Pedestal (pair)

Unknown artist

This pedestal and its companion (inv. CVIa) were first documented in the Borghese Collection in 1650. They were probably carved in the modern period by a sculptor possibly from the Roman milieu. In the middle of each of the three sides of the shaft, there is a relief of a winged putto with acanthus leaves for legs. Each putto has a different attribute: the first holds a bunch of grapes and a shepherd’s crook; the second has a basket of fruit and a ‘convivial crown’; the head of the third is encircled by a ribbon. The use of the pedestals has changed multiple times since they entered the villa’s collection. At first, they served as bases for the Camilli now in the Louvre; then, they were moved to what is now known as the ‘Gallery of Apollo and Daphne’, where they were used as bases for the Boy with Two Ducks (inv. CX) and the Young Woman with a Boy and a Dog (inv. LVII). By 1828, the latter was replaced by the Boy with a Duck (Harpocrates) (inv. CVI) and the function of both pedestals has remained the same ever since.

Object details

Commentary

This pedestal (inv. CXa) is one of a pair (with inv. CVIa). The two triangular bases are decorated in the same way and rest on two ancient-style plinths, embellished on all sides with a continuous frieze in relief of acanthus spirals and leaves. Above the plinths, the tall, curved bases are decorated on the corners with winged sphinx protomes from which emerge slender tendrils encircling rosettes; in the middle, between the sphinxes, there are chalices made of acanthus leaves, sprouting palmettes. In the middle of each of the three sides of the shaft, there is a relief of a winged putto with acanthus leaves for legs. Each putto has a different attribute: the first holds a bunch of grapes and a shepherd’s crook; the second has a basket of fruit and a ‘convivial crown’; the head of the third is encircled by a ribbon. At the top of each pedestal, there is a frieze of palmettes and lotus flowers with ram’s heads protruding from the corners. While the two bases are almost identical, there are a few small differences between them, due to the restoration work done on one (inv. CXa).

In Manilli (1650), Montelatici (1700) and the inventory of 1725, they are described as resting on three metal balusters, which must have been removed before 1796 since they are not mentioned in the volume by Lamberti and Visconti on the villa’s sculptures that was published that year. The two scholars imagined that they might have been part of the group of six candelabras from the Hadrianic period that were likely unearthed at the end of the fifteenth century near the mausoleum of Santa Costanza. The candelabras were later divided between the latter and the nearby church of Sant’Agnese and, finally, moved at the end of the eighteenth century to the Vatican. Four of them are now in the Galleria dei Candelabri of the Musei Vaticani, while a fifth was brought back to the church of Sant’Agnese after it was restored. The sixth is believed to be lost (Ronchetti 93, p. 208).

Listed as modern works in the Nomenclatura of ancient statuary of 1828 (Moreno 1975-1976, p. 46), Nibby, initially considering them to be ancient (1832), also changed his mind (ed. 1841). In 1957, Calza suggested that only one of them (inv. CVIa) was ancient, and possibly from the group found near Santa Costanza. This pedestal (inv. CXa) was instead imagined to have been carved by Roman sculptor Lorenzo Cardelli as a pendant for the first (a theory also supported by Cain 1985). Only Eleonora Ronchetti (1993) knew to rule out that one of the two might belong to the group of ancient candelabras, noting that Fioravante Martinelli had mentioned all six in the church of Sant’Agenese in 1653, while Manilli had written in 1650 that the two pedestals in the Borghese Collection were inside villa. The scholar thus proposed a date for both in the first half of the seventeenth century, since they are not included in the detailed inventory of the family’s ancient statues, columns, tables, stones and marbles, drawn up in 1610 for Paul V.

In 1650, the pedestals were described on the ground floor of the villa in the ‘Room of the Moor’ (now Room VII), when they were used as bases for the Camilli now in the Louvre (DAGER, inv. MR 119, MR 120), displayed on the wall between the windows looking out onto the private north garden. They remained there until 1765, when they were moved to the ‘Bernini Room’ (now Room III), where they are still found today. They were described in this location by Lamberti and Visconti in 1796 as bases for two vases in the style of canthari by Massimiliano Laboureur and Lorenzo Cardelli. By at least 1818 they were used as bases for the Young Woman with a Boy and a Dog (inv. LVII) and the Boy with Two Ducks (inv. CX), displayed along the wall to the left when you enter Room II (Nibby 1832). In the same room, by 1828, the pedestal that was being used as a base for the Moorish Woman became the support for the Boy with a Duck (Harpocrates) (inv. CVI), while the other remained as it was. The use of the two pedestals has been unchanged ever since.

Caterina Fioravanti