Rome et la formation des collections du cardinal Mazarin

Abstract

Rome and the formation of the collections of Cardinal Mazarin. Most of the statues of classical antiquity and the paintings which Mazarin acquired after 1640 for his Paris residence, the hôtel Chevry-Tubeuf, were purchased in Rome. The Cardinal here three advisors there, Antonio della Cornia, the abbot Elpidio Benedetti and Paolo Maccarini, his confidential agent. The account books of this last, recently discovered in the archives at Rome, along with the diplomatic correspondence kept in Paris, give us a clearer understanding of how this major campaign of art purchasing was undertaken. For the classical statuary, certain special intermediaries involved in the restoration of sculptures — Orfeo Boselli, for example — played a vital part. Mazarin was able to acquire collections which had already been built up, like the collection of Cardinal Jacopo Sannesio, or to purchase statues recently discovered during excavations. The archives show that the Cardinal did not always bother to ask for an official authorisation to take such works out of Rome. His quest for remarkable paintings was equally avid. The Cardinal acquired the paintings by Ludovisi which Richelieu and even Louis XIII had coveted at an earlier date. After 1653, Mazarin seems to have embarked on purchases of a different sort, mainly art objects or pieces of furniture intented to embellish the interior decoration of his town house.