Portrait of Francesco Antonio Franzoni Francesco Antonio Franzoni (1734–1818) was an Italian sculptor and restorer.

Biography

Born in 1734 in the marble city of

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

and trained there, Francesco Antonio Franzoni settled in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in the 1760s and established a workshop that specialised in the restoration of antique

Roman sculpture The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies". A ...

, for which there was an insatiable demand, scarcely supplied by redoubled efforts at excavations. He worked on restoring, completing and refinishing sculptures destined for the

Museo Pio-Clementino The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

and provided marble revetments and sculptural details for its interiors, notably the ''

biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest par ...

'' (two-horse chariot) assembled in 1788 from antique elements,Including what was probably a votive marble chariot of the first century CE, which had been used as a '' cathedra'' at San Marco (Touring Club Italiano, ''Roma'' 669.) in the ''sala del Biga'' of the Braccio Nuovo. He worked for Pope Pius VI, for whom he filled a room with animal sculptures, some made up from antique fragments, in the Palazzetto del Belvedere; he also worked for the papal family at

Palazzo Braschi Palazzo Braschi () is a large Neoclassical palace in Rome, Italy and is located between the Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Piazza di Pasquino. It presently houses the Museo di Roma, the "Museum of Ro ...

. He died in Rome in 1818.

Some other sculptors in Rome renowned for their restorations

* Orfeo Boselli * Ippolito Buzzi *

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (c. 1716 – December 9, 1799) was an Italian sculptor who worked in Rome, where he trained in the studio of the acclimatized Frenchman, Pierre-Étienne Monnot, and then in the workshop of Carlo Antonio Napolioni, a restore ...

Ercole Ferrata Ercole Ferrata (1610 – 10 July 1686) was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque. Biography A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants. When hi ...

* Francesco Fontana * Francesco Nocchieri *

Giovanni Battista Piranesi Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian Classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric ...

Vincenzo Pacetti Vincenzo Pacetti (1746–1820) was an Italian sculptor and restorer from Castel Bolognese, particularly active in collecting and freely restoring and completing classical sculptures such as the Barberini Faun (1799 – now in the Glyptothek, Mun ...

References

External links

Getty Museum: Francesco Antonio Franzoni
marble side table and drawing {{DEFAULTSORT:Franzoni, Francesco Antonio 1734 births 1818 deaths 18th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 19th-century Italian sculptors 19th-century Italian male artists People from Carrara 18th-century Italian male artists

Biography

Some other sculptors in Rome renowned for their restorations

Further reading

References

External links