Cicero

Giuseppe Girometti

early 19th century · Onyx · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The Neoclassical age prized the sternly republican marble head of Cicero (106–43 B.C.) in the Musei Capitolini, Rome. An intaglio after it by Nathaniel Marchant (40.20.1) circulated in the form of gypsum impressions. The Roman carvers of these two heads consulted the sculpture itself, obtaining different results. The more numismatic approach of the cameo carved about 1810–20 by a member of the Cerbara family (40.20.34), in which the features are affixed with broad authority, typifies the work of that clan (Gian Battista Cerbara [d. 1811] sired Giuseppe [1770–1856] and Nicola [1796–1869], Nicola succeeding Giuseppe as master of the papal mint). Yet Cerbara also employed the buff areas to suggest flesh, while the starker white-on-black contrast in Giuseppe Girometti’s Cicero evokes marble. Girometti’s work is also more detailed, delivering a keener sense of the great orator’s cogitations through his careworn features.

Artist

Giuseppe Girometti

Date

early 19th century

Medium

Onyx

Culture

Italian, Rome

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Milton Weil Collection, 1940