Details of Sculptor

Surname

Cavaceppi

Alternative Surname

First Name

Bartolomeo

Initial of Surname

C

Year of Birth/Baptism

1716

Flourished

Year of Death

1799

Biographical Details

He was a carver and restorer of antiquities, much employed in restoration work in the papal and aristocratic collections of Rome. His restored marbles found their way into the collections of Catherine the Great of Russia and Gustavus III of Sweden.
In the 1750s Cavaceppi requested permission from the Papal authorities to export antique statues to England, dealing directly with Thomas Anson of Shugborough and the antiquarian, Lyde Browne. His introduction to these British patrons was probably facilitated through contacts with the painter, Gavin Hamilton, and the dealer, Thomas Jenkins, both of whom conducted a flourishing trade in antiquities. Among the many British clients for whom he supplied restored statues and copies were the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, who acquired a figure of Antinous in 1749-50 and Henry Blundell, for whom Cavaceppi carved a reduced version of Trajan’s Column in the 1770s, supplied with the wooden model painted en grisaille. In 1768 Cavaceppi published a large illustrated volume of the antique statues that had been repaired at his studio. Of the sixty plates, thirty-four reproduced works owned by Englishmen.
Joseph Nollekens joined Cavaceppi’s studio before 1764 and there learnt many dubious restoration techniques. In 1765 Nollekens acquired the earliest known casts of the Furietti Centaurs from Cavaceppi, which he sold to Anson.
Literary References: Honour 1959, 242; Pevsner, Yorks: W R, 1967, 650; Haskell and Penny 1981, 47, 68, 178; Bowron and Rishel 2000, 238; Ingamells 1997, 21, 141Coltman 2004, 41; Bramley 2007, 75-6; JKB 2009, 41; Coltman 2009, passim