Originally published in Castellani and Italian Archaeological Jewelry, edited by Susan Weber Soros and Stefanie Walker. Published for The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004. 103–128.
From the exhibition: The Castellani and Italian Archaeological Jewelry.
The use of carved hardstones, dating from antiquity to the
nineteenth century, in various types of jewels and other valuable objects is
one of the most striking features of the Castellani production. Yet their
design and manufacture during the seventy-odd years of the workshop’s activity
has not been analyzed in detail until now. In fact, superficial treatment of
the topic has sometimes led to unreliable datings of such works. This essay
represents a first attempt to document, with the support of archival material,
the production of jewels with engraved stones, whether ancient or of later
periods, and to examine the dealings the Castellani had with contemporary Roman
gem carvers.
The Castellani made use of ancient,
Renaissance, and modern intaglios and cameos for their jewels. Engraved stones
had been used in jewels of the ancient world and of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, all of which inspired the Castellani. In addition the creation of
cameos and intaglios had constituted one of the finest and most vital
expressions of Roman artistic craftsmanship in the eighteenth century,
celebrated and admired all over Europe. This craft enjoyed renewed success in
the nineteenth century, when the Castellani acquired ancient stones coming on
the market as well as new works of exclusively Roman “modern”
engravers. They encouraged and supported this new production as part of
their commitment to reinvigorate and promote Roman artistic traditions.
Court styles in Napoleonic France
breathed new life into the production of cameos and intaglios at the beginning
of the nineteenth century. As shown in portrait paintings, Empress Josephine
Bonaparte and the princesses of the French imperial house set a new fashion
trend by wearing splendid parures set with cameos and intaglios, in addition to
those with sparkling faceted stones. According to French goldsmith and
jewelry historian Eugène
Fontenay, “Cameos were much in style during the first Empire, they wore
them everywhere.” Unlike earlier work, however, cameos of the
nineteenth century, which were intended almost exclusively for jewelry, were
larger, more colorful, and often carved with subjects inspired by modern
sculpture. The Castellani’s choice of engraved gems, in particular of large
monochrome cameos, also responded to the demands for strong color to complement
their gold settings, especially from the 1850s onward.
In the 1830s the creation of
intaglios and cameos in hardstone was jeopardized by the increased production
of carved seashells, which were cheaper and easier to manufacture. To the
uneducated eye, shells could approximate the effect of hardstone cameos when
set into rich parures. Nonetheless, at least until the mid-1850s, some of the
most renowned Roman engravers, including successful medalists, remained active:
Giuseppe Girometti, Giuseppe Cerbara, Nicola Morelli, Luigi Pichler in Rome;
and Benedetto Pistrucci, with his heritage of Roman culture and tradition, in
London. Augusto Castellani summarized the situation:
Since ancient intaglios were much
sought after, at the beginning of this century not a few artists devoted
themselves to falsifying them: and that was the occasion that a bit later there
arose excellent Italian engravers, such as Calandrelli, Pistrucci, Girometti,
Picker [sic] and many others. These, with their works, emulated the
ancients and were artists whose names will live as long as the cameos which
they carved. But now the tradition they founded is already in decline, and if
the rich will not refrain from wanting hard[stone] cameos for miserable prices,
we can foresee that soon this [art] will cease completely.
This decline was exacerbated by the
general economic crisis associated with ongoing political and military events.
These culminated in the formation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861) and the
proclamation of Rome as its capital (1870). During this time the Castellani,
especially Fortunato Pio and Augusto, strove to maintain and improve the
engravers’ art, with much success. Unsettled times in Italy recur toward the
end of the century and are well documented in Augusto’s memoirs. Coupled with
changes in fashion, they eventually forced the closing of the Castellani
workshop by Augusto’s son, Alfredo.
Acquisitions and Trade of Intaglios and Cameos
The Castellani purchased a variety of worked stones—ancient
ones from excavations, others made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
and modern ones almost continuously, beginning about 1829, at a time when there
was less interest in this type of acquisition. There were peak moments when
they purchased in quantity, such as in 1839 when they acquired “from Sig.
Raffaele Patini two hundred carved stones set in gold.” They sometimes
even seemed intent on raking in everything on the market. There are not only
single purchases and small groups, but also entire collections of cameos and
engraved stones, two of which are listed in the Castellani financial records
for April 1859 (without provenance). After 1860 Alessandro frenetically
acquired jewels and cameos, many of which he handed over to his brother Augusto
for the shop, while others went back on the market.
There was also an element of
competition to these purchases. Count Michael Tyskiewicz, a major figure in the
European antiquarian market in the second half of the century, had settled in
Rome in 1865. In his memoirs, published years later, in 1896, he wrote
tellingly of the antiquities trade in Rome and Alessandro Castellani’s
involvement in it, although his text must be taken with a grain of salt. He
described his secret acquisition, through the dealer Francesco Martinetti, of
the historic gem collection of the Boncompagni Ludovisi, princes of Piombino,
noting the furtive circumstances and precautions he took to keep this from
Alessandro. According to Tyskiewicz, “to the day of his death Castellani
knew nothing about the sale of the collection of which I have been speaking,
and I, on my part, took good care to say nothing about it, still less to show
it to him, as I had made up my mind not to part with the gems.”
Fortunato Pio acquired and sent
batches of engraved stones to other jewelers and merchants in Italy and beyond;
at times he ordered stones for resale to be made by carvers. Two such shipments
are particularly significant; the first was in 1835. On April 14 Fortunato Pio
corresponded with a “Mons. F. Bautte” in Florence, with whom he had
had many business dealings. He wrote: “concerning cameos there are none
with relief engraving. There is however a group of those engraved as intaglios,
being worked on at this moment, and next Saturday I will dispatch the samples.” Four days later, on April
18, he confirmed: “I send 7 cameos in onyx in relief which cost 10 paoli a
piece, and sixteen carved onyxes and they cost 80 baj[occhi] each. You will see
that they are very well made. If you wish to have them in quantity you have
only to command me and you will be served immediately.” Fortunato
Pio’s orders to engravers were sometimes for stock items, not necessarily for
specific commissions.
The second shipment occurred three
years later, in 1838, when Fortunato Pio acquired an important group of cameos
for Alfred Megassier of Paris. These were carefully packed in a chest and sent
to France on the evening of October 27 “sur la corniche à Marseille” (on the coast
road to Marseille), care of one Louis Bozoimer, together with other pieces
already in Castellani’s possession. The shipment consisted of a
considerable number of items. Many of them were by known engravers and were
carefully listed with the names of the makers and an indication of the subject.
These included pieces by the gem-carver Francesco Frediani: two sets composed
of nine cameos each in hardstone, other cameos depicting the head of Jupiter,
the figure of a faun, the head of Apollo, the bust of Lucius Verus, the head of
Alexander, a “very large” head of Augustus, an “oversized”
head of Hera, the head of Pindar, head of Ceres, head of Psyche, and head of
Canova’s Perseus; another jewel set with twenty cameos and others depicting a
Muse, a bacchante, Augustus crowned with rose laurel, the head of Diomedes, and
the head of Marcus Agrippa. There were also cameos by Antonio Vergé depicting a bacchante, Night,
Flora, and Jupiter. In addition there was “an envelope with ten cameos
representing Apollo and the nine Muses by Pistrucci,” as well as four
cameos “which are the property of the Castellani” (among them a cameo
by Giovanni Pichler) and “24 separate cameos of seashell of various sizes
acquired from Sig. Giovanni Dies.” Of these, two names stand out:
Giovanni Pichler, the greatest engraver of the eighteenth century, and
Benedetto Pistrucci, another well-known engraver. The other names are
rather obscure: Dies furnished cameos to Castellani on at least three other occasions,
and Vergé supplied Fortunato
Pio with a portrait of the newly elected Pope Pius IX in 1847. Another
important consignment, which included a remarkable number of coral cameos, was
recorded in 1840 for a “Sig. Bonly Dini of Paris,” who then owed Castellani
a considerable sum for two large groups of cameos and engraved stones.
Ancient and Modern Scarabs
The use of ancient stones from
excavations is an essential characteristic of Etruscan-revival jewels.
Necklaces in particular were made with scarabs, mostly in carnelian (but also
in onyx), many of which were of the “a globolo” type dating to
the third to second centuries B.C., although there are also even older scarabs
from the sixth century B.C. Scarabs were regularly acquired in great quantity
on the antiquities market from quality merchants who also traded in engraved
stones. ln 1842 Fortunato Pio purchased ancient scarabs from Pietro Mari; in
1847 he acquired forty from Francesco Depoletti for 40 scudi and twenty-two
from Gregorio Diotallevi; in 1851 he bought eighty-seven from Giuseppe
Baseggio, a “Roman merchant of proven reputation,” for 40 scudi.
In 1855-56 the acquisitions were numerous and frequent (at least four between
July and December of 1856), often consisting of many small groups. Single
examples were especially abundant in 1858-59, years in which, interestingly,
jewels with mosaic and scarabs clearly outnumbered those with cameos and
engraved stones.
After 1870, while the purchase of
cameos remained steady, as did specific commissions to engravers, acquisitions
of scarabs gradually declined. By this time they had become somewhat scarce on
the market. Augusto commented in his Discorso (1862):
Ancient Etruscan, Greek, and Roman
scarabs are at present very rare, and therefore their high price impelled the
moderns to counterfeit them. And they so perfected this trade that the most
experienced eye can barely discover the deception. It is not the stone, not the
polishing, not the engraving, but a certain sweet and soft appearance which
makes them recognizable as antiques; and then only by those who have studied
such kinds of work for long years, and because of trade or some other reason,
have seen and handled many of them.
The production of modern scarabs required by Castellani,
however, had not always been intended to deceive, but rather had been created
to complete series of ancient scarabs purchased on the antiquities market and
used in jewels such as necklaces and bracelets. For each of the celebrated
parures, which constituted the pride of the Castellani production, a minimum of
thirty scarabs was needed (twenty to twenty-five for the necklaces, up to
fifteen for a bracelet, and others for rings, earrings, and pins). Examples
include the necklace, fibula, and bracelet made in 1857 for “Madama
Story,” or the “parure of Etruscan scarabs in carnelian composed of
necklace, bracelet, earrings, and fibula” made in 1865. The firm thus
required a reasonable stock of scarabs of every type and dimension, ready to be
used as the occasion demanded. In one case, for example, the inventory for June
16, 1850, included, in addition to the scarabs already mounted as jewels:
“35 modern scarabs, 32 antique carnelian scarabs, 23 scarabs in antique
carnelian, 24 scarabs in antique carnelian, 52 mediocre scarabs, 4 large
scarabs, 82 ordinary scarabs, 5 large ordinary scarabs, 15 large modern
scarabs.”
The use of scarabs in jewelry was
not universally applauded. A conmentator on the International Exhibition of
1862 in London wrote in the Jewellers’, Goldsmiths, Silversmiths’, and
Watchmakers’ Monthly Magazine:
[T]he jewellers did their best to
rob the scarabaei of their repulsiveness; and if it cannot be said that the
scarabs added to the beauty of the bracelets and rings in which they were set,
it must be allowed by all who examine the reproductions of signor Castellani,
that the Etruscan jewellers, by the magnificence of their settings, managed to
make tolerable even the repulsive, ill-carved beetle stones, the material
emblems of a groveling heathen mystery.
After the great successes of the 1850s and 1860s, linked to
the affair surrounding the Campana collection, the production of jewels with
scarabs may not have been as rich and diverse, but even so it lasted for a long
time, particularly as simple scarab pins and earrings. In October 1888, for
example, Wilhelm II of Germany on a visit to Rome acquired “a bracelet
with four Etruscan scarabs, and two hairpins with the head of Juno for the
Empress.”
Ancient and Renaissance Cameos and Intaglios
Because of their scarcity, ancient cameos and intaglios of
very fine quality were not used as frequently as scarabs. The most prized
examples, those with highly original and symbolic depictions, were used singly
for brooches, pendants, rings, and buttons. Otherwise, the most readily
available ancient stones were the many little intaglios in hardstone–carnelian,
jasper, ameythst, crystal, nicola (a kind of onyx)—and glass pastes of
the Roman period, found in great quantity in the sands of the Tiber. They were
densely set in gold necklaces and bracelets including those of complex design
to obtain a pleasing multicolor effect. The stones were combined without regard
to their tiny representations, which were generally mythological and lent no
specific meaning for the jewel as a whole. This was in contrast to the
Castellani production of jewels with small, modern engraved gems imitating the
ancient ones, for which the gem engraver used the same type of stone and
followed a theme. Examples include garnets with tiny cupids and nicolos with
figures of deities, which were used in two important necklaces, or a pair of
bracelets set with intaglios with the signs of the zodiac carved in the
appropriate birthstone for each sign.
Castellani purchases of intaglios
and cameos from excavations were registered over the years, and the age of the
stone, when known, was always specified. This type of identification in the
record books is rare, however, suggesting a certain difficulty in dating the
artifact. As late as 1891 Augusto offered a client in Boston some carved
carnelians for rings, sending casts in sealing wax, but, in spite of the
experience which he had gained by then, he could not ascertain their
antiquity. The same thing occurred for stones of later periods, especially
cameos thought to be of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which seem to
have been more prized than those from excavations. The 1850 inventory listed:
“50 cameos of the XV century some of them very beautiful; 149 hardstone cameos
of the XV century some of them very beautiful.” There was also “a
parure of cameos XV century set in gold for duke Grazioli” as well as a
“garniture of cameos of the XVI century set [with] enamels and
jewels”. Although provenance is not indicated, it is likely that many
of these were owned by the aristocracy who, as is well documented by the
registers in the Castellani archive, brought family jewels to the Castellani
shop to be repaired, altered, remounted, or even exchanged for other works (see
chap. 3).
Modern Cameos and Intaglios by Roman Engravers
Modern Roman cameos and intaglios, however, rather than
ancient ones, truly defined the Castellani production, at times more strongly
than others. Augusto Castellani, especially in the second half of the century,
encouraged and supported the production of carved gems. By means of ongoing
commissions to the engravers, the Castellani were able to sideline the use of
seashells, but production in shell was still much in demand in the years
1833-38 (as the numerous cameos listed in the registers attest). Jewels
with cameos in turquoise, coral, “Naples lava,” “turquoise
[glass] paste,” and malachite are also mentioned, but from about 1857-58
onward the references to modest cameos in shell are extremely rare. This
was not the case with other gem carvers who used shell fairly routinely to
produce quick portraits of foreign visitors whose numbers increased and came to
include tourists from the United States. This production made the fortune of
many engravers such as Tommaso and Luigi Saulini, and Paolo and Luigi Neri.
Their studios were located in Via del Babuino, near the most prestigious hotels
in Rome, along the main route from the north, by which travelers entered the
city at Porta del Popolo. The Saulini became especially renowned for their
portraiture, first in hardstone but later almost exclusively in shell.
Although Castellani did not make extensive use of Saulini cameos, Alessandro is
known to have visited the Saulini workshop in 1860. A shell portrait of Ellen
Walters (née Harper), wife of William T. Walters, by one of the Saulini,
was set by Castellani in a simple gold frame. Another piece, a “cameo
taken from Saulini,” is registered in the Castellani daybook for 1856.
The Saulini may also have carved some of the “cameos in seashell”
after the celebrated marble reliefs, Day and Night, by Danish sculptor
Bertel Thorvaldsen, and after Raphael’s Madonna of the Chair, all of
which occasionally appear in the registers.
The Castellani gave special
commissions to other gem carvers. Some of these were well known and successful
on their own; others are obscure, their names lost in time. Their payments are
listed with the payments “to the pietraro,” an artisan who
prepared the stone for the engraver. The generic phrase “to the
engraver,” whose name is rarely given, raises the possibility that at
least in some cases the maker may have been a worker employed by the Castellani
as a metal engraver. “Engraver” could indicate someone who cut the
initials and coats of arms on silverware and carved designs into stamping tools
or seals. These could be in metal (for which the well-known name of the
Pasinati often recurred) or hardstone, as in the special case of gem carver
Antonio Odelli (see below). The hints that emerge from the Castellani
registers, while brief, are also precious for evaluating the economic worth of
the individual engravers who seem to have been paid, at least in some periods,
on a weekly basis, as was Giorgio Antonio Girardet. It is not yet clear if
some of them actually worked directly in the Castellani shop. Names of
engravers do not appear in the registers of workers (or at least they have not
yet been identified), but in February 1859 expenses for a “bench for engraving”
were recorded. Some, however, such as Odelli and the Sirletti brothers
(Giovanni, Pietro, and Gaetano), had their own studios in the immediate
vicinity of the Castellani premises in Via Poli and Piazza di Trevi.
The works expressly commissioned by
the Castellani are identifiable by the double C engraved on the background of
the obverse or on the reverse of the stone. It is not clear if this had always
been required or if they began to cut a maker’s mark at a specific time. The
conditions agreed upon for a commission are similarly unclear; for example, who
furnished the stone? The Castellani mark appears on a variety of cameos and
intaglios: cameos in the Twelve Caesars series used for bracelets; a sapphire
cameo with the head of Medusa; an intaglio in agate with the depiction of an
actor mounted in an Etruscan-style ring; a cameo with a horseman in battle,
copied from a stone in the famous Marlborough collection; cameos in three-layer
sardonyx, one with the bust of Constantine and another with the bust of an
empress, in identical gold mounts as brooches (perhaps executed as a pair); a
cameo in chalcedony with a full-face, laurel crowned bust of Julius Caesar; an
intaglio on chalcedony with a profile possibly of Emperor Augustus; and the
twenty-five little nicolos with figures of deities for a necklace and pair of
earrings.
Two notable cameos in sapphire also
display the Castellani mark. The first depicts a frontal seated female figure,
once interpreted as Cybele, but now possibly identified as a personification of
Italy, which appears several times in the registers as “sapphire
Italia.” The second cameo, showing a figure of Charity and mounted in
a very simple gold brooch, is the work of Giorgio Antonio Girardet. A replica
of this is also documented, slightly different in dimensions and form, marked
by the usual double C as well as the full signature of the engraver. This
unusual double identification is known only for a few works by Girardet. He
also signed a cameo in two layers of sardonyx with Venus and Cupid mounted in a
gold pin with small cabochon sapphires and cameos showing Jupiter and
Medusa.
Compared with the number of stones that passed through the
Castellani workshop and the number of engravers active in Rome in the nineteenth
century (in some periods at least eighty), very few of them are actually
documented by signatures on the stones or by records in the Castellani
registers. Those linked with certainty to Castellani jewels may be divided
roughly into two groups. In the first are known engravers who worked entirely
or partly before the time of the Castellani’s concentrated effort to promote
carved stones in their work. Castellani may not necessarily have commissioned
specific work from these carvers, but rather acquired gems by them over the
years for the prestige of the creators. The second group consisted of those
contemporary carvers, many of them still anonymous or little known, whose work
may not always have been of the highest quality but who were nonetheless specifically
commissioned by Castellani.
The earlier group includes very few
of the great carvers of the eighteenth century, and references to them in the
registers are scarce. “The famous Giovanni Pichler,” for instance, is
recorded only once, in 1839, for a cameo with the head of Julius Caesar.
Antonio Pazzaglia signed a large cameo in agate with Mars and Venus which was
among the jewels that came to Villa Giulia. Another eighteenth-century
engraver, the little known Bartolomeo Garavini, is also listed. Still
others in this first group were members of the prestigious Accademia di San
Luca, including Nicola Morelli, who was admitted together with Giuseppe Cerbara
and Giuseppe Girometti in 1812, Luigi Pichler, and Benedetto Pistrucci. Morelli
was famous for his elegant cameos with portraits of members of the Bonaparte
family. He is represented by a cameo with Hebe mounted in gold with
griffins and one with Napoleon mounted as a pin in a frame with laurel
leaves.
Engraver Antonio Berini left Rome
and successfully relocated in Milan in the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Castellani register for 1860 records a cameo by him with Hercules, mounted
with thirty-six diamond brilliants. Berini also signed an agate cameo with
a bust of Apollo, derived from the famous statue in the Belvedere Court of the
Vatican. Another piece, a rock crystal carved with the sea-born Venus, is
also signed and is typical of this kind of work. It was expertly mounted by
Castellani in a relatively simple pin that perfectly complements the stone.
Enamel in black and white has been combined with gold and a closed mount
containing a special black background to illuminate the image.
Giovanni Pichler’s younger
half-brother, Luigi, was one of the most talented engravers, much admired by
rulers and popes. He is suggested as the “Pickler” who is credited
(without a first name) with several intaglios in the Castellani registers: a
topaz mounted in a ring, a large carnelian with three heads mounted in a bracelet,
an onyx engraved with a depiction of a vase, an emerald mounted as a pin, and a
rock crystal with a head of Medusa, which was mentioned in the 1883
register. The Medusa rock crystal is probably the intaglio with a slightly
convex surface enclosed in a pin with a gold mounting of scrolls and with a
tear-shaped amethyst pendant, now at Villa Giulia. Pichler had a preference for
intaglio work, and this Medusa is among his finest. He also carved portraits of
contemporaries and subjects derived from classical mythology. His
international renown led to his appointment by Count Metternich in 1818 to
teach at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, which he did until 1850.
A cameo with Flora by Angelo
Antonio Amastini appears in the Castellani inventory of 1865, and another with
the same subject is listed as “Fibula cameo Flora” in the years 1894,
1896, 1897, and 1901-5; there is also a cameo with Arethusa mounted in a brooch
listed in 1904-5. The name “Mastini” (without a first name) also
appears in the registers, but may indicate another engraver not yet identified
with certainty and perhaps active at a later period. He is credited with
several cameos–one for a
“portable altar,” others with stork and snake, and with Napoleon
I.
Works of two of the greatest
engravers in hardstone and finest medalists of the first half of the nineteenth
century – Benedetto
Pistrucci and Giuseppe Girometti – are
represented in the Castellani production. Pistrucci, who moved permanently to
London in 1815 where he was appointed chief medalist at the Royal Mint in 1828,
engraved a cameo with Leda and the swan mounted in a simple pin and the series
of ten cameos depicting Apollo and the nine Muses, which were in the large
shipment previously mentioned, sent by Fortunato Pio to Megassier in France in
1838.
Girometti is more evident in the
Castellani production, his presence almost taken for granted, since he was the
most prominent engraver in Rome and had been honored with a funerary monument
in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. He and Giuseppe Cerbara were
jointly appointed Engraver of the Pontifical Mint in 1822. Only his portrait
cameo of George Washington is today firmly documented in a signed Castellani
jewel, but his name appears several times in the registers in connection
with other works. Cameos by Girometti were mounted with surrounds of
brilliants, a cameo with Cupid was inserted in a bulla or pendant (1882), a
“cameo jewel Girometti” with brilliants and little balls or drops
appears in the inventories for 1883-85, and a brooch with “Amore”
from 1889 until 1904. Giuseppe Cerbara is also found in a document in the
Castellani archive: “Gold Bulla, set with a topaz intaglio representing
the Roman Medusa: the intaglio is by signor Cerbara of Rome. In the possession
of count Tieskiewitz [sic].”
The Castellani both
commissioned work and bought readymade pieces from a variety of contemporary
gem carvers, not just from the top ranks, including Antonio Odelli, Giorgio
Antonio Girardet, Giovanni Dies and also the brothers Giovanni, Pietro, and
Gaetano Sirletti, Antonio Vergé, Francesco Frediani, Stefano and
Vincenzo Teoli, and Pietro and Gregorio De Santis. Even today most of
these engravers are practically unknown, but they gain greater visibility from
a review of documents in the Castellani archives. For example, on May 17, 1847,
an otherwise unknown Luigi Bochioli signed a receipt for payment, for a
double-sided cameo in blood-colored jasper. In this case nothing more has
been found as yet in the archives, but in other cases a great deal more comes
to light.
Antonio Odelli’s name recurs with
greatest frequency in the Castellani documents. He was one of the few engravers
active in Rome in 1841 to be included in Hawks Le Grice’s guide to the city’s
sculpture workshops published that year. His studio moved several times,
but by 1856 it was located in Via Rasella close to the early Castellani shop in
Via Poli (opened in 1854) and the firm’s later showrooms at Piazza di Trevi
(opened in 1869).
The archives reveal a close,
longtime relationship between Odelli and the Castellani-first with Fortunato
Pio, later with Augusto-enduring almost forty years. Beginning in the 1830s
Odelli was paid for engraving coats of arms and monograms both on hardstone and
metal. A “seal with a hardstone handle garnished with gold” with
a coat of arms engraved by Odelli is among the objects that appear in the
lawsuit Prince Filippo Andrea Doria Pamphilj filed against Fortunato Pio, in
which he contested the high cost of the jewels prepared for the prince’s wedding
to Mary Altea Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1839.
Odelli is also the creator of many
works in hardstone that remain difficult to identify because his signature is
rarely found on known pieces to date. In 1834 and 1835 he was commissioned
by Fortunato Pio to create two cameos in “black stone” with a
tortoise for Onorato Martucci of Naples. At the same time, as a trusted
engraver he was consulted about the execution and asked for an estimate for
engraving in agate a small statue about 8½ inches (22 cm) high for the same client. Owing to the
difficulty of the work for which the client wanted to pay very little,
Castellani gave the commission to the Roman engraver Gregorio De Santis, then
living in Florence, who had already made “twelve small busts representing
the portraits of the twelve Caesars” for Castellani. But when De Santis’s
cost estimate was also considered excessive, the execution of the work was
suspended.
Augusto Castellani singled out
Odelli for praise, noting the high quality of his work. He had hired Odelli to
copy an antique cameo in sapphire with the bust of Roman Emperor Vespasian
that, according to him, was discovered on the Via Appia. He wrote: “I had
it copied on a blue quartz by the outstanding Odelli, a skillful Roman cutter,
whose work it seemed to me turned out excellently, but the artist assured me
that quartz cut badly because the substance lacked homogeneity. I had the same
man cut two large blue corundums [sapphires], and on those the work came out stupendously
finished, because it resisted the tool better.”
Two of Odelli’s creations can be
identified with some certainty as a cordierite cameo with Vespasian and a light
blue chalcedony cameo, which was illustrated in the 1930 catalogue of items
sold in Rome from the estate of Alfredo Castellani; both also relate to some
notes in the registers from 1889. The sapphire, once thought to be the
actual excavated stone mentioned by Augusto, is more likely to have been copied
from a chalcedony cameo of the same subject in Florence in the grandducal
collection. This image had been widely circulated via printed engravings
and impressions and was already well known to hardstone engravers in the
eighteenth century. The other cameo design probably derived from the same
source.
Other work by Odelli listed in the
Castellani registers includes: an intaglio with the head of Mars for a seal
“for Sig. Rothschild” (1846), a “sacred cameo” mounted in a
brooch (1864), a cameo with Hercules in an armband (1864), and an unidentified
piece acquired in 1858 by Prince Lautberg. Among the extant pieces by
Odelli there is a cameo with a bust of Flora in emerald mounted in an enameled
gold pin with griffins and an emerald drop, and very likely a brooch with a
cameo depiction of the rape of Persephone which is in the 1904 inventory and
was probably the one sold at auction in Rome in 1930.
Giorgio Antonio Girardet also
appears several times in the Castellani registers. His work was characteristic
of the new direction Augusto took with this type of production in the second
half of the century. Girardet’s relationship with the Castellani workshop must
have begun through Odelli, for whom Girardet had initially worked. Girardet
sometimes worked on commission but also received a weekly payment from
Castellani. He marked his works with the double C, sometimes also signing them
with his name. This arrangement suggests a privileged relationship with the
firm. Although his name does not appear in the registers in relation to
objects, but only to payments, he was certainly responsible for a sapphire
intaglio commemorating the 1887 battle of Dogali, and cameos with Charity,
Jupiter, and Venus and Cupid. The bust of Queen Margherita in sardonyx, which
is attached to one of the famous aluminum letter openers made by Castellani,
was probably by Girardet. It is the same design as an exquisite bust in the
round that he sculpted in lapis lazuli, which was greatly admired by his
contemporaries and was purchased by the queen herself as a gift to her mother,
the Duchess of Genoa.
At the end of the century, changes
in taste and style led to a decline of the Castellani workshop. This adversely
affected Girardet, and in 1892 he left Rome for Rio de Janeiro, where his son
Augusto, who had abandoned gem carving, became a successful medalist. His
other son, Enrico, also a gem carver, stayed in Rome and maintained his
relationship with the Castellani studio, receiving payments for some stones in
1893 and 1895.
Stones and Subject Matter
By commissioning work directly from
the engravers, Augusto and later his son Alfredo maintained control over the
choice of stone and subject, rather than just accepting what the market bad to
offer. The Castellani stock of cameos (intaglios were rarer) was carved in
stones that they themselves had selected for quality and color or for other
unusual qualities, as in the rich, new imports from South America. During the
last period of the Castellani production semitransparent, essentially
monochromatic stones (sapphire, emerald, and topaz, but also chalcedony and
amethyst), almost completely replaced the “multicolored” sardonyxes,
onyxes, and oriental agates that characterized the production of Pistrucci,
Girometti, and other gem carvers. The importance the Castellani attached to
color and quality of stones is illustrated by Augusto’s comments on individual
minerals. In one case, when Princess Basiantini sent him four uncut
sapphires, he refused to have them engraved, because the stones were “extremely
pale and the work would make no effect.” The method of acquisition,
the origin of the stones, and the costs associated with them comprise a topic
worth further study.
The subjects of the cameos and
intaglios chosen by the Castellani to be mounted in their goldsmiths’ creations
belong with few exceptions to the repertoire generally adopted by
nineteenth-century gem carvers. They continued to use eighteenth-century
sources, primarily engravings of mythological subjects, ancient monuments, and
portraits of illustrious men of the past and portraits of contemporary figures,
all of which bad been much in demand by visitors on the Grand Tour. New
nineteenth-century sources included works of the great “modern”
sculptors, especially Antonio Canova, Bertel Thorvaldsen, and others who worked
in their style, including John Gibson, Emil Wolff, Raimondo Trentanove, and
Luigi Bienaimé. The
subjects came primarily from mythology and the ancient world, with a preference
for Jupiter, Venus, Bacchus and the bacchantes, Flora, and Medusa, for
theatrical masks, and for such popular images as the Cupid Seller, after a
painting by Joseph-Marie Vien from 1763, to name a few.
The participation of the
Castellani, Augusto in particular, in the political and cultural life of Rome
also influenced the shop’s production of cameos. In the years after the
unification of Italy, tricolor brooches, “Stars of Italy,” and
sapphire cameos representing Italy were made. One cameo, known as “Seated
Rome,” could be the sapphire previously identified as Cybele at the center
of a sparkling mount in gold and brilliants. The design is of Renaissance
derivation and corresponds to the summary description in the register
(including the number of diamonds employed) and to a design sketch dated 1898.
Another piece with a political subject is more unusual, perhaps unique in the
repertory. This sapphire intaglio brooch depicts the massacre at Dogali in
Africa, at which five hundred Italian soldiers were killed. It was engraved by
Girardet between 1887 and 1888, immediately after the tragedy occurred, and
represents an anomaly, not only within the Castellani production, but also
among that of the engraver. Its grim subject matter undoubtedly accounts
for the jewel remaining in the shop for many years before passing into private
bands, if only for a brief time, before arriving in a public museum in
1917. By then its original significance had largely faded from public
consciousness.
Other cameos represented personages
of the past who could be linked with political and cultural events, such as the
celebrations for the sixth centenary of the birth of Dante in 1865. Dante was
also closely linked with the Risorgimento, however, and a micromosaic portrait
had been offered in the preceding years and in hardstones until the end of the
century. The portraits of Illustrious Men of Italy, such as Petrarch,
Michelangelo, Tasso, Ariosto, and Boccaccio, appear in cameos or metal, to be
used in series for bracelets, or individually for brooches, rings, and
buttons. Prototypes of the portraits were codified by the splendid
productions of Giovanni Antonio Santarelli, Giuseppe Girometti, and Giuseppe
Cerbara for the collection of the duke of Blacas. Castellani also
commissioned cameos with portraits of those who personified liberal ideals such
as Friedrich Schiller (in a rigid bracelet) and George Washington. Another
symbol of freedom and the struggle to achieve it was the biblical David. The
head of David, derived from Bernini’s well-known statue, appears as a
chalcedony cameo mounted in a brooch.
The Twelve Caesars series depicting
Roman emperors, mounted in bracelets, was probably created in the celebratory
climate of the century. The great political and military figures of ancient
Roman history appeared frequently, especially Julius Caesar and Augustus,
together and separately, and Horatio at the Bridge. There is even a record of a
brooch mounted with three portraits of Julius Caesar and two of Alexander.
Other cameos had portraits of eighteenth-
and nineteenth-century personalities, such as Frederick the Great of Prussia,
Voltaire, Maria Theresa of Austria, and Napoleon I and his family. Some of
these were the work of such excellent gem carvers as Amastini and Nicola
Morelli, a specialist in portraits of the French imperial family. These were
certainly acquired by the Castellani for their illustrious signatures.
Religious subjects formed another
category. Cameos with the portrait of Pope Pius IX were produced in great
numbers immediately after his election in June 1846. In January 1847 Castellani
offered a “snuffbox with a cameo portrait of the Pope” mounted in
brilliants, and in February the engraver Antonio Vergé signed a receipt for “a portrait of the Supreme Pontif
Pius IX.” Before 1854 portraits of this pope, both in hardstone or
shell, and in various dimensions, were mounted in an assort1nent of brooches,
from simple and inexpensive ones to the most costly. The 1850 inventory lists
four examples of a “pin with a cameo of Pius IX with letters in
enamel” and “four small portraits of Pius IX; Fibula Pius IX
hardstone cameo.” Other cameos depicted Pius VII, as a representative
of the popes of the past. Images of Christ and the Virgin, as well as such
holy figures as Saint Catherine of Siena, were engrave cl in hardstone to mount
in jewels that had a clear Christian meaning (like the Chi-Rho brooches).
In some examples a single cameo carried two images. There were also many
generic “Sacred Cameos.”
Mounts
The earliest cameos and intaglios
were mounted by Castellani according to traditional models, such as simply
surrounding them with brilliants. Later, they were inserted into many unusual
and original settings, some inspired by the ancient world and others, of increasing
complexity and sumptuousness, uniting elements from diverse stylistic periods.
For example, a jewel of the fifteenth century could be reinterpreted by adding
motifs from other sources. It was not necessary for the mount to
correspond in period or style to that of the engraving on the stone. There were
sometimes enormous discrepancies between cameos of pure classical tradition and
their mounts, which were combined into particularly complicated jewels.
The mount could be designed as a
function of the stone, as in the case of portraits of historical figures such
as Washington and Napoleon. These cameos were framed in simple gold, composed
of arches, ribbons, and leaves so as not to distract, but rather to focus the
attention on the image. In another simple treatment, the frame was enriched by
enamels or small unfaceted colored stones. Other settings emphasized the
artistic and technical skill of the engraver and the quality of the image, as
in some particularly important stones signed by great artists: the sea-born
Venus by Antonio Berini, for example, or the Medusa by Luigi Pichler. The
refined mounts for these great intaglios in rock crystal emphasize the
transparency of the stone. The color is only heightened by the gold, clark
enamels, or other colored stones; the design is never gaudy-the stone being the
most important element of the jewel. At other times, as in the most elaborate
necklaces, the stones are of the same importance as the setting or complement
it with a purely coloristic effect. The actual carving, however, may not always
be of the highest quality.
Excellent cameos were embedded at
the center of rich, elaborate settings, of sixteenth-century or baroque
inspiration, in which caryatids and griffins are found, and many multicolored
stones, enamels, and pearls were used. The subject matter of the sapphire
intaglio with the Massacre of Dogali seems almost inappropriate for an object
of adornment, a splendid Renaissance-style jewel, but the choice of such a
mount may have been a way to commemorate the heroism of an event that was a
national tragedy and had deeply moved Augusto Castellani. Sapphires were
often mounted in gold with brilliants, as pendants, and with other stones of
the same color. Emeralds and green stones were also often used in the 188os and
1890s, as is documented by a type of necklace replicated several times, in
which black enamel and pearls are used with the gold to emphasize the color of
the emerald. Along with cameos and intaglios of large dimensions, many smaller
stones of varying quality were used for every type of jewel. Small intaglios
were frequently employed for necklaces, earrings, tie-pins, bracelets, and
buttons, whose mounts- even the most modest ones-are signed with the Castellani
mark.
Clients for Cameo Jewels
Among the prestigious Castellani
clientele, there were undoubtedly many who appreciated jewels adorned with
cameos and intaglios. Their names are certain to be found in the archival
material, but this research, although enticing, goes beyond the scope of the
present essay. lnstead, a single example will stand for all. Members of the
royal house of Savoy, who were among the earliest and most celebrated Italian
clients of Castellani, showed a special affinity for cameos and intaglios.
As early as 1839 Fortunato Pio mounted
“two cameos for a brooch in gold” and “another cameo in
gold” for “Her Majesty the Queen of Sardinia,” Maria Theresa of
Tuscany, wife of King Carl Albert. Later, Umberto, crown prince of Piedmont,
and his wife Margherita, who signed the visitors’ book in 1871, frequently
commissioned the Castellani to produce objects to serve as official state
gifts. Jewels with carved stones, such as brooches with cameos in amethyst and
cat’s-eye, figure among their choices (1875, 1876). After 1878, the year
in which they became sovereigns of Italy following the death of Victor Emmanuel
II, their purchasing increased, especially on special anniversaries and to mark
official visits to Rome by princes and emperors. They also bought jewels for
their personal use. Beginning in the 1880s they focused on brooches with cameos
in sapphire, topaz, emerald, and hyacinthe inserted in especially precious
mounts sparkling with brilliants. For the tiny bust of Queen Margherita,
Castellani had Giorgio Antonio Girardet carve the queen’s portrait in miniature
in lapis lazuli and sardonyx. The extremely refined carving depicts the queen
wearing her celebrated pearls and an archaeological- style tiara in the form of
oak leaves. It is similar to that of gold leaves that was part of the group of
jewels created by Castellani and presented to the queen by the city of Rome as
a wedding gift in 1868. The quality of decoration and technique, and the
stature and range of patronage for cameos and intaglios, make this one of the
most compelling areas of Castellani jewelry.
© Bard Graduate Center, Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli.
