Innocenzo Spinazzi

This remarkable portrait of a middle-aged man, its Baroque sensibility coupled with features that are extremely naturalistic rather than idealised, can be attributed to Innocenzo Spinazzi, a Roman artist active in Florence during the second half of the eighteenth century. 

Son of a well-known goldsmith at the papal court, Spinazzi trained in Rome in the studio of Giovanni Battista Maini, and developed an interest in restoring antique works alongside his own creative work. In 1770, shortly before he moved to Florence, he was commissioned by Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, to restore the classical Niobe group, then in the Villa Medici. The sculptor’s skill and his excellent knowledge of classical art were immediately admired by Raimondo Cocchi, antiquario at the Uffizi Galleries from 1758. In 1770, Cocchi employed Spinazzi to restore the Etruscan urns in the Galluzzi collection in Volterra, and in 1772 and 1774 asked him to value the works put up for sale by Cosimo Siries, Director of the Grand-ducal workshops (the Opificio), as well as the Gaddi collection. He was assisted in this task by the English painter Thomas Patch (1725–1782), known for his Florentine landscapes and paintings caricaturing British travellers in Italy (Grand Tourists). In Patch’s painting A Gathering of the Dilettanti around the Medici Venus (circa 1760, Basildon Park, inv. no. 267120), the figure of Raimondo Cocchi can be recognized, dressed in blue, his arm resting casually on the base of the antique marble Wrestlers. Patch caricatured Cocchi again in a 1769 drawing (British Museum, inv. no. 1854,1113.40) which – like our bust – illustrates his geniality and emphasizes his prominent nose and double chin.

A comparison between the present work and Thomas Patch’s caricatures suggests that Spinazzi sculpted this bust between Raimondo Cocchi’s appointment as Director of the Uffizi in 1773 and his death in 1775. This work would therefore testify to the relationship between the artist Spinazzi and Cocchi, a leading figure in the world of Florentine culture in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Worth highlighting is the contrast in texture between the polished surface of the marble face and the wig. A similar approach can be found in other works by Spinazzi, including a bust probably representing the English bibliophile George Nassau in the Franco Maria Ricci collection (op. cit., pp. 203–204) and the portrait of Leopold II (circa 1771, Palazzo Pitti). In Spinazzi’s oeuvre, the present bust is striking for the subject’s realistic physiognomy and the fine details of his contemporary dress.

RELATED LITERATURE

R. Roani Villani, 'Innocenzo Spinazzi e l'ambiente artistico fiorentino della seconda metà del Settecento', Paragone, 309, 1975, pp. 53-85, p. 77; G. Pratesi, Repertorio della Scultura Fiorentina del Seicento e Settecento, vol I, p. 104, no. 593; M. Fileti Mazza, B.M. Tomasello, Galleria degli Uffizi 1758-1775 - la politica museale di Raimondo Cocchi, Modena, 1999, pp. 42, 57, 65, 102; L. Casalis, G. Godi, La collezione d’arte di Franco Maria Ricci, exh. cat. Parma, 2004, pp. 127-128 & 203

The present lot is the subject of an expertise by Prof. Silvestra Bietoletti.               

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