MELCHIORRE CAFA '" Maltese Genius Oj the Roman Baroque

MELCHIORRE CAFA '" Maltese Genius oJ the Roman Baroque

edited by KEITH SCIBERRAS

essays by ALESSANDRA ANSELMI . JOHN AZZOPARDI MARIA GIULIA BARBERINI . GERHARD BISSELL ANGELA CIPRIANI· ELENA BIANCA DI GIOIA TUCCIO SANTE GUIDO· JENNIFER MONTAGU TOMASO MONTANARI . LOUISE RICE KEITH SCIBERRAS . TONY SIGEL

mklseaBooKs for the History of Art Programme U niversity of Malta Published by MIDSEA BOOKS LTD. 3a Strait Street, Valletta, Malta on behalf ofthe HISTORY OF ART PROGRAMME, UNIVERSITY OF MALTA supported by the VALLETTA REHAB ILITATION PROJECT

No part ofthis publication may be reproduced , stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the previous written permission ofthe authors and/or rightful owners.

First published in 2006

Edit07'ial Note Works by or attributed to Me\chiorre Cala do not in clude the artist's name in the respective captions, Al I ca ptions are in English. Due to the nature ofthis book some pictures are repeated in different essays. The colour plates are of the Maltese works. Bibliography is updated to J anuary 2005,

Editor Keith Sciberras

Editorial Assistant Edgar Velia

Design J oseph Mizzi

Production Mizzi Design & Graphic Services Ltd

Printing Gutenberg Press, Malta

ISBN: 978-99932-7-092-X HAROBACK ISBN: 978-99932-7-097-0 PAPERBACK Contents

PREFACE...... VII

INTRODUCTION - MELCHIORRE CAFÀ: MAL TESE GENIUS OF THE ROMAN BAROQUE Keith Sciberras...... 1

PLATES ...... 19

MELCHIORRE CAFÀ NELLA STORIA DELLA CRITICA Maria Giulia Barberini ...... 35

"CHI NON ESCE TALVOLTA DALLA REGOLA NON LA PASSA MAI": MELCHIORRE CAFÀ A ROMA TRA 1660 E 1667 Elena Bianca Di Gioia ...... 49

MELCHIORRE CAFÀ'S MODELS FOR ERCOLE FERRATA ]ennifer Montagu...... 67

PER MELCHIORRE CAFÀ: APPUNTI DALL'ARCHIVIO STORICO DELL'ACCADEMIA DI SAN LUCA DI ROMA Angela Cipriani ...... 79

MELCHIORRE CAFÀ AT S. CATERINA A MAGNANAPOLI Gerhard Bissell...... 83

LA SANTA ROSA DI MELCHIORRE CAFÀ: ICONOGRAFIA E SIGNIFICATO Alessandra Anselmi ...... 89 MELCHIORRE CAFÀ'S BAPTISM OF CHRIST FOR THE KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF MALTA Keith Sciberras...... 97

MELCHIORRE CAFÀ'S STATUE OF ST PAUL AT ST PAUL'S GROTTO, RABAT, MALTA j ohn Azzopardi ...... 113

IL MATRIMONIO MISTICO E LA VISIONE DELLE ROSE DI SANTA ROSA DA LIMA: DUE RILIEVI DI CAFÀ ALLE DESCALZAS REALES DI MADRID Tomaso Montanari ...... 131

CAFÀ'S CONCLUSION Louise Rice...... 139

SULLE CERE DI MELCHIORRE CAFÀA MALTA Tuccio Sante Guido ...... 153

THE CLAY MODELING TECHNIQUE OF MELCHIORRE CAFÀ: A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT Tony Sigel ...... 161

NOTES ...... 235

LIST OF WORKS Keith Sciberras ...... 255

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 267

INDEX OF NAMES...... 289 Cafà's conclusion

Louise Rice

T he thesis broadsheet of Giovanni may have played a part. His brother Francesco Rota, commissioned on the Giuseppe was a Dominican friar and occasion of his philosophy defense at it was probably through this fraternal the Dominican college attached to S. channel that Melchiorre carne by a whole Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, is from series of important commissions for an iconographic standpoint the most Dominican clients.2 The year before, in elaborate and ambitious invention that 1661, he carved the wooden Madonna Melch iorre Cafà ever devised (Fig. of the Rosary for the church of S. 167). It is an imposing engraving over Domenico in Rabat; and later, two of three-quarters of a meter high and his most important works were done with its arcane subject matter and its for Dominican churches, namely, the striking pictorial illusionism it demands St Rose for the Dominican church in of us a concentrated reading that takes Lima (1665) and the high altarpiece into account the richness of its visual for S. Caterina a Magnanapoli in Rome language.1 (1667). In this connection it is also worth The event for which the broadsheet mentioning another print designed was commissioned took piace in March by Cafà, engraved by Albert Clouet in 1663. Giv en the size and complexity 1666, which represents the Madonna of the composition, it is likely that the and Child with St Dominic along with two engravers who collaborated on Rose and three other Dominican the project - Jean Couvay and Jean candidates for sainthood, all of them Girardin, both Parisians based in Rome with Peruvian connections; the print at the time - took several months to was commissioned by the Dominican prepare the copper plates. Presumably, friar Antonio Gonzalez, who was in therefore, Cafà produced the drawing Rome to promote the beatification of from which they worked sometime in Rose (Fig. 168).3 The fact that the thesis the previous year. How he carne by the broadsheet was made for a defense at commission we do not know but the the Dominican coll ege fits perfectly, a~tist clearly had important co~nections therefore, into the emerging picture we Wlthin the Dominican order and these are forming of a far-flung network of

139 140 Dominican patronage, to which Cafà, through his family connections, had privileged accesso Giovanni Francesco Rota, or Ruota, the young nobleman who commissioned Cafà's broadsheet, was born in Cremona in 1643, the son of Cipriano Rota and Lucia Feramoli .4 His fa ther sent him fi rst to Bologna to study grammar and rhetoric at the Accademia del Porto, a boarding school for aristocratic boys, and then to Rome to continue his studies in philosophy and theology. Although Rota publicly defended philosophical theses at the Dominican college ofS. Tommaso d'Aquino at S. Maria sopra Minerva, he was not himself a Dominican and was almost certainly not enrolled there but at one of the city's other educati onal institu ti o n s, su ch as the Coll egio Romano.5 We know from his thesis broadsheet that he based his defense on the philosophical writings of T homas Aquinas, but whether he was granted the exceptional privilege of defending Fig. 168 at the Dominican coll ege because of his special interest in Aquinas, or whether, Città di Castello (1689), Beneven to Fig. J 68. Albert Clouet after Melchi orre Cara, Madonna on the contrary, he concentrated on (1 692), Fano (1693), and l esi (1697). and Chi/d with five Peruvian Aquinas because he knew that he wo uld T hroughout these years he maintained candidates 101' sainthood, 1666 be defending at the Dominican coll ege, a keen interest in science and literature remains unclear. After his d efen se, and corresponded from his provincial he comple ted his educatio n at the pos ts with like-minded friends in Rome. Sapienza, where he earned a law degree His particular passion was astronomy but in 1665. He then took holy orders and he was also a poet and was admired by his entered the prelature. Clearly a man of contemporaries for his ability to couch considerable ability and energy, he went scientific findings in poetic language. on to a successfu l career in the middle H e frequented the circle of Queen ranks of the Roman Curia, holding a Christina of Sweden and was an active succession of important secretarial and presence in Rome's literary academies, administrati ve posts. H e served as a first as a member and secretary of the referendary of the two signatures, and Accad emia d egl'Infecondi, later as beginning in 1670 as an abbreviator an Ar cadian who wen t by the starry On opjJOSite page: de parcu maiori, a position he held fo r pseudonym As treo Chelidori o. 6 His Fig. 167. J ean Couvay the rest of his life, eventually becoming literary output included plays and poems and J ean Girardin after dean . Meanwhile he was appointed in Latin and Italian, as well as volumes Melchi orre Cara, Thesis broadsheet 01 Giovanni governor of Faenza in 1673, then of of "philosophical, mathemati cal, and Francesco Rota, for hi s Rieti (1 675), Sabina (1 677), Norcia astronomica! observations," unpublished defense at the Coll egio di S. Tommaso d'Aquino at S. 7 (1678), Sanseverino Marche (1689), at the time ofhis death and now lost. He Mari a sopra Minerva, 1663

14 1 Dominican tertiary at a house for women attach ed to S. Maria sopra Minerva, where sh e lived a life of exempla ry virtue a nd died in 1600.10 Efforts to have her beatified as a first step toward canonization began immediately after her death. The Dominicans saw obvious benefits to advancing one of their own; and the Raggi clan, eager to have a saint in the family, did what they could to promote her cause. Thus the decision to commiss ion Bernini's memorial and to erect it in the Dominican church where Maria Raggi had worshiped and was buried resulted from a shared agendum linking her order and her famil y. The money to pay for the monument was left by Lorenzo's uncle, Cardinal Ottaviano Raggi . But Lorenzo was his uncle's executor and was responsible along with Ottavia no's brothe r Tommaso for overseeing the execution of the monument; his name and coat of arms appear prominently in the inscription. Apart from the Maria Raggi monument, Fig. 169 there is other evid ence of the cardinal's Fi g. 169. J ean Couvay died ofapoplexy in 1706 at the age of63 c1 0se ties to the Dominican order. He and J ean Gira rdin after Melchiorre Cara, Thesis and was buried in S. Carlo al Corso, the regularly employed Dominicans as his 8 broadsheet oJ Giovanni church ofthe Lombards in Rome. spiritual advisors. Il H e also served as Francesco Rota, for his defense al Lh e Coll egio di Rota, who was twenty at the time of cardinal protector of the Confraternity S. Tommaso d'Aqui no at S. his defense, dedicated his conclusions of the Most Holy Name of Christ, a lay Maria so pra Min erva, 1663. to the Genoese cardinal Lorenzo Raggi organization founded by a Dominican Detai l (161 5-87). The choice of dedicatee, like fria r and based at the church of S. the choice of artist, suggests a network of Maria so pra Minerva. 12 Curiously, the Dominican connections at work behind confraternity's chapel (third on the right the scenes. Raggi was associated with the ofthe nave), which had been assigned to Dominicans through his involvement it by Pope Pius IV with a dedication to with one ofthe most famous monuments the Holy Name ofGod, was taken away in their church, the memorial to Maria from it at some point in the mid-1660s Raggi by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, executed and rededicated to Blessed Rose ofLima; between 1647 and 1653.9 Maria Raggi the p erson in ch arge of the chapel's was a distant relative of the cardinal's. redecoration was none other than Fra One of those Catholic-Reforma tion Antonio Gonzalez, who commissioned matrons revered for their extreme piety, Cafà's engraving of the Madonna and she was born in 1552, married at the age Child with Saints in 1666 and who must of twelve, and the mother of four and also have been intimately involved in the a widow by the time she was eighteen; commiss ion for the statue of St Rose.1 3 she then moved to Rome and became a Although these circumstances may be

142 entirely coincidental, they illustratejust and condensed into a si ngle statement how interconnected were the circles of that covers but in no way spells out the artists and patrons in the Dominican philosophical topics to be debated (Fig. orbit in these years. 169). Chiseled onto the statue base, the After this brief introduction to the text reads simply: major players who had a role in the creation of Cafà's broadsheet, let us CONCLUSION. That whatever St turn now to the object itself. Thesis T homas taught concerning Logic, broadsheets, or "conclusions" as they Universal Natural Philosophy, and were often call ed for lack of a more Metaphysics is true. 15 exact term, were commissioned by students on the festive occasion of Such brevity is unprecedented. their public academic defense. 14 They Normally, thesis broadsheets li st a were distributed to the members of series of specific topics; there may be the audience at the outset of the event twenty, fifty, or even a hundred or and served both as a program enabling more conclusions arranged in two or those present to follow the progress of three columns or incorporated into the the disputation and as a memento once design in some other way. Here, instead, it was over. They usually consisted of a single conclusion embracing ali of three basic parts: an image ofsome kind, Thomist philosophy obviates the need often heraldic in character; a dedicatory for any others. It is a cunning device, text; and the conclusio ns themselves, for it implies the exceptional brilliance in other words, the theses that the ofthe student, ready to defend any and student was prepared to elaborate and every aspect of Aquinas's philosophical defend in response to objections posed writings, while at the same time it by his exam in ers. The conclusions liberates the artist from the necessity of might be philosophical, theological, accommodating a cumbersome li st of legaI, or medicaI, depending on the multiple conclusions within his pictorial student's course of studies. The earliest invention. The effectiveness of Cafà's thesis broadsheets were predominantly design, with its broadsheet-within-a textual; the image was relatively small broadsheet construction, depends to a and confined to the top of the page. large extent on this radical reduction of Over the course of the seventeenth its disputational content down to a single century, however, there was a steady all-encompassing conclusion. shift in emphasis. T he image grew in size Cafà's composition both is and and importance relative to the text and represents a thesis broadsheet. In other eventually swall owed it up altogether. words, the design ofthe actual broadsheet T he text remained an essential element, centers on a fictive broadsheet, rendered naturally, but was increasingly embedded illusionisticall y as though held aloft by into the narrative framework of the a cluster of putti and by winged figures image. Cafà's broadsheet represents an personifYing Fame and Glory, the whole extreme illustration ofthis evolutionary airborne formation superimposed processo The image takes up the entire over a distant landscape, which is itself sheet. The dedicatory text is inscribed enclosed within an illusionistic frame on a fictive marble tablet on which putti that surrounds the entire design. One of hang garlands of laureI, and as for the the engravers signs his name at the foot conclusions, the academic substance ofthe inner broadsheet, while the other of the defense, they are boiled down adds his in the lower right corner ofthe

143 Fig. 170 outer broadsheet, thus enhancing the of the convergence of the two beams, effect of layered realities. 16 near the head of the statue, a second It is the inner, or fi ctive, broadsheet inscription reads: "by both rays" (Fig. that is, of course, the essential part of 170). the composition, the rest functi oning Many things are going on at once in prim arilya an elaborate framing device. thi complex tri angulation of li ght. To

Fig. 171 Here, in the u pper left hand corner, the begin with, a putto hold s a ca rdinal's hat great Dominican theologian St T homas over the constellation Leo and thereby Aquinas is eated on c1 0uds with a book transfi gure the celesti al li on into the (perhaps the Summa theologica, or hi s coat of arms of the dedicatee, Cardinal main philosophical text the Summa contra Raggi. T he Raggi heraldry consists of gentiles) open at hi s side. From the sun a diagonal band superimposed over on his breast, whi ch is his identify in g a li on rampant (F ig. 171 ). In Cafà's attribute, emanate two sharply defin ed print, the ray oflight shooting out from beams of li ght. One is directed down T ho mas's sun becomes the diagonal toward a statue of a semi-nude youth band, Leo becomes th e lion, and the two Fig. 170. J ea n Couva y and J ean Girardin after standing on a talI pedestal in the open together form an ico nography in equal Melchi orre Cara , Thesis courtyard below. T he other is directed measure hagiographic and as trological broadsheet oj Giovanni Francesco Rota , fo r h is up and strikes the constellati on Leo in in honor ofthe sponso r. 17 Nor does th e defense at the Coll egio d i the zodiacal band in the upper half of compliment end th ere. T he ray oflight S. Tommaso d'Aquino at S. Mari a sopra Mine rva , 1663. the composition. From there the bea m alludes not onl y lO Raggi's her aldry Deta il is defl ected downward at a ri ght angle but also to his name, since in Itali an Fig. 171. Corneli s so that it too sheds li ght on the statue. "raggio" means "ray. " T he pun works Bl oemaert after Lui gi Prim o, T he Raggi coat Two putti directl y below St T homas hold bes t in Ita li an . Whe n expressed in or arms, deta il of a thesis a banderole inscribed with the phrase: Latin, as in the phrase ab utroque radio print for a member ofthe Raggi famil y at the Coll egio "The Aquinine sun illuminates both by (,' by both rays"), th e wo rd stilI evokes Romano, c. 1640 this Iion and by this ray." At the angle the meaning of the patron's name but

144 Fig. 172 . J ean Couvay and J ean Girardin after MelchiolTe Cala, Thesis broadsheel oj Giovanni Fmncesco Rota, for hi s defense at the Collegio di . Tommaso d'Aquino at S. Maria sopra Minerva, 1663. Detail Fig. 172

is no longer so obviously homophonic. strengthened by your patronage. lfyo u T he play on words depends to a certain look on these theses in a kind light, you extent o n the viewer automatically, even breathe life in that hope and the very u nconsciously, translating from Latin statues will speak of your goodness. into ltalian as he reads the text. Live long, etc. Your most humble and T he beams of light, the "raggi," are devoted servant, Giovanni Francesco clearly centrai to CaÌa's narrative. Both Rota. shine o n the statue, o ne directl y and one indirectly, and as they do the statue The reference is to the famous statue of appears to respond. He turns toward St Memnon at Thebes in Egypt. According T homas, and with his hand to his breast to ancient authors, this statue was said see m s to sp eak the words inscribed to utter strange murmurings, in other next to his face : "[l am ill uminated] by words to peak, when touched by the both rays." Who is represented by this light ofthe rising sun. 1 It was a legend statue and what role does he play in the much loved by seventeenth-century sy mbolic trigonometry of the design? poets and antiquarians, who reveled in T he answer li es in the dedicatory text its a ll egorical connotations. ' 9 CaÌa and in scribed on the block of sto ne below St his iconographic advisers may have been T homas (Fig. 172). H ere Rota addresses particular ly influenced by an earlier his patron: thesis print, in which the Me mnon Your Eminence, my Memnon begs story is converted into an all egory of that you bend on him the ray of your patronage. Commissioned by Guglielmo favor. U nder the Aquinine sun, he has Dondidi for his philosophy defense at learned to modulate his small voice, the Collegio Romano in 1623, the print [but] dares not [speak] publicly, unless situates the seated statue ofMemnon at

145 Fig. 173. T heodor Krlige r a rte r Giovanni Lan rTanco, T/w slal'ue DJ M CIII:non al Thebes, fro m the thesis broadsheel ofGug li elmo Dondini, fo r his defense al the Coll egio Ro mano, 1623 Fig. 173 the center of an arcaded courtyard (Fi g. the ray of li ght that eli cits the miracl e 173). T he coat of arms ofthe dedicatee, to the benefi cent effects of Gozzadino's Cardinal Ma rcanto ni o Gozzadino, is patro nage.20 ExactI y the same conceit is carried overhead by Aurora, the goddess at work in Cafà's broadsheet, but with of the dawn. As she scatters petals to e nha nced sig nificance. Fo r he re the signal the start of day, light streaming ri sing sun doubles as the attribute of St through the upper arcade triggers the T homas, whose philosophical writings miraculous phenomenon. An inscription a re the bas is o f Ro ta's disputa ti o n , o n the base of the statue seems to echo while the rays of li ght that cause the the words that the statue itself addresses statue (i. e . the stude nt) to speak a re to the risin g sun: VOX MI Hl DVM the punning embodiment of Cardinal ADERIS (" I will have voice while yo u Raggi's patro nage. T he iconographic a re present"). T h e idea ex pressed density of the conceit is characteri stic of in the e ng r av ing is r e ite ra te d a nd thesis prints genera ll y and we may be expanded in the dedicatory preface to sure that Cafà, Iike other designers of the poems published on the occasion of such works, devi sed hi s composition in Dondini's defense: "Like stony Memnon, cl ose consultati on with a programmatic who utte r ed sound whe n to uch e d ad visor. by the rays of the sun, I too, wh o for E ve r y bit as strikin g as these three years have studied Philosophy iconographic intricacies are the formai in sil ence, having now turned to your complexities of the compositio n. Cafà li ght, [ ... ] in the illuminati o n of yo ur deli ghts in superimposin g multiple layers presence, I speak." T he statue is thus ofillusionisti c reality. He surrounds the likened to the student; the sun to the entire sheet with a fi cti ve frame, which d edicatee, Cardinal Gozzadino; and seems to exist primarily so tha t the

146 Fig. 174 all egorical fi gures of Fame and Glory Cara brings the Po into the foreground, Fig. 174. J ean Couvay and J ean Girardin after can overlap it with their wings, thus dramati zing its great width, while on Melchi on e Cara, Thesis suggesting that they emerge from or are the left he depicts the fork where the broadsheet oJ Giovanni Fmncesco Rota, for his fl ying in front of this enframed space. Po and the Adda mingle their waters. defense at the Coll egio di Cafà does much the same things at S. T he veduta is the link between the outer S. Tommaso d'Aquino at S. Maria opra Min erva, 1663. Caterina a Magnanapoli , where once and the inner broadsheets. Fame and Detail again it is the wings of the ange! in the Glory hold up Rota's conclusion like Fig. 175. T he torrazzo of lower left that overlap the frame. Frame a trophy of academic victory over the Cremona for Cafà , as indeed for many other city of his birth, suggesting Cremona's baroque artists, do less to contain the j oy and pride at the accomplishment design than to suggest the impossibility of her noble son. The lorrazzo pointing ofcontainment: to imply, in other word , up at the fi ctive broadsheet, almost but a free-flowingcontinuum between fi ctive not quite brushing the curled-up lower and real space. edge with its pinnade, underscores the Passing through the frame, our eye connection. e ncounter s a n expa nsive la ndscape The sources for this type ofpictorial that leads back across a broad body of illusionism are so numerous that we water toward a distant town (Fig. 174). should probably not think of them as In this composition where everything is sources at all , but examples ofa common so carefull y calculated, the landscape too interest in d ever visual game-playing. co ntributes to the meaning. T he town is Designers of thesis prints had a special Cremona, the defendant's birthplace. It fondness for this kind of thing. T he is no t, admittedly, a very exact portrait thesis broad sheet commissioned a but it does feature Cremona's sali ent quarter of a century earlier by Lorenzo landmark, its famous campanile. Call ed Raggi himself, for his own defense at affectionate!y the lorrazzo by those who the Coll egio Romano, is a spectacular li ve in its shadow, it is, at 111 meters, example of illusionistic engraving (F ig. the tallest campanile in Italy (Fig. 175). 177). With its centrai scene in the form Cafà al so alludes to the surrounding of a fi ctive tapestry held by living satyrs topography of Cremona. T he city is per ched on marble herms, and with situated on the northern bank of the ignudi a nd bronze tondi cr a mmed Po, just to the east of the confluence of into the margins, it r ecall s the witty the Po and the Adda rivers (Fig. 176). complexities of Annibale Carracci's

147 Fig. 176. After Antonio Campi, Map ofCremona and its surroundings, detai1,1595 Fig. 176 Farnese ceiling. Another example, Bernini's design resemble the putti and conceptually even closer to Cafà's, is the laurei branch in Cafà's invention. These thesis ofSavo de' Conti Marsciano, who similarities are, I think, too striking to defended in law at the Sapienza in 1646 be coincidental, especiall y given the fact (Fig. 178). In it the student's conclusions that Cafà's composition postdates the are inscribed on a fictive broadsheet, i.e. Androcles broadsheets by only three a broadsheet within the broadsheet.2 1 years. Nonetheless, howeve r much But the most immediate precedents Cafà's design may be indebted to this are no t, in fact, thesis broadsheets, but earlier pair, in one respect it represents a pair of commemorative broadsheets a significant departure. Whereas the featuring the medal of Androcles and fictive broadsheets in Bernini's and the lion, dedicated to Pope Alexander Cortona's designs consist primarily of VII and engraved by Giovanni Battista text, the one in Cafa's is largely pictorial Bonacina in 1659, one after a design and it is this that gives his composition by Bernini and the other after a design its quirky visual effect. The insertion of by Pietro da Cortona (Figs 179-180).22 a pictorial "broadsheet" into a pictorial Both involve the concei t of a broadsheet composition involves the juxtaposition within a broadsheet. Fonn and content of contrasting systems of perspective and are conceptuall y merged; and the scale and evokes with dizzying logic an invention sets up a self-referentialloop illusion within an illusion. in which the work of art and the thing If others had used the broadsheet it depicts are one and the same. Cafà within-a-broadsheet format before seems to have taken elements from both him, Cafà turned it to new advantage, of these engravings. The allegorica I exploiting the doubling of the form figures of Fame and Truth who hold to celebrate two individuals instead of up the fictive broadsheet in Cortona's one. The design ofthe inner, or fictive, design are echoed in the comparable broadsheet could easily stand alone; it figures of Fame and Glory in Cafà's; the is a thesis broadsheet complete in all its putti and the fat branch ofChigi oak in parts, and typical ofthe genre its imagery 148 Fig. 177 Fig. 178 concentrates on the dedicatee, Cardinal were printed exclusively o n p a p er , Fig. 177. J ohann Friedrich Greuter after Gian Raggi. T he outer or actual broadsheet, hi g h -end celebra to r y broad sh eets Francesco Romanelli , with its view of his nati ve Cre mo na, like these te nded to be issu e d no t Thesis bToadsheet o[ LoUinZO Raggi, fo r hi s defense at the instead extols the student. Fame and only o n p aper but also in a luxuriou s Coll egio Romano, 1637 Glory share their gifts between Raggi limited edition pr inted on satin silk. Fig. 178. J ohann Friedrich and Rota, while the branch of laure i T h ese d e luxe copies wer e reserved Greuter after Gian Maria Colombi, Thesis b1'OacLsheet o[ alludes to both : to the d edicatee by for th e d e dicatee a nd a very sm a ll Savo de' Conti Marsciano, for pu nningly recalling his given name (lauro num ber of privileged r ecipie nts. hi s defense at the Sa pi enza, 1646 = Laurentius) 23 and to the defendant by Sin ce the dedicatee was by definiti on evo king the laurels (laurea) that ar e the prime viewer , o ne could ar g ue the sy mbol of acade mic achievement. that compositio n s of this sort were T hus, wi thout directl y challenging the ideall y conceived for th e medium of conventions ofthe genre, Cara has found shimmering fa bric, n o t of p a p er at a way to make his thesis broadsheet as alI. We may think of them , th en , as much about the student as his sponsor. silken objects depicting paper objects In a li th ree of t h ese works by depicting sculptural objects (the medal Bernini , Corto n a, a nd Cafà, the r e in the case of Bernini's a nd Cor tona's is yet an o the r level of artifice to be designs, the statue in the case ofCafà's). co nsider ed . While m ost broad sh eets T h er e is a certain iro ny h er e. T h e

149

text in both Bernini's and Cortona's remarkable pictorial imagination and broadsheets makes specific reference proved that he was as adept at working to the papeT on which they are printed; in two dimensions as he was in three. At in a variant of a common poetic the sa me time, we can legitimately cali conceit, it suggests that these paper this a sculptor's print. It deals, after all, documents will outlast the medal they with a sculptural theme. The story of commemorate, although the medal is Memnon is not only a metaphor for the issued in the seemingly more durable student who speaks out in defense ofhis materials of gold, silver, and bronzeo theses. It is also a legend about a statue The presence of Fame and Glory in of stone that comes to life, a speaking Cafà's design perhaps hints at the sa me likeness shaped by the artist's skill and idea. Memory outlasts ali else; memory warmed by the beneficent generosity of is embodied in words; and words a caring patrono Cafà, as far as we know, are record ed in ink on paper. The never designed another thesis print. In a potheosis of the paper broadsheet his one venture in this highly specialized depicted in each of these three works a nd aristocratic genre, he crafted an signifies the immortalization of the allegory on the art of sculpture and the dedicatee's memory.24 power it shares with paper to evoke In his thesis print for Giovanni the illusion of life and project the Francesco Rota, Cafà revealed his permanence of memory.

152 24 Azzopardi 1999[i], p.9; Azzopardi I 999[ii] p.1 8. rine t.tatu ra, pulitura, cisell atura, indo ratura The document is in the Archi ves of St Pa ul's della stola» : dove ci si può chiedere se la specifi Grotto, Wi gnacourt Museum, Rabat. In the cazione "della stola» ri guardi solo la doratura, o sa me yea r, the docume nt was independently vogli a limitare a quel particolare settore anche discovered in the Notarial Archi ves Va lletta by le altre operazioni menzionate. Il fatto che CaB Dr Keith Sciberras. I t is also disc ussed swjna by non chieda un pagamento specifico per sé ma Sciberras. si rimetta a ll a generosità del committente (il 25 Marulli or Marullo is nota common surname in cardinal nipote Flavio Chigi), potrebbe far pen Malta. T he Marriage records of Birgu include sa re che egli abbia avu to compiti di direzione e the foll owin g three names: Paolo Marullo father soprintendenza. Montagu 1991 , p. 70, sembra of Battistina, who got married on 10.2.1 575; propendere per questa interpretazione, mentre Dotto r Ono fri o Marullo ma rried to Isabe ll a M. Butzek 2000, pp. 187-1 88, pare credere ad on 2 1.1 2.1 596 a nd Lorenzo Marullo married un impegno diretto dell o sc ultore. to Adriana on 17 .07.1 604. I nformati on kindly 12 Cfr. Montagu 1984, pp. 50-61. supplied by Dr Simon Mercieca. 13 Significativamente il disegno viennese reca un 26 I n Xe wkija, Gozo, a statue o f St Pa ul was incidatw' firmato proprio da quel padre Leoni placed in the Parish Square, with an inscription grazie a l cui libretto su Santa Rosa abbiamo recalling the preaching ofSt Paul to the people decifralo precisamente l'iconogra fi a dei nostri of Malta a nd Gozo. T his statue has recently rilie vi (cfr. Montagu 1984). been transfe rred to o ne side of the new Pari sh 14 Per un'ampia e compete nte discuss ione del Church. problema, cfr. Di Gioia 2002, pp. 176-1 8 1. 27 Erroneous date. I t should have been 1607. 15 Golzio 1935, pp. 64-74 (70, 72). 28 Boisgelin 1805, voI. I, p. 27 as quoted by Freller 16 CfT. Montagu 1996, pp. 5 e sgg. 1996, p. 125. 17 Pubblicato in Montanari 1998, p. 370. 29 Houel 1787, voI. I V, p.11 O as quoted by Fre ller 18 Ibidem. 1996, p. 283. 19 Cfr. Di Gioia 2002, pp. 165- 18 1. 20 Cfr. Montagu 1985, II , p. 342. j ennifel- Mon tagu ritiene che questi oggetti fossero meno rari di quel che si potrebbe pensa re, e mi ricorda, tra Il Matrimonio mistico e La visione della gli altri esemplari analoghi , l' Esta5i della Mad Rose di Santa Rosa da Lirna : Due dalena algardiana con il fondo di lapislazzulo, sempre a Madrid (cfr. ivi, p. 365) e la supe rba Rilievi Di CaB all e Descalzas Reales Agonia nell'orto degLi ULivi di Giovanni Giardini Di Madrid (dì-. Montagu 1996, p. 129). 2 1 Cfr. Monta nari 1997, pp. 187-264 (24 1). Per Con la sua consueta generosiLà , j ennife r Mon il coinvolgime nto di Baldi ne ll 'iconografi a di tagu mi inviò ne ll 'estate del 1998 le fotogra fi e Sa nta Rosa vedi M. G. Be rna rdini 1997, pp. di questi due rilie vi , che le parevano (a ragione) 2 13-222, e la bibliogra fi a lì citata. in qualche relazione con un'opera, ri conduci 22 Cfi-., per tutto questo, Montana ri 1997, e Mon bile proprio a CaB, che la mia tesi di dottorato tanari 1998, p. 370. (de ll a quale e lla era correlatrice) documentava ne ll a collezione di Cri stina di Svezia. A darne per prima noti zia per iscritto è stata (sempre Cafà's conclusion su segnalazione di Montagu) Di Gioia 2002, pp. 180-18 1. È naturalmente con l'a mi chevole Pal-is, Bibl. Nat. , Ed. 35a, l, pp. 122-23; 76 x consenso di queste due studiose - le ringrazio 59.7 cms. On the banderole below St. Thomas: viva mente-, che pubblico le opere in questione. Hocque LEO N E, hoc et RA DIO SO L fuLget Sono grato a j ennifer Montagu a nche per ave r AQVINAS . To the left of the statue's head: Ab voluto leggere questo saggio, migliorandolo con ut-roque RADIO. On the tablet below St. T homas : consigli e critiche. E'II1.inentissùno et Reverendissimo P'rinciPi S.R.E. 2 Oltre alle gravi cadute del materiale dello sfon Cm dinaLi LA VRENTIO RA GG IO . RADIVM tui do, e a ll a probabile perdita di qualche elemento favol'is, Eminentissime, omt sibi mew MEMNON. fi gurativo - di cui si fa cenno più oltre nel test.o Sub A QUI N ATE SOL E aLiql1antuLmn vocem didicit -, una buona parte dei perni che fi ssa no le parti inflecler-e, /JTopaLam non al1det, nisi luo f innetur metalli che sembra troppo visibile e invadente IJTaesidio. Si benigno has T'H ES ES Lwnine aslJexern, per essere ori ginale. in illam spem animabis, ellua1/! veLi psae STAT VA E 3 Secondo quanto comunicato d a Ana Garcia Loquenlwf benignilatem. Vive diu, et Ch-risliano Orbi, Sa nz, conservatrice del Monasterio de las Des libique, el VaLe. Eminentissimae et Reverendissimae calzas Reales. D. T. Humillùnw el Divinctw Ser[vus] lo[annes] 4 Cfr. Schenone 1992, I I, pp. 679-699. Fmnc[iseus] Rola. On the statue base: CON 5 Uscito a Roma nel 1664. CLVSIO . Quicquid docel D. T/wmas in Logica, Uni 6 Così nell'indirizzo iniziale, con pagine no n versa PhiLosophia natumli, et MelCl'physica vemm est. numerate. Dis/J11labitur /J11 bLice in Conventu S. Mmiae sU/Jer 7 Leoni 1665, pp. 54-55. MINER VA M a l o. Fmncisco Roti Cmmonen. m b 8 Una possibilità avvalorata da lle derivazioni di assist. h. Antony Franc. Fracassi Ord. Pred. Romae cui parle re mo più sotto. anno 1663 Men. Martij. At the lower edge ofthe 9 Leoni 1665, pp. 199-200. fi cti ve broad sheet: lo. Gùm'din Pm'isinus SeuL/J. ; IO Cfr. nota 3. in the lowe r left corner: MeLchior Cafa Meliten. II II documento (pubblicato da Golzio 1939, p. In. et DeLin.; in the lower right corner: I. Couvay 302) attesta che l'Artusi ve nne pagato per "la Parisinw seuL/J. 251 T he print was first published by j ennifer 13 lbid.; Gonzalez de Acuna 1670, pp. 102-3. T he re- Montagu (Montagu 1984) and her thorough decoration ofulechapel wascompleted between and in sightful analys is is the pointofdeparture 1668, the year of Rose's beatifica tion, and 167 1, for the present essay. See also Meyer 1990, pp. me yea r ofher canonization; the altarpiece and 11 0-11. omer paintings are by Lazzaro Baldi. 2 Born in 1628, ten yea rs before Melchiorre, 14 For the defe nse in Seicento Rome, see Ri ce Giu seppe Cara entered me Dominican order 1998; 1999; 2004. and was ordained priest in 1652, at the age of 15 See note I above. twenty- four. He was assigned to the Dominica n 16 The position o r the signatures wou ld seem monastery in Rabat, Ma lta, in 1656, but in 1674 to im ply that Girardin engraved the inner he requested and was granted permiss ion to broadsheet and Couvay the outer one. Since the transfer his a ffi li ation to the monastery of S. print is pulled from two copper plates, with the Maria la Grande in Catania, where he may have seam horizo nta ll y bisecting both the real and been resident since 1665. He seems to have th e fi ctive broadsheets , the engravers could been active primaril y as a teacher within the have worked contemporaneous ly, one on the monastic sc hools. There is no evidence that he upper half, the other on the lower half, sw itch- traveled to Rome, but even if he did not he or in g plates halfway through the process oSpeed hi s superiors may we ll have written to their Ro- was presumably an iss ue, and this arrangement man brethren to recommend Melchiorre. For would have a ll o wed them to complete the Giuseppe's ca reer, see Forte 1977, pp. 3 16- 17. broadsheet in halfthe time it would have taken a Additional information was kindly provided to single engraver. Another possib ili ty, suggested me by Father j ohn Azzopardi. by Montagu (1984, pp. 50-51), is that Girardin 3 Montagu 1984, pp. 52-54. did most of the work, while Couvay engraved 4 On Rota, see Ciampini 169 1, pp. xlvii -x lviii ; only the landscape, presumably after the rest Crescimbeni 1720, II, pp. 11 6-2 1; Arisi 1741, was completed. 1\1 , pp. 146-48. 17 I nventors ofthesis prints often used the imagery 5 The Coll ege of S. Tommaso was established ofthe co nstellations to allude to the dedica tee's for the education of Dominica n fr iars; the very heraldry. Cafà's in vention is particularl y dose to fragmentary records ofthe college contain no the 1653 thesis broadsheet ofGiova nni Calvo, evidence that lay students were ever admitted design ed by Alessandro Algardi and engraved there. See, for example, in the archives at S. by Francois de Poi ll y, which features a similar Maria sopra Mi nerva (A rchi vio Domenicano zodiacal band arching into me upper part of Minervitano), I I. 32, "Liber Coll egii Sancti the composition, ",ith o ne putto holding a Thomae de Aq uino Ordinis Praedicatorum cardinal's hat over Leo and another thrusting ... Romae in Conventu Sa nctae Mariae super a quince branch into the lion's paw, to fo rm the Minervam ad religionis Dominica nae decus & coat of arms of Cardinal Federigo Sforza (see incrementum erecti," which lists matricul ants Montagu 1984, p. 59, n. 7; Montagu 1985, I, p. for the period 1603-1646. 180, and Il, fig. 180; Lothe 1994, pp. 208-09). 6 Rota joined me Accademia degli Arcadi in 169 1, T he presence of a river god in the lower left nine months after it was founded. corner or both compositions further supports 7 Crescimbeni 1720, II, pp. 120. the idea that Cara was fam iliar with Algardi's 8 H is tombstone, which ca n sti li be seen in the work, as does the fa ct that both broadsheets church, reads as fo ll ows: D.O.M .! 10ANNES feature Egyptian themes. Montagu points out FRANCISCVSI E MARC HION. DE ROTA that Raggi was born on 15 july 16 15, under me CREMONEN.! VTR. SIG. REFER. ABB R. sign of Leo (Montagu 1984, p. 59, n. 4). PARCoMAIOR DEC.! DOCTRINA MORI BVS 18 Stra bo, Geogmphia 17.1 ,46; Pliny, Natumlis PI ETATE/ OMNIBVS CA RV SI AMICORUM !tistoria 36.58; Tacitus, Annales 2.61. AMANTISSIMVSI ERGA PAVPERES MVN 1- 19 See Oechsli n 2002, pp. 7-47. FICENTISS IMVSI ASTRORVM CONTEM- 20 The print is discussed in more detail in Rice PLATIONE CLARVSI HVIVS ECCLESIAE 1999, pp. 160-63. PRIMVS CUSTOSI AD AETH EREA CON- 21 Savo de' Conti Marsciano was "president" of VOLAV IT I DI E XXIIl MARTIl AN. SAL.I the Accademia degli Intrecciati, an elite student MDCCV II AETATlS SUAE ANN. LX II I. See association based at the Sapienza, and the print, Forcella 1874, V, p. 356; Le laPidi di San Cado which features the emblem and motto of the al Corso, 2002, pp. 88-89. academy, was reused multiple times by su bse- 9 Bernstock 1980; Gian Lorenzo Bernini: 7·egista del quent holders of the office. barocco, 1999, pp. 349-50. 22 Varriano 1985-86, pp. 54-55; L'Ariccia del Ber- lO Taurisano 1958. nini, 1998, pp. 102-106; Gian Lorenzo Bernini: II After hi s personal theologian and confessor, mgista del barocco, 1999, pp. 4 14- 15. the Dominican friar Antonio Santacroce, was 23 Montagu 1984, p. 59, n. 4. elevated to the cardinalate, Raggi retained 24 Sadly, although paper is indeed a resilient other Dominicans-Fra Ambrogio Viola, Fra medium, si lk is not. It tends to react with ink Giovanni Battista Lanci-to fi li these roles. See and crumble. No copies on silk ofany ofthese AGO P, XIV. 17 bis, p. 47; Fontana 1670, p. 367; three broadsheets have survived. Fontana, 1675, p. 655. 12 Gigli 1994, Il, p. 577. The confraternity was founded by the Spanish Dominican Fra Diego Sulle cere di Melchiorre Cara a Malta di Vittoria "per isradicare [. .. ] l'esecrabile abuso dell e bestemmie, e dei spergiuri." See Piazza Il bassorilievo in coll ezio ne privata è oggi 1698, part I, pp. 496-98. montato all'interno di una cornice a sportello. 252