DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI article:Mikocka-Rachubowa, Katarzyna: Rzeźbiarz rzymski Vincenzo Pacetti i Polacy
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49349#0286
276
Katarzyna Mikocka-Rachubowa
in white marble (currently in the Galleria Nazionale
d'Arte Antica in Rome's Palazzo Barberini, with a
replica housed in the so-called Palace on the Water
in Warsaw's Łazienki Park), as well as a bust in
white marble of the king (currently in the Łazienki
Palace), which Vincenzo Pacetti viewed in
Domenico Cardelli's studio in August 1786.
Ignacy Massalski, the bishop of Vilna, also had
contacts with Pacetti during his stay in Rome in 1790.
The artist visited him on a number of occasions.
During one such visit the bishop and Poniatowski,
who was also present, asked Pacetti to show them a
head of Apollo from what was almost certainly an
antique statue in the course of being restored. The
bishop also viewed sculptures in Pacetti's studio. In
1784 Massalski had the Roman sculptor Tommaso
Righi, who is also referred to in Pacetti's diary,
conveyed to Vilna (he died in Warsaw in 1802).
Stanislaus Kostka Potocki, the statesman, writer
and patron of the arts, who came to Rome in 1786,
visited Pacetti on a number of occasions to see the
antiquities found there, and in March of that year pur-
chased the sculpture of a seated Mercury (almost
certainly a restored antique), now belonging to the
Castle-Museum at Łańcut. In spring 1785 a statue
representing Hercules as a boy (almost certainly an
antiquity as well) was bought from Pacetti 'il conte
Ignazio Lazieborski Polacco' (Ignacy Kozie-
brodzki?). In 1800, however, Pacetti made an offer
to sell the sculpture of the Faun to prince Adam Jerzy
Czartoryski. In his diary, Pacetti also recalls in nu-
merous places the visits of Poles interested in pur-
chasing works of art from him, but whose names he
failed to record (e.g. 'un signore polacco', 'certi
signori polacchi'). In the autumn of 1788, following
the purchase of numerous objects of antiquity in the
Tivoli, seeking to attract customers among rich per-
sonalities from all over Europe, Pacetti wrote,
among others, to Bacciarelli, in order that he recom-
mend him to acquaintances who might be interested
in acquiring antique figures.
In Polish collections of the final quarter of the
18th and first decades of the 19th centuries a consid-
erable number of valuable sculptures were
purchased in Italy by wealthy Polish aristocrats and
landowners. Since the contemporaneous artistic
collections were subjected to diffusion or even
destruction as a result of the complicated political
situation resulting from the Partitions, such source
materials as the diary compiled by Vincenzo Pacetti
provide a valuable source for researchers attempting
to recreate the former state of such collections.
Translated by Peter Martyn
1. Pietro Labruzzi, Vincenzo Pacetti, ca. 1790.
Oil-on-canvas, Academio di San Lucca in Rome,
repr. after: Grand Tour. 11 fascino dellTtalia nel
XVIII secolo..., Milano 1997, p. 224
2. Phidias, Amazonian Mattei, ca. 430BC, Vatican
Museum, Rome
3. Seated Mercury, Castle-Museum in Łańcut,
IS PAN collections, phot. E. Kozłowska
Katarzyna Mikocka-Rachubowa
in white marble (currently in the Galleria Nazionale
d'Arte Antica in Rome's Palazzo Barberini, with a
replica housed in the so-called Palace on the Water
in Warsaw's Łazienki Park), as well as a bust in
white marble of the king (currently in the Łazienki
Palace), which Vincenzo Pacetti viewed in
Domenico Cardelli's studio in August 1786.
Ignacy Massalski, the bishop of Vilna, also had
contacts with Pacetti during his stay in Rome in 1790.
The artist visited him on a number of occasions.
During one such visit the bishop and Poniatowski,
who was also present, asked Pacetti to show them a
head of Apollo from what was almost certainly an
antique statue in the course of being restored. The
bishop also viewed sculptures in Pacetti's studio. In
1784 Massalski had the Roman sculptor Tommaso
Righi, who is also referred to in Pacetti's diary,
conveyed to Vilna (he died in Warsaw in 1802).
Stanislaus Kostka Potocki, the statesman, writer
and patron of the arts, who came to Rome in 1786,
visited Pacetti on a number of occasions to see the
antiquities found there, and in March of that year pur-
chased the sculpture of a seated Mercury (almost
certainly a restored antique), now belonging to the
Castle-Museum at Łańcut. In spring 1785 a statue
representing Hercules as a boy (almost certainly an
antiquity as well) was bought from Pacetti 'il conte
Ignazio Lazieborski Polacco' (Ignacy Kozie-
brodzki?). In 1800, however, Pacetti made an offer
to sell the sculpture of the Faun to prince Adam Jerzy
Czartoryski. In his diary, Pacetti also recalls in nu-
merous places the visits of Poles interested in pur-
chasing works of art from him, but whose names he
failed to record (e.g. 'un signore polacco', 'certi
signori polacchi'). In the autumn of 1788, following
the purchase of numerous objects of antiquity in the
Tivoli, seeking to attract customers among rich per-
sonalities from all over Europe, Pacetti wrote,
among others, to Bacciarelli, in order that he recom-
mend him to acquaintances who might be interested
in acquiring antique figures.
In Polish collections of the final quarter of the
18th and first decades of the 19th centuries a consid-
erable number of valuable sculptures were
purchased in Italy by wealthy Polish aristocrats and
landowners. Since the contemporaneous artistic
collections were subjected to diffusion or even
destruction as a result of the complicated political
situation resulting from the Partitions, such source
materials as the diary compiled by Vincenzo Pacetti
provide a valuable source for researchers attempting
to recreate the former state of such collections.
Translated by Peter Martyn
1. Pietro Labruzzi, Vincenzo Pacetti, ca. 1790.
Oil-on-canvas, Academio di San Lucca in Rome,
repr. after: Grand Tour. 11 fascino dellTtalia nel
XVIII secolo..., Milano 1997, p. 224
2. Phidias, Amazonian Mattei, ca. 430BC, Vatican
Museum, Rome
3. Seated Mercury, Castle-Museum in Łańcut,
IS PAN collections, phot. E. Kozłowska