Luigi Pichler

This superbly carved intaglio by Luigi Pichler follows Antonio Canova's famous Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1804-6; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 67.110.1). Pichler repeatedly employed Canova's model during his career and impressions can be found in the Paoletti Collection, in Tassie/ Raspe (1791) no. 2985, and in the Harvard Art Museum (inv.. no. 1910.12.1.39). The quality of the present intaglio is typical of Pichler's output; compare with his Ceres in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (inv. no. 29-128-879) and his intaglio with Cardinal Consalvi in the Cabinet des médailles (inv. no. reg.H.2491).

Luigi Pichler heralded from a distinguished lineage of gem engravers. His father Antonio and his half brother Giovanni were both gem cutters and he assumed the running of the family studio in 1791. He went on to work for the Habsburg Imperial family in Vienna and so impressed the French court jeweller François-Régnault Nitot that the latter tried to persuade him to move to Paris. Pichler received many distinctions later in life including a diploma from the Academy of St Luke and membership of the Academy in Venice, as well as, in 1839, Knight's Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great and, in 1842, of the Order of St Sylvester.