Box of plaster casts after the Parthenon marbles
Antonio Odelli (Rome, 1785- Rome, 1872)
Category
Wooden objects
Date
c. 1854 - 1856
Materials
Plaster, Wood
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
The Argory, County Armagh
NT 565575
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; set of plaster casts of sections of the Parthenon marbles, after John Henning the Elder (1771-1851); Antonio Odelli (1785-1872), Rome; c. 1854-56 This is one of two sets of casts at the Argory that were sold by Antonio Odelli (1785-1872), one of the leading gem engravers in his day. This set consists of essentially pirated casts after the miniature reproductions of the Parthenon marbles made by the Scottish-born sculptor John Henning the Elder. The other set consists of casts after modern gems and medals.
Full description
Set of plaster casts, made and sold by Antonio Odelli (1785-1872), of processional friezes based on the Parthenon sculptures, after the miniature copies designed by John Henning (1770-1851). There are six long horizontal plaster reliefs, depicting respectively: ranks of horsemen; a procession following a bull being led to sacrifice; a procession of chariots; a procession of horsemen; a procession leading a ram to sacrifice; chariots and warriors. The first, second and sixth reliefs are broken. Kept within a wooden box with lid, on the inside of which is Antonio Odelli's printed label. One of two sets of casts sold by Antonio Odelli at the Argory. The other set (NT 565572) consists of casts of so-called ‘Poniatowski gems’ and casts after small reproductions of works by modern sculptors working in Rome. The two boxes of casts are typical examples of the sets of casts of gems that were made in large numbers in Roman workshops, and offered for sale to libraries and museums, as well as collectors and tourists visiting Rome (see Wilton and Bignamini 1996, no. 262, for a cabinet of casts of gems from the collection of Cristian Dehn (1696-1770)). Casts were often sold with descriptions of the individual gems, often hand-written. Antonio Odelli was a Roman gem engraver who worked closely over many years with the celebrated Castellani dynasty of Roman goldsmiths. His name appears regularly in the archives of the Castellani and he seems to have enjoyed an especially close relationship with the much younger Augusto Castellani (1829-1914), who indeed wrote in 1878 of his friend’s mastery of the art of gem cutting. This had already been recognised in 1862, when Odelli was awarded a prize at the International Exhibition in London, for a large cameo depicting the Hours leading the Chariot of the Sun (Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli 2006, pp. 107-08, fig.1). Odelli seems to have been well known to visitors to Rome for casts of intaglio and cameo gems, which were often sold in collections, such as the two sets at the Argory. As well as the two sets at the Argory, other plaster series by Odelli survive in the Archeological Institute in Göttingen, Germany, acquired in 1839-40 (Invs. A 893, A 890; Kockel and Graepler 2006, pp. 45-46, fig. 6; pp. 185-88, nos. 16-17), and in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Whilst one of the sets in Göttingen seems to be a fairly conventional set of 75 casts after antique gems, the other consists of casts of Assyrian and Persian gems and seals. Between c. 1813-30, Antonio Odelli had his premises at no. 143, Via Felice and then, between 1830 and 1856, in the Via delle Quattro Fontane. In around 1856 he moved again, to 143 Via Rasella. It may therefore be assumed from the labels on the box lids that the two sets of gem casts at the Argory were bought from Odelli’s shop at some point between 1830 and 1856; the presence however in the second set of a cast after John Gibson’s relief of Cupid and Pysche, the first marble version of which was only made in 1854, would further suggest that the sets were in fact made around the mid-1850s although Odelli’s master casts are likely to have been made many years before. The second set of casts by Antonio Odelli are based on the remarkable miniature copies of the Parthenon frieze made by the Scottish-born sculptor John Henning the elder (1771-1851), who hoped to exploit the excitement that the arrival in 1811 in Britain of a large number of the marble sculptures formerly decorating the Parthenon in Athens had excited (for further discussion of Henning and his copies, see NT 515073). The Parthenon frieze had an enormous impact on taste in Britain, especially the development of Neo-Classical sculpture and ornament. Henning completed his massive task of making a miniature version of the frieze in 1820, creating an all but complete reconstruction, not just of the marbles that had arrived in London, but also those remaining on the Parthenon and scattered in collections elsewhere. From Henning’s intaglio carvings he produced plaster casts, which were sold in the form of books of small plaster reliefs (a set is at Snowshill Manor and Gardens, NT 1329212). Unfortunately, whilst Henning expected his great work to make him a respectable income, the lack of adequate copyright laws at this time meant that they were widely pirated, especially in France and Italy. Thousands of copies were made throughout the nineteenth century, including a set in bronze, made around 1900 in the Roman foundry of Giovanni Nisini, now at Anglesey Abbey (NT 515073). John Henning eventually died in poverty. Jeremy Warren November 2022
Provenance
Probably acquired by Walter McGeough Bond (1790-1866); by descent; Walter McGeough Bond (1908-86), by whom given to the National Trust in 1979.
Makers and roles
Antonio Odelli (Rome, 1785- Rome, 1872), caster after John Henning the Elder (1771-1851), sculptor
References
Wilton and Bignamini 1996: Andrew Wilton and Ilaria Bignamini (eds.), Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London 1996 Kockel and Graepler 2006: Valentin Kockel and Daniel Graepler, eds., Daktyliotheken. Götter und Caesaren aus der Schublade. Antike Gemmen in Abdrucksammlungen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Munich 2006 Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli 2006: Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, Antonio Odelli: un incisore di cammei e intagli per gli orafi Castellani’, Bollettino dei Musei Comunali di Roma, New Series 20 (2006), pp. 107-118