Face of Christ (Ecce Homo) - Studio del Mosaico Vaticano, ALESSANDRO COCCHI (1696 - ca. 1780), earlier attributed to FILIPPO CARLINI (1715-1795, active around the middle of the 18th Century)
oval polychrome mosaic on metal cassette, after the famous Ecce Homo by Guido Reni, in a contemporary gilded wooden frame. Mosaic dimensions 58 x 47.5 cm, frame 75 x 64.5 cm.
At the court of the Popes of the eighteenth Century, it was a common practice to donate sovereigns and important figures visiting Rome mosaics made by mosaicists in the Studio del Mosaico Vaticano, at the Reverenda Fabbrica di S. Pietro, active since 1727 at the behest of Pope Benedict XIII Orsini (1724-1730). It is well known that Pius VI (1775-1799) donated many of them, now scattered all over the world, created in particular by Filippo Carlini, Andrea Volpini, Bartolomeo Tomberli, Lorenzo Rocchegiani, Domenico Perasoli, Pietro Polverelli and Alessandro Cocchi, who, according to documents, copied works by Guido Reni into mosaics several times. According to family tradition, in fact, this artefact was given by Pope Pius VI to the illustrious engraver and printer Giovanni Battista Bodoni, who worked at the Stamperia di Propaganda Fide from 1758 to 1766. The tradition is historically confirmed: the entry for Bodoni in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Dictionary of Italian Biography) states that a few men in their lives received praise and honours equal to his. Popes Pius VI and Pius VII sent him praising briefs and rich gifts. Several versions of mosaics based on this work by Guido Reni are known.
In earlier times this mosaic was attributed to Filippo Carlini (1715-1795, active around the middle of the 18th Century); indeed, documents show that Carlini was commissioned several times by the Studio del Mosaico Vaticano to copy works by Guido Reni.
An in-depth study of the mosaic composition, however, has made it possible to trace another one very similar, made by Alessandro Cocchi (1696 - circa 1780), belonging to the Portuguese Royal collections and placed in the collection of the Palàcio Nacional da Pena (inv. PNP 611) in Sintra, near Lisbon. This mosaic was displayed in the exhibition Da Roma a Lisbona, un album per il Re magnanimo (Museo de Sau roque, Lisbon, 2015). Item condition grading: **** good.
Alessandro Cocchi was the son of the mosaicist Filippo, who in turn fathered two other mosaicists, Filippo (1740/50-1818) and Vincenzo (1750/55-1834), who were equally active in the Reverenda Fabbrica, as well as a nephew, Raffaele (1792-1858), Filippo's son. In addition to Alexander's works executed in the context of the Vatican complex, are also known a number of works made for other commissioners, the best famous of which is perhaps the portrait of Tsarina Isabel Petrovna of Russia, painted in 1748-1750 by the French artist Louis Caravaque (1684-1754) for the patronage of Count Mikhail Vorontsov (1716-1767). The mosaic painting, enriched by an elegant frame by Luigi Valadier (1726- 1785), was immediately exhibited in the Capitol and admired by Pope Benedict XIV; today it belongs to the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (Ref. Teresa Leonor M. Vale, Aggregate Professor of Art History, University of Lisbon, researcher at ARTIS-Institute of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Lisbon).
Auction: Auction 102
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