Camillo Pacetti

Statue of Camillo Pacettis by Giuseppe Bayer at the Palazzo di Brera , Milan

Camillo Pacetti (born May 2, 1758 in Rome , † July 14, 1827 in Milan ) was an Italian sculptor.

Life

Camillo Pacetti was born in Rome as the third of five children of the gem cutter Andrea Pacetti and Lucrezia Saiocchi. Together with his older brother Vincenzo , he attended the Accademia di San Luca , where in 1775 he received a prize in the sculpture class for the bas-relief Judith shows the people the head of Holofernes . In 1786/1787 he made four statues for the facade of the Holy Trinity Church in Viterbo based on a design by his brother Vincenzo . From 1792 to 1794 he worked with numerous other sculptors under the direction of Ennio Quirino Visconti as a restorer for the Borghese family . He came into contact with Antonio Canova  and the emerging classicism . In the War of the First Coalition , he fought in 1796 under the command of Abbondio Rezzonico to defend the Papal States .

In May 1805 Pacetti was appointed by Giuseppe Bossi as successor to Giuseppe Franchis to the chair for sculpture at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. He brought the methods of the Accademia di San Luca to Milan by having the students make copies of ancient statues from plaster casts and incorporating them into the work on Milanese buildings. With regular competitions and annual exhibitions he ensured a boom for the academy.

Pacetti created sacred, mythological and allegorical sculptures in marble  and terracotta and supplied models for Wedgewood porcelain under the direction of John Flaxman . He was involved in the completion of the facade of the Milan Cathedral and the decoration of the Arco della Pace .

Among his students are Abbondio Sangiorgio , Giuseppe Buzzi and Benedetto Cacciatori . Cacciatori, who married Pacetti's daughter, completed several of his works after Pacetti's death and commissioned Giuseppe Bayer to create the statue of Pacetti for the Palazzo di Brera .

Works

La legge nuova , facade of the Milan Cathedral

• Marble group Napoleon awakens Italy , Musée National du Château de Fontainebleau, 1807
• Napoleon Crowned by the Virtues , terracotta, Galleria d'Arte Moderna , Milan
• The Spinner , 1808–1810, Galleria d'arte moderna, Milan
• Colossal statues of St. James the Elder , Moses , The New Law for the Facade of Milan Cathedral, 1810–1811
• Statue of St. Marcellina , Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio , Milan, 1813
• Bas-reliefs Mars and Minerva , Arco della Pace , Milan
• Statue of the Savior, high altar of Santa Maria presso San Celso church, Milan
• Portrait bust by Andrea Appiani
• Portrait bust by Giuseppe Bossi , Palazzo di Brera
• Portrait bust of Pope Pius VII , now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
• Portrait bust of Franz I of Austria, today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

literature

• P. Arrigoni: Pacetti, Camillo . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 26 : Olivier – Pieris . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1932, p. 117-118 .
• Chiara Piva:  Pacetti, Camillo. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 80:  Ottone I-Pansa. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2014.

Web links

Commons : Camillo Pacetti  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files