Thursday, April 6, 2017

Paper Museum

Pietro Anichini
Portrait of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657)
engraving
ca. 1630-45
British Museum

The finest librarian to appear in the recent history of Europe was active (very active) in Rome  during the early and middle years of the 17th century  and his name was Cassiano dal Pozzo. As late as 1993 the British Museum was able to organize the first-ever exhibition devoted to the life work of this wise and beneficent man  samplings from the enormous Paper Museum he commissioned and compiled in Rome during the 45 years between his arrival there in 1612 and his death there in 1657.

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Etruscan Antifex representing Juno Sospita
gouache (attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi)
ca. 1621-46
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Etruscan Antifex representing Juno Sospita
gouache (attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi)
ca. 1621-46
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
 Italic bronze helmet
wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Cinerary Vase or Lidded Bowl in green porphyry
wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
 Greek Bell Krater from South Italy 
wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Herm with Satyr and Zeus Ammon
separated by palm-leaf column

wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Draped bust of 'Sappho' type
wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Enriched circular Statue-base or Altar
wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
The Barberini Clock
(bronze calendar clock, possibly ancient)

wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Roman bronze steelyard measure called 'statera'
gouache (attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi)
before 1648
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
The Barberini Roma
(draped statue with cult objects)

gouache
first half of the 17th century
British Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Portrait of Pope Urban VIII Barberini
engraving by Claude Mellan
1624
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano's ambitions (and his extravagant success in fulfilling them) were directly tied to his position at the court of the Barberini during their period of Roman ascendancy following the election of Maffeo Barberini as Pope Urban VIII in 1624. The dominant papel nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), was Cassiano's immediate patron and facilitator. As the Cardinal's librarian, Cassiano placed himself in a benignly dominating position over the cultural and intellectual life of the city. His apparent ambition was to rescue, preserve, record and understand every perceptible trace of both the vast Roman past and the living phenomenal world. Among his friends and correspondents was Galileo, whose famously disgraceful persecution at the hands the Church was orchestrated by Cassiano's patrons, the Barberini themselves. But that is another story.

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Relief fragment - Maenad with Thyrsos
wash drawing
first half of the 17th century
British Museum