- Cassiano dal Pozzo
Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588 — 1657), [Cassianus Aputeo in his scholarly circles.] was an Italian scholar and patron of arts. The secretary of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, he was an
antiquary in the classicizing circle of Rome, and a long-term friend and patron ofNicolas Poussin , whom he supported from his earliest arrival in Rome: Poussin in a letter declared that he was "a disciple of the house and the museum of cavaliere dal Pozzo." [Quoted in Walter Friedlaender, "Nicolas Poussin: A New Approach" (New York: Abrams) 1964, p. 19.] A doctor with interests in the proto-science ofalchemy , a correspondent of major figures likeGalileo , a collector of books and master drawings, dal Pozzo was a node in the network of European scientific figures.Biography
Dal Pozzo was born in
Turin , to a noble family originating fromVercelli , the grandson of the first minister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.He was raised in
Florence and educated at theUniversity of Pisa . In 1612 he moved to Rome, where with deft diplomacy he moved among influential and cultivated patrons. After taking up a position as secretary in Cardinal Barberini’s household in 1623, Cassiano soon became a prominent figure in Rome’s intellectual life; both he and the Cardinal were members of theAccademia dei Lincei , the scientific society founded by principeFederico Cesi . Cassiano was soon joined in Rome by his younger brother Carlo Antonio (1606-89), who shared his artistic and scientific interests and played a significant role in augmenting the collection that Cassiano commenced about 1615 and came to call his "Museo Cartaceo" ("Paper Museum"). [Cassiano's heirs sold the "Museo" to the AlbaniPope Clement XI , who resold it to his connoisseur nephewCardinal Alessandro Albani ; in 1762 the major part was purchased for George III, a scientific amateur himself, who kept the collection atBuckingham Palace ; it is divided, according to its subject matter, amongWindsor Castle , theBritish Museum , theBritish Library , the botanical gardens atKew (mycological specimens) the library ofSir John Soane's Museum , while material not purchased for King George is at theInstitut de France in Paris (botanical drawings) and elsewhere. A publication in thirty-four volumes is in progress.] Aside from drawings of artists of the Quattrocento and the High renaissance, he commissioned from his “giovani ben intendenti del disegno” hundreds of drawings after the Antique and examples of curiosities of every kind. Cassiano had casts made of works of sculpture, such as the reliefs ofTrajan's Column , which Poussin seems to have drawn at leisure, rather than working from the original (Friedlaender 1964).Aside from his lasting friendship with Poussin, who shared his antiquarian interests and from whom Cassiano commissioned the series of seven "Sacraments" [They were painted in Paris; the last one arrived in Rome in 1642 [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/p/poussin/3/26sacram.html] ] and the illustrated manuscript of
Leonardo 's "Le Regole e Precetti della Pittura", Cassiano’s patronage extended to the French painter in RomeSimon Vouet and the classicizing sculptorAlessandro Algardi , toArtemisia Gentileschi ,Gian Lorenzo Bernini ,Pietro da Cortona , Caravaggio as well as lesser-known contemporary artists whom he kept busy with lesser commissions for his "Museo Cartaceo". His close connections with leading European scientists such asGalileo , with scholars and philosophers, kept him fully informed of the latest archaeological and scientific discoveries, all of which he attempted to provide a visual record in his "Museo". Cassiano also appears to have patronized the publication of manuscripts on painting byMatteo Zaccolini .Cassiano accumulated illustrations of Roman sculpture and antiquities, including drawings by and after
Pirro Ligorio , and—unusually—of early medieval works. In addition, he collected a whole range ofnatural history , geological samples andfossil s, botanical illustrations and drawings of microscope observations, in effect,wunderkammer of objects. As antiquarian, Cassiano applied a new systematic methodology: classical monuments were painstakingly measured, drawn and annotated, in a manner that would not become usual until the mid-eighteenth century. This massive accumulation he classified thematically, according to the testimony they represented of antique cult, customs, dress, and architecture. The "Museo" was never published—a herculean venture currently under way— but dal Pozzo generously made it available to scholars in Rome.After the death of Federico Cesi, it was left to Cassiano dal Pozzo and Francesco Stelluti to conserve the precious inheritance of scientific instruments, books and research. Rather than see Cesi's library dispersed, Cassiano purchased it, with part of Cesi's natural history cabinet, in December 1633 and housed it with his own collection at Sant'Andrea della Valle.His financial and intellectual support helped the Lincei achieve its most lasting monument, "Il Tesoro Messicano", which was brought to the printer between 1628 and 1651.
After the visit to Rome in 1636 of the English physician
George Ent , (later a Fellow of theRoyal Society ) a correspondence ensued, in letters of extraordinary interest. Cassiano sent Ent specimens ofpetrified wood and a tabletop made from fossil wood, which had come from the estates of Federico Cesi at Acquasparta; the specimens and the tabletop were shown to early meetings of the Royal Society and had a significant part in the developing debate on the origin offossil s. The correspondence also records exchanges of books between London and Rome; among medical matters there is news ofWilliam Harvey and his works. [A. Cook, "A Roman correspondence: George Ent and Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1637-55" in "Notes Rec R Soc Lond". 2005 Jan 22;59(1):5-23.]His contemporary biographer was Carlo Dati, whose laudatory oration "Delle lodi del Commendator Cassiano dal Pozzo" was printed in Florence, 1664. His portrait by Jan Van de Hoeck was included in the exhibition "Cassiano dal Pozzo. I segreti di un Collezionista", 2000.
Notes
References
* [http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pozzo/default.htm "The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo"] [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_518_161/ai_n14919299 Review of vol. VII]
* [http://www.lincei-celebrazioni.it/idal-pozzo.html Accademia dei Lincei: Protagonisti: Cassiano dal Pozzo]Further reading
*Francis Haskell, "Mecenati e pittori" (Florence) 1966.
*Ingo Herklotz, "Cassiano dal Pozzo und die Archaologie des 17. Jahrhunderts" in series Romische Forschungen der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 28 (Munich: Hirmer) 1999.
*"Cassiano dal Pozzo. I segreti di un Collezionista" (Galleria Borghese, Rome, 2000, etc) Travelling exhibition; catalogue by Lorenza Mochi and Francesco Solinas. [http://www.wayitalia.net/rooten/musei_1232.html Briefly described on-line]
*Walter Friedlaender , "Nicolas Poussin: A New Approach" (New York: Abrams) 1964.
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