Lot Essay
Giovanni Volpato (1735-1803). Notable Italian engraver working in Rome. His circle of friends included the antiquarian Gavin Hamilton, the painter Angelica Kauffman and sculptor Antonio Canova, the latter executing Volpato's funerary stele in the Portico of the Basilica of the Santissimi Apostoli.
In 1758 Pope Pius VI favoured him with the exclusive right to open a porcelain factory at via Pudenziana, Rome. The factory produced high quality and very precise biscuit copies of Antique sculpture, many of which, including one example of the present model, are in the Museo Capitolino, Rome. Another known model forms part of the collection in the Museo Capo di Monte, Naples.
The Faun appears in Volpato's catalogue at a price of six zecchini. Volpato established a second factory just prior to his death at Civita Castellana, which was managed by his grandson Angelo. The concern was finally sold on in 1857 to Guiseppe Trocchi.
The original sculpture was discovered in Rome c.1824, remaining in the Barberini collection until 1814 when sold to Ludwig of Bavaria. In 1827, the Faun was displayed in a specially constructed room in the Munich Glyptothek where it remains today.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Haskell & Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1981. P.202-5, fig.56.
Hugh Honour, Statues after the Antique: Volpato's Roman Porcelain Factory, Apollo, 1967. P.371-3.
Exhibition Catalogue: Tate Gallery, Wilton, A & Bignamini I, Grand Tour, 1996. P.282-3.
In 1758 Pope Pius VI favoured him with the exclusive right to open a porcelain factory at via Pudenziana, Rome. The factory produced high quality and very precise biscuit copies of Antique sculpture, many of which, including one example of the present model, are in the Museo Capitolino, Rome. Another known model forms part of the collection in the Museo Capo di Monte, Naples.
The Faun appears in Volpato's catalogue at a price of six zecchini. Volpato established a second factory just prior to his death at Civita Castellana, which was managed by his grandson Angelo. The concern was finally sold on in 1857 to Guiseppe Trocchi.
The original sculpture was discovered in Rome c.1824, remaining in the Barberini collection until 1814 when sold to Ludwig of Bavaria. In 1827, the Faun was displayed in a specially constructed room in the Munich Glyptothek where it remains today.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Haskell & Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1981. P.202-5, fig.56.
Hugh Honour, Statues after the Antique: Volpato's Roman Porcelain Factory, Apollo, 1967. P.371-3.
Exhibition Catalogue: Tate Gallery, Wilton, A & Bignamini I, Grand Tour, 1996. P.282-3.