Cassiano Dal Pozzo
Cassiano Dal Pozzo (born February 21, 1588 in Turin , † October 22, 1657 in Rome ) was a Roman scholar and patron. The spellings Dal Pozzo and dal Pozzo are equally common in the surname .
Life
Cassiano Dal Pozzo was born in Turin. He spent a large part of his youth in Pisa in the house of an uncle, Carlo Antonio Dal Pozzo (1547–1607). He was archbishop and advisor to Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici . Dal Pozzo received a thorough education which he graduated with a Doctor of Both Rights. Pisa was famous at the time for its university , already had a botanical garden and was considered the center of natural sciences. In Pisa or Florence he got to know Galileo Galilei , with whom he remained on friendly terms throughout his life, including during the trial of Galileo carried out by the Curia. In 1606 he returned to Piedmont for a short time, from 1608 he worked as a judge in Siena, from 1611 he lived in Rome. In 1622 he became a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei founded by Federico Cesi . From 1623 he was secretary in the service of Cardinal Francesco Barberini , a nephew of Pope Urban VIII.
After Federico Cesi's death, Dal Pozzo bought books, materials on the natural sciences and natural history drawings from his estate, which formed the basis for his collection and documentation on archeology and natural sciences, which was unique at the time . Cassiano Dal Pozzo belonged to a circle of noble art collectors, scholars, booksellers and publishers who were interested in antiquity , science and contemporary art. Close relationships existed with French scholars, noble patrons and members of the Parisian court, just as the climate in Rome at the time of the reign of Pope Urban VIII was extremely Francophile.
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Dal Pozzo had a huge correspondence with correspondents all over Europe; about forty volumes of this correspondence have survived. This correspondence was less used for the exchange of scientific knowledge than for the organization of the scientific community and art education. Dal Pozzo was at the center of power as Cardinal Francesco Barberini's secretary, but his income was not abundant. His collection of paintings by contemporary artists was modest. He owned around 40 paintings by Nicolas Poussin , including the famous Seven Sacraments and the Berlin self-portrait. In his collection there were 14 paintings by Simon Vouet , two by Pietro da Cortona and some drawings by Bernini .
From 1625 to 1626 he traveled with Barberini to Spain and France, which, although they had diplomatic missions, gave both the opportunity to see French and Spanish art collections and to make important contacts. The first contact with the French scholar and antiquarian Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, who did not stop until Peiresc's death, also took place here. On the return journey, Dal Pozzo was accepted into the Accademia della Crusca in Florence in 1626 . After his return to Rome, he and his brother and his family moved into a house near Sant'Andrea della Valle , where he lived until the end of his life.
The paper museum
Of particular importance is the Dal Pozzo and his brother Carlo Andrea dal Pozzo II (* in Turin, † l. August 1689 in Rome) initiated the project of the Paper Museum (it. Museo cartaceo , lat. Museum Cartaceum ), a modern-sounding companies the documentation of all still visible traces of ancient life in Rome. It was not about an aesthetic view of antiquity , but about the documentation of ancient realities , the ancient material culture. For over forty years he employed draftsmen who drew Roman antiquities and early Christian relics. In addition to drawings that served historical and archaeological purposes, those with natural history objects were collected, as well as prints on current events and numerous drawings and prints by the masters of the sixteenth century. His museum eventually contained over 6,500 drawings. He had the results bound in a total of 23 books, arranged according to five topics.
- Documents on the worship of gods and the mythology of the ancients
- Wedding customs, dresses, funeral rites, theater
- Histories on triumphal arches
- Vases, statues, vessels, utensils
- Illustrations for manuscripts by Virgil and Terence in the Biblioteca Vaticana , as well as drawings of ancient mosaics
One shortcoming of this archive, however, was the lack of a register or an explanatory commentary, so that this enormous pool of knowledge was difficult to use without the help of Dal Pozzo.
After Dal Pozzo's death, his brother continued the project. In 1703 the Dal Pozzo family sold the entire archive to Pope Clement XI. from which it passed into the possession of Cardinal Alessandro Albani . From 1743 Johann Joachim Winckelmann worked as a librarian for the cardinal. Parts of the collection are now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and the British Museum in London .
literature
- Enrico Stumpo: Dal Pozzo, Cassiano iunior. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 32: Dall'Anconata – Da Ronco. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1986.
- Francis Haskell , Jennifer Montague (Eds.): The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo. A catalog raisonnée. Drawings and Prints in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, The British Museum, the Institut de France and Other Collections. London 1996 ff.
- Ingo Herklotz : Cassiano dal Pozzo and the archeology of the 17th century (= Roman research of the Bibliotheca Hertziana. Volume 28). Hirmer, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7774-7750-8 .
- Fabrizio Federici: Dal Pozzo, Cassiano. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 277-281.
Web links
- The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo - Website of the Warburg Institute (English)
- Cassiano dal Pozzo - Website of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italian)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dal Pozzo, Cassiano |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian scholar and patron |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 21, 1588 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Turin |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 22, 1657 |
| Place of death | Rome |