Giuseppe Ceracchi

Giuseppe Ceracchi (Jul 4, 1751 - Jan 30, 1801) was an Italian sculptor, active in a Neoclassic style in Italy, England and the nascent United States, who was a passionate republican during the American and French revolutions He is remembered for his portrait busts of prominent British and American individuals

Born in Rome and a pupil of Italian stucco artist Tommaso Righi, he completed his studies at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome

In 1773 he traveled to London, introducing himself to Matthew Nulty, an English amateur and antiquarian sculptor living in Rome In London, Ceracchi worked in the studio of Agostino Carlini, one of the founding members of the Royal Academy, with whom he collaborates in the realization of the decorated elements of the house of Robert Adam Produces his first works in a neoclassical style: the statues of the Fortress and Temperance for The facade of the Somerset Palace and the busts of Admiral Keppel, Count Belgioioso, Lord Grombu and Lord Shelburn In 1877 he cast Castore and Polluce at the Royal Academy

In 1780 he went to Vienna, where he remained for five years, except for a brief return to Rome During his stay in Vienna he sculpts the busts of Prince Wenzel and Feldmaresciallo Laudon, obtaining a broad consensus

In 1785, Ceracchi came to Rome, where he had a close friendship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during the journey to Italy made by the poet in 1786 Goethe commissioned him a bust of Johann Joachim Winckelmann and for some time he was guest in his studio in 1788 In Rome, Ceracchi also sculpted the busts of Cardinal Albani, Pius VI and Metastasio

Ceramics was twice in the United States, in 1790-92 and then in 1794-95 There he made a series of busts depicting the heroes of the new republic (Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, George Clinton ) These works had a great influence on the development of American art, although Ceracchi was unable to find the hoped-for support for his plan to build a magnificent monument to the American Revolution in Washington DC

The political passion brought him back to Rome when Giuseppe Bonaparte arrived in 1797 Following the Napoleonic troops, Ceracchi moved to Paris in 1799 where he made a bust of Napoleon A great admirer of the revolutionary cause, Jacobin becomes Napoleon's opponent for his transformation into a dictator Accused of having participated in a plot against him, he is arrested and sentenced to death He was guilty on January 30, 1801, together with Dominique Demerville, François Topino-Lebrun and Joseph Antoine Aréna

He made two visits to the new American republic, in 1790–2, in hopes of being commissioned to erect an extremely elaborate monument to the new republic and George Washington that he was convinced Congress had voted, and again in 1794–5, when he was disappointed in raising the funds for his venture by private subscription Of this unrealizable project for a bombastic marble allegory James Madison drily remarked that the sculptor "was an enthusiastic worshipper of Liberty and Fame, and his whole soul was bent on securing the latter by rearing a monument to the former" Duplicate letters from Ceracchi to Washington and George Clinton describe plans for a national monument to Washington to be built in the newly planned capital city

During his two American visits he executed heroic portrait busts of leaders of the American Revolution, including Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts), John Jay (Supreme Court, Washington DC), Thomas Jefferson (Monticello), George Washington with a Roman haircut and a toga (Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Clinton, again presented as a noble Roman (twice, Boston Atheneum and New-York Historical Society), and Alexander Hamilton Most of his prominent subjects sat to him to encourage his art, but none could be found to pay for their busts after the fact Washington politely refused the gift of his Roman bust in colossal size, in plaster

He returned to Florence about 1794 In Rome he entered with fiery vehemence into the projected Italian Republic under revolutionary French auspices, when Joseph Bonaparte arrived in the city in 1797, drawing Jacobin sympathizers to him In the Jacobin riots of December 1797, during which brigadier-general Mathurin-Léonard Duphot was killed, Ceracchi was noted as a leader of the rioters; events led directly from Duphot's death to the Directoire’s decision to occupy the city French troops arrived on 10 February 1798 and on the 15th the Republic of Rome was proclaimed In 1799 Ceracchi moved to Paris, where he sculpted the portrait bust of Pope Pius VI (Residenzmuseum, Munich; Palazzo Bianco, Genoa) Having sculpted a bust of Napoleon Bonaparte (Museum at Nantes), he became disillusioned after the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire to the extent that he was embroiled in the paranoid and furious reaction of Napoleon to the plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, an attempt against Napoleon's life in which a device dubbed the machine infernal was exploded, with loss of innocent life Ceracchi was arrested for his alleged participation in the "Conspiration des poignards" and guillotined 30 January 1801, "going to the scaffold, it is said, in a triumphal chariot of his own design"

Works:
Bust of Franz Moritz Graf Lacy, 1783, marble, 59 × 24 × 77 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Wien
Bide by Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, 1783, marble, 59 × 24 × 77 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Wien
Bust of Anne Seymour Damer, um 1777, marble, British Museum, London
Bust of Kurfürst Karl II Von Bayern, 1789, marble, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich
Bust of Amerigo Vespucci, 1790-1794, marble, 31x53x25 cm, White House, Washington, DC
Bust of Christopher Columbus, 1790-1794, marble, 29x49x25 cm, White House, Washington, DC
George Washington Bust, 1795, Marble, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
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