Francesco Righetti

Christie's New York, 22 November 1980, lot 98.

Napoléon. Antiquity to Empire, Robiliant + Voena & Stair Sainty, London, 18 June-30 July 2015.

A. González-Palacios, Il gusto dei principi: arte di corte del XVII e del XVIII secolo. Milano: Longanesi & C., 1993., p. 267, nos. 530-531; J. Warren, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, 2016, vol. II, pp. 716-19, cat. 150, note 14 (mentionned).

Francesco Righetti trained with the famous silversmith-sculptor, Luigi Valadier (1726 -1785), from whom he gained a mastery of casting and finishing that allowed him to set up independently in Rome in 1779. Francesco Righetti (1738 - 1819) and his son, Luigi (1780 - 1852), were among the foremost bronze founders of Rome in the late 18th and early 19th century. Renowned for their fine reductions of antique sculpture for a Grand Tour clientele, the Righetti family cast bronzes of exceptional quality and finish.

In 1808 the duo was bestowed the honour of being personally chosen by Antonio Canova (1757 - 1822) to produce the colossal bronze version of one of his most significant commissions, his statue of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (today in the courtyard of the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). Despite an unsuccessful first attempt, which caused the second, finished bronze to be financed privately by Canova, the Righettis’ relationship with the sculptor continued until the year of Francesco’s death, when they were entrusted with the casting of Canova’s monumental bronze statue of King Charles III of Naples in Piazza del Plebiscito, Naples (1818 – 1819).

Several bronze reductions of Napoléon as peacemaker were produced by Francesco Righetti and his workshop, notably a 46cm. bronze signed and dated by Righetti in 1810, now in the Louvre (inv. LP 2715). A limited number of 65 cm copies are recorded, including an undated bronze in the Wallace Collection (inv. S231) and the present bronze.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Hubert, La Sculpture dans l'Italie Napoléonienne, Paris, 1964, p.159-160;

G. Pavanello, L'opera completa del Canova, Milan, 1976, cat. 143, p. 109;

A. Gonzalez-Palacios, II gusto dei principi, arte di corte del XVII e del XVIII secolo. Milan, 1993.

RELATED WORKS

46cm.

• Musée du Louvre, Paris, dated 1810, 46 cm, inv. no LP 2715
• Collection Michael Hall, New York, dated 1811
• Tomasso Brothers, Leeds
• Private collection, Paris, 48 cm, undated

62/65cm.

• Wallace collection, London, unsigned, circa 1810-1815, 62.7cm., inv. no S231
• Capodimonte Museum, Naples, dated 1815, inv. no OA 7218
• Ca d'Oro, Venise, dated 1810, 68cm., inv. no Br 157
• Villa Melzi, Bellagio (H. Gérard, op. cit., p. 160)
• Osenat, Fontainebleau, 7 November 2004, lot 455, 62.5cm.
• Sotheby's London, Collection Gianni Versace, 18 March 2009, lot 101, 61cm., undated