Giuseppe Ceracchi

Giuseppe Ceracchi (* July 4, 1751 in Rome, † January 30, 1802 in Paris ) was an Italian sculptor.

Life

Giuseppe Ceracchi was the son of a goldsmith and students of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. From 1775 he lived in London, where he created allegorical statues, decorative sculptures, mythological compositions and a number of monuments. From 1790, he has been proven in Vienna, where he made a marble bust of Chancellor Wenzel Anton Kaunitz for decoration of the palace Belvedere in order of Maria Theresa. Further orders received Ceracchi of Emperor Joseph II, such as the specific for the Hofkriegsrat portrait busts of the imperial generals Gideon Ernst von Laudon and Franz Moritz von Lacy, which are now in the permanent collection of the Vienna Museum of Military History. Both were modeled according to signature after living in Vienna in 1781 and executed in Rome in marble.

Subsequently Ceracchi married the Viennese Therese Schliesahan. Further orders on the part of the Imperial family followed, such as two portrait busts of Emperor Joseph II in 1784, and a marble bust of Emperor Franz II / I.. Ceracchi 1785 went back to his hometown of Rome, where he numerous busts, primarily of representatives of the clergy, created. Until 1789 Ceracchi continued to work on behalf of the nobility, but after that he was from the reports of the French Revolution and the events in the United States so impressed that he mutated into a enthusiastic supporters of republican ideals of freedom and 1790 set out for North America. There he a year later offered the Congress of the United States to the draft of a colossal monument of freedom, which, however, due to lack of funds was never carried out. With smaller jobs, such as a portrait bust of George Washington and other famous Americans Ceracchi did not last long on the water so that he already returned to Europe in 1792, where he worked in Genoa, Milan and Paris. 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte moved triumphantly into Milan, which Ceracchi animated for making several portrait busts. More busts modeled by the artist in order of Napoleon in 1800 in Paris, including the generals Jean -Victor Moreau, André Masséna and Jean -Baptiste Jules Bernadotte.

Commissioned by Napoleon himself Ceracchi finally operated also overtly political, he campaigned for the Roman Republic. Soon afterwards, however, he moved to the displeasure of Napoleon by Ceracchi publicly accused him of favoring the Pope. Then, the artist was arrested in 1801 at the Paris Opera and accused of a dagger assassination attempt on Napoleon. On 30 January 1802 Giuseppe Ceracchi was executed along with three Mitveschwörern in Paris under the guillotine.

Works (excerpt)

  • Portrait bust of Franz Moritz Graf Lacy, 1783, marble, 59 × 24 × 77 cm, Museum of Military History, Vienna
  • Portrait bust Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, 1783, marble, 59 × 24 × 77 cm, Museum of Military History, Vienna
  • Anne Seymour Damer portrait statue, 1777, marble, British Museum
  • Portrait bust of Elector Karl II of Bavaria, 1789, marble, Bavarian National Museum, Munich
  • Portrait bust of Amerigo Vespucci, White House, Washington, DC
  • Portrait bust of George Washington, 1795, marble, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
Italians Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria Integrated Authority File
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