship of Maurizio Buora. the dimensions of the ring – without any signature, 43 Horster 1970. either that of Calandrelli or of Dioscourides (Fig. 3). 44 cf. Babelon 1894, 312; Forrer, 1904–30, 1, 327; 7, 145.

268 objects, enhanced by the names made famous by Pliny and backed by his own reputation, would ensure them riches. Christie's 1839 sale, six years after his death, of ‘the very celebrated collection of ANTIQUE GEMS of the PRINCE PONIA- TOWSKI, Deceased' created the well–known, often described, scandal: Lord Monson's sale in 1854 was, more modestly, entitled ‘The very valuable col- lection of exquisite [my italics] GEMS selected from the celebrated (or, by then, notorious) PONIA- TOWSKI COLLECTION'. Contemporary com- ments make entertaining reading, especially those by writers who tried to persuade themselves that the prince had been deceived – though nothing like as much as the naive Englishman John Tyrrell, who bought the bulk of the collection after the sale, and subsequently spent a fortune publishing and trying to sell his flawed acquisition. The family, too, can- not have benefited to anything like the extent that the Prince must have envisaged: he did not live to see that in this, he himself was finally duped.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Babelon, E. 1894. La gravure en pierres fines, Paris. Bernhard–Walcher, A. 1996, Geschnittene Steine des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts in der Antikensammlung des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien, Zs. für Kunst- Fig. 3. Guiseppe Calandrelli, Giasone col vello d’ora. geschichte 19:2, 168–172. Opera dal marmo di Thorwaldsen, impression (Photo Billing, A. new edition 1875, The Science of Gems, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Rome). Jewels, Coins, and Medals, London. Busiri Vici, A. 1971, I Poniatowski e Roma, Florence. comments: what could have prevailed on this culti- Catalogue des Pierres Gravées Antiques de S. A. le Prince vated man of taste, who collected genuine antiqui- Stanislas Poniatowski c. 1830, Florence and Rome. ties and even promoted excavations, to perpetrate Creuzer, F. 1834–47, Zur Gemmenkunde, Deutsche such a preposterous fraud – and get away with it Schriften, 2/3, 339–530, Leipzig und Darmstadt. 45 Di Majo, E., B. Jornaes and S. Susinna, eds., 1989–90, during his lifetime? Exh. cat. Galleria Nazionale dell'Arte Moderna, Bertel I believe that the answer lies in the extraordinary Thorvaldsen 1770–1844 scultore danese a Roma, swings of fortune he had experienced, and in his Rome. anxiety to leave his descendants well provided for. Explanatory Catalogue of the Proof–Impressions of the His will is the clue46: having mentioned the diffi- Antique Gems possessed by the late Prince culties his heirs might have in disposing well of the Poniatowski, and now in the possession of John art collections, ('abbiamo…avuto riguardo alla Tyrrell, Esq. 1841, London. somma difficultà che incontreranno i nostri Eredi Forrer, L. 1904–30, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin–, Gem– and Seal–Engravers Universali nella realizzazione dei molti oggetti London. d'Arte'), he enlarges especially on the ‘Collezione Gere C. 1984, Intaglios and Cameos, in H. Tait, ed. The di Pietre incise' and their impressions, with their Art of the Jeweller, 1, 121–139, London. already printed catalogue, situated in the Museo on Haskell F. and Penny N. 1981, Taste and the Antique, the second floor of the Palazzo in via Larga, ‘for- New Haven and London. mando questo un oggetto di molto valore'. If not Horster G. 1970, Statuen auf Gemmen, Bonn. previously sold my him, he entreats his sons to explore the means of selling this collection in the best possible way and most advantageously. He 45 He sent a catalogue of his second collection in 1830 to the University of Cracov, drawing attention to its unique impor- must have thought that a huge hoard of engraved tance. Busiri Vici 1971, 442–3. gems, those much–collected, greatly desirable 46 Published in Busiri Vici 1971, 445–451.

269 Indicazione d'oggetti più interessanti esistenti nella villa Tassinari, G. 1993, Aspetti della glittica dell'Ottocento, posta fuori la Porta Flaminia spettante a sua Altezza Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, 243–272, Rome. il Sig. Principe Poniatowski 1821, Rome. Tassinari, G. Valerio Belli, Giovanni Bernardi e un Janowska, A. and Antonelli, V. 1991 La villa Poniatowski Gruppo di Intagli non antichi Babesch 71 (1996), 161- a Roma in via Flaminia, Accademia Polacca di Roma, 195. Conferenze 102, Rome. Thiele, J. M. 1852–6, Thorvaldsen's Leben nach eigen- Jornaes, B. and Urne, A. S. 1985, eds. The Thorvaldsen händigen Aufzeichnungen, nachgelassenen Papieren Museum, Copenhagen. und dem Briefwechsel des Künstlers, German transla- Korzenowski, J. 1895, Souvenirs du Prince Stanislas tion by Helms, H., Leipzig. Poniatowski, Revue d'histoire diplomatique, 9:4, Toelken, E. H. 1832, Catalogue des pierres gravées de 481–535. Son Altesse le Prince Stanislas Poniatowski, Michalski, J. 1983, Poniatowski Stanislaw h. Ciolek Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik 2, 309–20. (1754–1833), Polski Slownik Biograficzny 27, [Tyrrell, J.] 1842, Remarks exposing the unworthy 481–487. motives and fallacious opinions of the writer of the Mikocki, T. 1988. A la recherche de l'art antique – Les critiques on the Poniatowski collection of gems voyageurs polonais en Italie dans les années London. 1750–1830, Polska Akademia Nauk, Wroclaw Visconti, E. Q. 1827–31, Catalogo delle gemme antiche Warszawa Kraków Gdansk Lódz. di S.A. il Sig. Principe Stanislao Poniatowski Opere Mugna, P. 1844, I tre Pichler – Maestri in Glittica varie italiane e francese, ed. Labus G. 2, 372–386, Vienna. Milan. Ogle, N. 1840, Modern Antiques: The Poniatowski Von Einem, H. 1975, Thorvaldsens Jason – Versuch einer Gems, The Spectator, 1217. historischen Würdigung Bayerische Akademie der Ogle, N. 1842, Catalogue des Pierres Gravées Antiques Wissenschaften Philos.–Hist. Klasse Sitzungsberichte de S. A. Le Prince Poniatowski. The British and 1974:3, Munich. Foreign Quarterly Review 13:26, 66–8. Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, L. 1991, Le opere di Thorvaldsen nella glittica romana dell'Ottocento in Kragelund P. and Nykjaer M., eds. Thorvaldsen, L'ambiente, l'in- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS flusso, il mito (ARID Supplementum xviii) Rome. Raoul–Rochette, D. 1831, Journal des Savants, 338. My thanks go first and foremost to Prince Michel Reinach S. 1895, Pierres Gravées, 190–5, Paris. Rollett, H. 1874, Die drei Meister der Gemmogluptik Poniatowski, who allowed me access to the family Antonio, Giovanni und Luigi Pichler, Vienna. papers deposited in the Archives de France, Paris; Rudoe, J. 1992, The faking of gems in the eighteenth cen- to Andrew Ciechanowiecki, who initiated and for tury, in Jones, M. ed., Why Fakes Matter London. many years facilitated my relations with Poland and Seidmann, G. 1993 Portrait Cameos: Aspects of their has ever been ready with wise counsel, and to History and Function, in eds. M. Henig and M. Tomasz Mikocki who made it possible for me to Vickers, Cameos in Context Oxford and Houlton visit Polish libraries and archives. Susan LaNiece 1993. and Nigel Israel provided thoughtful comments on Seidmann, G. 1996a, A rediscovered gem collection in an earlier version of this paper; and to the many Bath, Jewellery Studies 7, 73–77. Seidmann, G. 1996b, Luigi (Alois) Pichler, in ed. Turner, others mentioned in the Notes should be added J. The Dictionary of Art 24, 734. London. Maria Dzielska, Katarzyna Karaskiewicz, Artur Somers Cocks, A. 1976, Intaglios and Cameos in the Badach, and the librarians at Warsaw Castle, all of Jewellery Collection of the V & A, The Burlington whom helped materially in my search for traces of Magazine, 118, 376 the elusive Prince Stanislas Poniatowski.

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