Enfilade

From Brill:

Eloisa Dodero, Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century: Findings, Collections, Dispersals (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 630 pages, ISBN: 978-9004362857, €139 / $167.

In Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century Eloisa Dodero aims at documenting the history of numerous private collections formed in Naples during the 18th century, with particular concern for the ‘Neapolitan marbles’ and the circumstances of their dispersal. Research has thus made it possible to formulate a synthesis of the collecting dynamics of Naples in the 18th century, to define the interest of the great European collectors, especially British, in the antiquities of the city and its territory and to draw up a catalogue which for the first time brings together the nucleus of sculptures reported in the Neapolitan collections or coming from irregular excavations, most of which shared the destiny of dispersal, in some cases here traced in definitive fashion.

Eloisa Dodero is curator archaeologist at the Capitoline Museums, Rome. She is involved in the publication of the Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo (Brepols) and in a new, revised edition of Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture (Brepols).

C O N T E N T S

List of Figures
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1  The Collections of Antiquities in Naples in the 18th Century: A Changing Scenario

2  Sources for a Knowledge of the Neapolitan Collections of Antiquities in the 18th Century
• The Descrizioni of Naples and the Travel Literature in the 17th and 18th Century
• Erudite Works, Epigraphic Sylloges and Corpora
• The Correspondence of Antiquarians
• Catalogues of Collections
• Private Archives, Inventories and Auction Catalogues
• The Evidence Offered by the Paintings
• The Townley Archive, the Townley Drawings and the Topham Collection of Drawings

3  Collections of Antiquities in Naples between the End of the 17th and the Closing Years of the 18th Century
• Sculptures as Furniture: Ancient Marbles in Old Palaces and Stately Homes
• The Leading Collectors
• Small Collections of Vases, Inscriptions, Coins, Gems
• Wunderkammern in Naples
• The Collections of the Religious Orders
• The Collections of the Foreigners

4  The Channels of Dispersal of the Neapolitan Marbles from the Viceregal Period to the End of the 18th Century
• The Spanish Viceroyalty and the Austrian Viceroyalty
• The Age of the Bourbons
• Marbles of Neapolitan Origin in 18th-Century British Collections

Conclusions

Catalogue – Part 1: Ancient Marbles in 18th-Century Neapolitan Collection

Sculptures as Furniture: Ancient Marbles in Old Palaces and Stately Homes
• Palazzo Carafa di Colubrano (cat. no. 1–43)
• Villa Mazza (cat. no. 44–50)
• Palazzo Firrao (cat. no. 51–52)
• Palazzo Cellamare (cat. no. 53–64)
• The Gaetani d’Aragona, Dukes of Laurenzano (cat. no. 65–71)

The Leading Collectors
• Giuseppe Valletta (cat. no. 72–122)
• Felice Maria Mastrilli (cat. no. 123–133)
• Giovanni Battista Carafa Duke di Noja (cat. no. 134–138)

Small Collections of Vases, Inscriptions, Coins, Gems
• Ferdinando Galiani (cat. no. 139–140)

Wunderkammern in Naples
• Francesco Antonio Picchiatti (cat. no. 141–145)

The Collections of the Foreigners
• Sir William Hamilton (cat. no. 146–200)
• Vinzenz von Rainer zu Harbach (cat. no. 201–202)

Catalogue – Part 2: Sculptures Found in Naples and Its Surroundings Between the 17th and the 18th Century

Pimentel’s Excavations at Cuma (cat. no. 203–217)

The Dispersal
• Berlin (cat. no. 218–222)
• Paris (cat. no. 223–224)
• Saint Petersburg (cat. no. 225)
• Rome (cat. no. 226–233)

Hadrawa’s Excavations in Capri (cat. no. 234–240)

Neapolitan Marbles in British Collections
• Wilton House
• Other Collections Assembled in the First Half of the 18th Century (cat. no. 241)
• Charles Townley Collection (cat. no. 242–252)
• Lyde Browne Collection (cat. no. 251–253)
• Henry Blundell Collection (cat. no. 254–255)
• Thomas Hope Collection (cat. no. 256)

Archival Sources
Bibliography
Index of Sculptures by Location
General Index