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In the mid-18th century, Abbott Filippo Farsetti began acquiring Italian terracotta sculptures from various sources in Rome for his palace in Venice. Many of the terracottas, attributed to some of the finest sculptors in 17th-century Rome, served as models and studies for larger works in stone or bronze. These objects quickly became popular with artists and visitors when Farsetti opened his palace as a public museum in 1755. In 1799 this unique collection was donated by Farsetti's nephew to Tsar Paul I, and was shipped to St. Petersburg. It ultimately became part of the collection of the Hermitage, where for nearly two centuries the sculptures lay largely unseen by foreigners. This volume features 35 color plates of sculptures that will be shown for the first time in the United States at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to coincide with the quadricentennial celebrations of two of the greatest Italian Baroque sculptors, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Alessandro Algardi. The pieces served as models for major works by Bernini and Algardi, and their rivals and followers. Entries by Sergei Androsov and Nina Kosareva, both of the Hermitage, discuss the history and importance of the sculptures. The articles include a history of the Farsetti collection by Androsov; an essay on the role of terracotta models in Baroque sculptural practice by Ian Wardropper of the Art Institute of Chicago; and a discussion of the history of collecting terracotta models by Dean Walker of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

From the Sculptor's Hand: Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum: Search Results