Etruscan Candelabrum Finial (from Cassiano dal Pozzo's 'Paper Museum')

This highly worked up drawing in red chalk portrays in great detail an Etruscan bronze candelabrum finial, of the late Archaic period and datable about 510-480 BC, that is also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection (47.11.3), and is on view in Gallery 170, Department of Greek and Roman Art. This drawing is surprisingly close in scale to the actual object. The bronze finial represents a pair of warriors, one wounded and limping who is supported by the other. This is therefore a rare and felicitous instance in which both the visual source and the drawing are owned by the same institution.
This drawing is in a style and on an annotated mount that are typical of the "Paper Museum," or Museo Cartaceo, that was compiled in Rome by Cassiano dal Pozzo (1598-1657) with the help of his brother, Carlo Antonio. The original of the Etruscan sculpture represented in the drawing was at the time in the collection of Cardinal Albani, as is stated in the inscription on the mount. Henrietta Ryan (Deputy Curator of the Print Room, Royal Library, Windsor Castle) examined this drawing in 1999, on behalf of the Cassiano dal Pozzo Catalogue Committee, and plans to publish it along with other sheets in the forthcoming catalogue of Cassiano dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo. Another drawing copying a Sleeping Cupid also emanates from Cassiano dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo and is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (45.36).
The most exact comparisons for the style and drawing technique in red chalk are the illustrations of antiquities found in the MS Franks, vol. 2 (especially fols. 83, 84, 125, 126, 128, nos. 418, 419, 514, 515, 517), at the British Museum, London. The Metropolitan Museum's drawing is pasted onto a characteristic "Type A" mount trimmed at the top and the sides (Mark McDonald, communication on August 5, 2014). Part of Cassiano dal Pozzo's collection of drawings focused on recording the archaeological and sculptural remains of antiquity with an encyclopedic range and systematic rigor of graphic description. Cassiano commissioned a variety of artists to execute his drawings. The Museo Cartaceo was probably enriched by Cardinal Alessandro Albani (1692-1779), the eminent collector and nephew of Pope Clement XI and who is mentioned in the inscription on the mount of the present drawing. The albums comprising the Museo Cartaceo constitute one of the milestones in the history of taste during the 17th and 18th centuries. The interpretation of Classical antiquity was among the chief concerns of artists and intellectuals of the period.
As reconstructed by John Gere and Henrietta Ryan, the distinguished provenance for this and related drawings from Cassiano dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo is uninterrupted into modern times. The various owners of the drawings were among the most erudite antiquarians of their day, and the drawings as a group constitute a major chapter in the history of taste and collecting. See ex-collectors.
(Carmen C. Bambach; August 5, 2014)