Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century

Reviews: 'This important collection of essays by an international team of scholars sheds new light on Rome’s emergence as an international center of sculptural production and consumption at the period spanning the end of the eighteenth-century through the defeat of Napoleon. Their research takes us inside the studios of artistic giants like Canova and Thorvaldsen as well as of a host of lesser-known figures who made Rome Europe’s sculpture capital par excellence. Together, the authors reveal the Eternal City as a cosmopolitan community of patrons and practitioners whose interactions led to technical breakthroughs, stylistic innovations, and lofty claims for the centrality of sculpture to modern life.'
Jeffrey Collins, Bard Graduate Center, USA

'Comprised of archivally rich analyses, this volume traces the myriad forces that ensured Rome's ascendance as the capital of European sculpture in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Essays chart an expanded topography of sculptural networks, drawing together luminaries like Canova, Cavaceppi, and Flaxman; the specialized tradesmen and assistants whose work was integral to the business of sculpture; and aesthetic interlocutors in the guise of patrons, scholars, and museum personnel. Bringing new life to the material and theoretical lives of sculpture, its makers and audiences, the volume significantly expands our appreciation of the interlinked histories of sculptural restoration, production, and consumption that underwrote a Roman dialectic of ancient and modern.'
Sarah Betzer, University of Virginia, USA

Francesca Lui, Roma antica e moderna nelle vedute di Jean Barbault (1761, 1763), in Architetti e Ingegneri a confronto, II. L'immagine di Roma fra Clemente XIII e Pio VII, a cura di Elisa Debenedetti, Roma, Bonsignori, 2007 ("Studi sul Settecento Romano", 23), pp. 95-112.

There are works attributed to G. P. Panini derived from Piranesi's The Campidoglio from the side, which prompts an investigation of how Panini in fact represented the Campidoglio compared to Piranesi. It looks at the sightlines they employed. Whereas Piranesi privileged the Trofei di Mario,  Panini wrestled with the relationship between the statues of Castor and Pollux and the buildings behind depending on the purpose of the image.

An overview of Armenian manuscript illumination from its paleo-Christian beginnings through the seventeenth century, abundantly illustrated with color plates.  The structure of the Gospel manuscript, the most copied and illuminated text, is explained in its various parts.  Style and iconography are presented as are important periods and regional schools.  Secular manuscripts are also noted, especially the illustrated version of the History of Alexander the Great, translated into Armenian from the pseudo-Callisthenes in the late fifth century.  The article is in Italian.

Il mercato dei quadri a Roma nel diciottesimo secolo: la domanda, l'offerta e la circolazione delle opera in un grande centro artistico europeo. By Paolo Coen. Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore. 2010. 2 vols. 876 p. 32 col. plates. €80 (hb). ISBN 978-88-222-5895-9.