Bust of Pope Benedict XIII (1649-1730)
- Object belonging
- One's own
- Category
- Bronze sculpture
- City
- Rome
- Location
- Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Specific location
- Room 17
- Inventory
- PV 09333
- Material and technique
- Bronze, natural yellowish patina, reddish-black lacquer
- Author
- attributed to Giacomo Antonio Giardini (1689 - 1739)
- Dimensions
- 40 x 33 x 15 cm.
- Origin
- Barsanti Collection (1934)
- Image copyright
- SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma
Short description
This bust of Benedict XIII, depicted wearing the papal mozzetta, stole and camauro, was thought for a long time to be by Pietro Bracci. Research on another small bronze bust, very similar in size and style, from a Roman private collection, has recently been published by González-Palacios. González-Palacios has also examined a large bronze portrait of Benedict XIII, held in the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini in Naples, which is signed on the back by Giacomo Antonio Giardini, the nephew of the jeweller Giovanni Giardini. Until now, it was considered to be Giardini’s only certain work, but it is plausible to suggest that the two small bronzes are also by the artist.
Pietro Cannata
Bibliography
L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 109 p. 150; F. Hermanin, Bracci. Benedetto XIII, in "Dedalo", X, 1929-1930, p. 262; F. Hermanin, Il Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 1948, p. 304; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 43; A. Santangelo, Il Settecento a Roma, exh. cat., Rome 1959, nos. 101-102, p. 68; P. Cannata in M. Fagiolo - M. L. Madonna, Roma 1300 - 1875. L'arte degli Anni Santi, exh. cat., Rome 1984-1985, Milan 1984, no. XI.9, p. 449; M. Lattanzi, I giochi della diplomazia: il tempo di Giovanni V fra Roma e Lisboa, in Giovanni V di Portogallo (1707-1750) e la cultura romana del suo tempo, a cura di S. Vasco Rocca - G. Borghini, Rome 1995, pp. 499-501; A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Arredi e ornamenti alla corte di Roma, Milan 2004, pp. 131-147.