Details of Sculptor

Surname

Baruzzi

Alternative Surname

First Name

Cincinnato

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

-1878

Biographical Details

Baruzzi was a pupil of Canova and after his master’s death in October 1822 he completed the unfinished reclining figure of Dirce, commissioned from Canova by George IV for Carlton House. The 6th Duke of Devonshire visited Baruzzi’s studio in Rome on 19 December 1822 and noted in his diary that he was ‘enchanted with Lord Kinnaird’s Salmacis’ (3). Two days later he returned and ordered ‘an orginal group’ from the sculptor. When the Duke saw the full-sized model of Venus and Cupid after work on the marble had already begun, he did not like it (1). Baruzzi offered to make something else and by November 1824 he had modelled an alternative figure of Diana but the Duke eventually agreed to accept the Venus and Cupid, perhaps because he felt committed or because he feared that the Diana would be even less successful. When the group arrived at Chatsworth it was erected in the central niche of the orangery instead of being placed in the Sculpture Gallery.
Literary References: JKB 1972 (3), 326, 328, 331; Roberts 2002, 143 ( Dirce)