Cod: 268264

Author : Angelo Gabriello Piò (1690-1769)

Period: Early 18th century

Angelo Gabriello Piò (1690-1769) San Carlo Borromeo Circa 1715-1720 Gilded terracotta, 31 x 21 cm Provenance: Nicolò II Caprara, Palazzo Caprara, Bologna, 1724; Giuseppina di Eugenio di Beauharnais (Duchess of Galliera from 1813 to 1837), Royal Palace of Bologna (formerly Caprara), 1823; Raffaele Luigi De Ferrari (Duke of Galliera from 1838 to 1876), Royal Palace of Bologna, 1837-1877. The artwork was probably placed on the antiquarian market between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Notes: original frame in carved and gilded wood; four labels on the back of the frame where the following indications are legible: a) Duke [of Galli]era, n. 15[…]; b) 1823, Palace of H[is] R[oyal] H[ighness] The Duchess of Galliera, Environment Mark n. […], Inventory Mark n. 1[…]63; c) Duchy of Galli[era], Inventory 1837, n. 1511; d) Royal Palace of Bologna, Apartment of 1st Rank, Room n. 163, n. 1041 The artwork is in a fair state of conservation: the gilding of the terracotta remains almost entirely; a crack crosses the upper half of the bas-relief transversely; the figure is missing a finger of one hand. The gilded wooden frame, with oak leaf motifs, is the original one and is in good condition, although it has a fracture in the upper part. As attested by the labels dated 1823 and 1837, placed on the back of the structure, the relief comes from the Royal Palace of Bologna, formerly Caprara, seat of the Prefecture since 1927. The building was built at the behest of Francesco di Ercole Caprara starting in 1561, and in 1806 it was sold by Carlo Montecuccoli Caprara, together with his collection, to Napoleon Bonaparte. The following year, the emperor donated the property to the newly appointed Princess Giuseppina di Beauharnais, and created for her, in 1813, the district of the Duchy of Galliera[1]. Following Giuseppina's marriage to Crown Prince Oscar Bernadotte of Sweden, celebrated in 1823, a small part of the Caprara collection was exported and introduced into the assets of the Swedish crown. In 1827, Marquis Raffaele Luigi De Ferrari acquired the property together with its collection, and obtained from the restored pontifical court the title of Duke of Galliera. A year after the death of De Ferrari, which occurred in 1876, the widow Maria Brignole Sale donated the Bolognese possessions to Antonio Maria Filippo Luigi d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier and Infante of Spain. During this passage "the movable heritage underwent drastic reductions, even before the transfer of Palazzo Caprara to the State, which took place in 1927"[2]; a transfer that did not prevent further dispersals[3]. Thanks to the studies conducted by Massimo Zancolich on the Caprara family archives, it has been possible to recover the oldest documentation relating to the history of this bas-relief[4]. In the 1823 inventory, the work is described as "a said [painting] of gilded terracotta representing a San Carlo within a frame as above [carved and gilded]" [5], placed in one of the bedrooms on the first floor of the palace, in the area at that time used by the Generals and separated from that of the Ladies. With the end of the Beauharnais possession in 1837, the work is cataloged with a new brand number[6]; and is again mentioned in the 1877 inventory, drawn up after the death of Duke Raffaele Luigi De Ferrari. At that time, the object is located in the "Grande Galleria" and is described as an "oval in terracotta and gilded wooden frame representing San Carlo"[7]. Beyond this date, the work is no longer traceable. The fact that the relief was already part of the Caprara collection acquired by the Napoleonic court in 1806 is confirmed by an inventory drawn up after the death of Nicolò II Caprara, between 1724 and 1726[8]. Thanks to the comparative readings of the family inventories of the 17th and 18th centuries carried out by Zancolich, it can be affirmed with relative certainty that the work was recorded for the first time on those dates: "in the corner room in the gallery towards San Salvatore […] an oval with a San Carlo of gilded terracotta, and gilded wooden frame"[9]. This would therefore be a purchase made within 1724, ascribable to one of the most prolific and widespread cycles of supply and demand in the Bologna art market of the Baroque era, that of terracotta images destined for private devotion[10]. In some ways comparable to the events of Neapolitan plastic arts, the case of Bologna seems to be characterized by the interest of the workshops in maintaining constant production of small-format works such as statuettes, nativity figures, bas-reliefs, not only of invention, but also dependent on the models of the most successful monumental works. Due to their material, these were works accessible to many, of little economic value (San Carlo is valued at only ten lire in 1724, and five lire in 1877) but sought after, appreciated, and systematically present even in aristocratic residences. Depending on their quality, size, subject, or destination, they could be found in representative environments, exhibited in exhibitions organized by families and parishes during religious festivities, placed in private chapels, or in bedrooms[11]. And this is the latter case of the Caprara relief: a headboard in which San Carlo is represented frontally, kneeling, in a posture of prayer, almost a mirror for the praying person who turns to it. The author of the work decides to animate the position of the figure by slightly tilting the face, moving the bust and arms from the fifth, letting a knee hidden by the folds of the rochet slide backwards, which, soft, intertwine with each other and lean illusionistically on the edge of oval. In reproducing the usual physiognomy of the saint, the artist tries to soften its roughness, slightly attenuating the volumes of the cheekbones and the hooked nose, insisting rather on the expressiveness of the gaze turned upwards, open and moved, marked by an eloquent extension of the eyebrow arch. Some knottiness emerges from the joined hands. The mozzetta and rochet, of palpable softness, are involved in a motion that visually translates the cardinal's spiritual ardor. The background surface, like that of the halo, are decorated through the use of a toothed stick. The aspects just described lead to placing the work in the context of early eighteenth-century Bolognese sculpture, when the solemnities of the work of Giuseppe Maria Mazza (1653-1741) are attenuated by his school on the basis of the vaguer and more decorative results sought by the master in small-format works. It is, in particular, the early career of his pupil Angelo Gabriello Piò (1690-1769) that coincides with the characteristics of the oval. The plausibility of this attribution is also suggested by the terminus ante quem obtainable from the oldest known inventory mention. The execution of this object, on the other hand, cannot be considered too early with respect to 1724, if only for formal reasons, and it was precisely around those years that Piò was revealing himself as one of the new protagonists of Emilian plastic art. According to the sources, Angelo had initially approached one of Mazza's first pupils, Andrea Ferreri (1673-1744)[12], who had absorbed the master's tender modeling and the inclination to seek a formal synthesis in compositions. His first operation that has come down to us is the cycle of bas-reliefs with Stories of Christ (signed and dated 1711 and 1712) executed for the Compagnia dei Battuti di San Giovanni in Persiceto (today at the local Museum of Sacred Art). Among the small-scale works, the second certain realization is the pair of Peasants from the Davìa-Bargellini Museum in Bologna, signed and dated 1721 (inv. 122). Between these two cornerstones, according to the sources, are a trip to Rome (1718) and larger-scale operations such as the statues of Casa Cavazza (circa 1719) and those for the church of Carmine in Medicina (1721). In the Persicetani reliefs, the faces of the figures still owe much to Mazza's physiognomies, round, with elongated eyes and small mouths. In San Carlo the features dry up and are slightly loaded, but not only for iconographic reasons: fleshy lips, exposed cheekbones, explained foreheads, large eyes, knotty hands, will be a recurring interest in the sculptor's career throughout the twenties and beyond, where admitted by the character depicted - remember above all the Peasants of 1721, but also King David and San Giuseppe of the Davìa-Bargellini (inv. 163; 4291). The structure and complex draperies of the figures in the Stories of Christ are simplified in San Carlo, approaching those of the Peasants of 1721. The full volumes of Persicetane terracottas, thin out, acquiring the typical shape of mature reliefs[13]. A less pictorial, more synthetic modeling takes over, with more nuanced and less vibrant passages of shadow, with the exception of the rochet which generates an intermittence of full and empty spaces sought to imitate the pleating of linen. A decorative taste persists that lingers on casual turnarounds in the edges of clothes, and on the idea of stirring the edges, moved by the air or by a movement, creating a curvilinear design. Further distinctive signs are the care for accidental details such as the half-open buttoning (in San Carlo, in the Peasants, in King David), or the purpose of using the perimeter of the reliefs as an integral part of the narrative and not as a limit of the story: since the first works, the figures and objects can cross it, or, lean against it - as in our case. In light of the stylistic arguments presented so far and the comparisons brought to attention, a dating between the Stories of Christ of 1711-1712 and the Peasants of 1721 seems plausible. The Caprara terracotta thus adds a new refined proof of the artist's experiments on this format, within this decade. Davide Lipari [1] For the history of the palace and collections, summarized in several points within this card, see G. Fabretti, The Palace of Bologna and the destinies of the collections, in The Dukes of Galliera, edited by G. Assereto et al., vol. II, Genoa 1991, pp. 905-922. [2] Ibid., p. 913. [3] M. Zancolich, Fragments of a dispersed collection: the Caprara picture gallery, in "Il Carrobbio", 29, 2003, p. 106. [4] See Ibid., pp. 97-110. [5] State Archives of Bologna (hereafter ASB), Duchy of Galliera, envelope 10, Inventory of the Furniture existing in the Buildings located in Bologna that form dowry and separate dowry, c. 135v. [6] "1511: A painting of gilded terracotta representing San Carlo within a frame as above [carved and gilded]" (ASB, Notarile, series 4/12, year 1837, deed of November 4, Inventory and estimate of all the paintings of reason of Their Royal Highnesses the Princes of Sweden and Norway existing in their Palace in Bologna, carried out on 26, 29 and 30 September 1837, cc. n.n.). [7] Transcription of 2002 kindly granted by Massimo Zancolich, taken from an original document that has not been possible to consult, now kept in the private archive of the Palazzo Orléans-Borbón of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. [8] Nicolò II Caprara dies on April 23, 1724. In one of the deeds drawn up in that year by the notary Angelo Michele Bonesi for the daughter of Nicolò, Maria Vitoria Caprara, represented by her attorney Pier Francesco Castelli, it is read that the latter has the obligation to "continue and perfect said Inventory, and to have a public deed follow it" (ASB, Notarile, series 5/6, book 1549, deed n. 48, Aditio Hereditatis et Inchoatio Inventarij Legatis bonae memoriae Domini Comitis et Senatoris Nicolai Caprara, cc. n.n.). The legal inventory is published by the same notary on January 8, 1726 (ASB, Notarile, series 5/6, book 1554). [9] ASB, Notarile, series 5/6, book 1554, Inventory of the Paintings found in the Inheritance of Signor Senatore Conte Nicolò Caprara estimated and evaluated by Signor Cesare Giuseppe Mazzoni Painter, cc. n.n. [10] See R. Grandi et al., Nativity Scenes and Terracottas, catalog of the exhibition in Bologna, Bologna 1991. [11] For an in-depth study on the production and use of terracottas in the Bolognese area in the Baroque age, see some fundamental contributions: G. Perini, Structure and function of art exhibitions in Bologna in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in "Accademia Clementina. Atti e memorie", 26, 1990, pp. 293-355; R. Grandi et al., op. cit.; O. Bonfait, Le collectionneur dans la cité: Alessandro Macchiavelli et le collectionnisme à Bologne au XVIIIe siècle, in Geografia del collezionismo. Italia e Francia tra il XVI e il XVIII secolo, proceedings of the study days (Rome, 19-21 September 1996), edited by O. Bonfait et al., Rome 2001, pp. 83-108; G. Adani et al., The charm of terracotta. Cesare Tiazzi: a sculptor between Cento and Bologna (1743-1809), catalog of the exhibition in Cento, Cinisello Balsamo 2011; S. Massari, Giuseppe Maria Mazza and the academy of Palazzo Fava: new documents, new works, in "Nuovi studi", 19, 2013, pp. 193-209. [12] Municipal Library of the Archiginnasio of Bologna, ms. B 130, c. 127; G. Zanotti, History of the Clementina Academy, II, Bologna 1739, p. 245. [13] See E. Riccòmini, Vaghezza e furore, 1977, catt. 22, 23, 41; S. Tumidei, in Nativity Scenes and Terracottas, cit., p. 33.