Details of Sculptor

Surname

Baratta

Alternative Surname

First Name

Giovanni di Isidoro

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1670

Flourished

Year of Death

1747

Biographical Details

Born in Carrara on 13 May 1670, he was one of a large family of sculptors. He studied in Florence under Giovanni Battista Foggini and probably learned to sculpt in bronze under Massimiliano Soldani, before spending four years in Rome, where he studied in the studio of Camillo Rusconi. In 1697 he returned to Florence, where he created his earliest known work, a relief of Tobias and the Angel for the church of Santo Spirito, 1698. Among his ever-growing circle of international patrons was Frederick IV of Denmark, but his major commissions were for religious institutions in Italy and includied a group, The freeing of the slaves for the high altar of San Ferdinando in Livorno, executed between about 1710 and 1717. He was employed by the royal court of Savoy from 1719 onwards and carved four colossal statues of doctors of the Church in the crossing of the chapel of Sant’ Uberto at Venaria Reale, considered to be his masterpiece. Baratta was ennobled by the Duke of Massa in 1731.
The sculptor secured one significant British commission. On 28 April 1710 the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor wrote to the Duke of Marlborough about statues for Blenheim Palace. He informed the Duke that ‘Baratta (whom Your Grace had directed last year to make two figures but could not being engaged by the King of Denmark) now offers to do something for Your Grace. He is in very great Esteem; and if Your Grace thinks fit to make a couple of figures for a trial, I believe it would be best to leave them to his own fancy’ (Whistler 1954, 236). Marlborough was in accord and Baratta carved two over-life-size figures representing Valour and Glory which he completed in 1715 (1, 2). The Duchess of Marlborough then decided that she did not want them and they were left, only partly paid for, in the sculptor’s studio for more than five years.
In 1721 James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, obtained the Duchess of Marlborough’s permission to purchase the rejected figures for Canons. Shortly after they arrived in Britain the Duchess was informed, erroneously, that one of them represented her recently deceased husband and so Chandos offered to give her both figures on the condition that they would be returned to his family upon her death. The offer was declined and the statues were installed at Canons, where they remained until the contents of the house were sold after the death of Chandos in 1744. Glory is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, but the location of the companion figure of Valour is unknown. It appears to have been at Ditton Park, Bucks in the 18th century and can probably be identified with a ‘beautiful statue of the Great Duke of Marlborough in the character of Mars attributed to Joseph Baratta’, which was sold at Christie’s on 25 April, 1804 for 180 guineas.
Meanwhile, in 1714 Thomas, Earl of Strafford, wrote to Christopher Crowe, the British Consul at Livorno, enquiring about buying marble for columns, pilasters and pedestals for the gallery at Wentworth Castle. Crowe wrote to ask whether the columns were to be completely finished in Italy and recommended Baratta for the commission, adding that he ‘did some very fine ones for the King of Denmark, and as he has a respect for the English, heele be very proud of being employed for your Lordshipp, not only in this but likewise for Statues if you had a need for any’ (BM Add MS 22, 221, fols 259, 261, 263, 265). Lord Strafford declined. Baratta died on 21 May 1747 and was buried in the church of S Andrea at Carrara.
Literary References: Honour 1958 (2), 222-3, 226 n13; Honour 1958 (3), 170-77; Gunnis 1968, 40; Grove 3, 1996, 198-9; Sicca and Yarrington 2000, 6-7
Archival References: GPC