Attributed to Mattia Valenziani

M. Tettamanti, Oggetti vulcanici a Napoli nel Settecento, 2021

The Valenziani, the father Tommaso (Rome 1725 – 1780 Naples) and the son Mattia (Rome 1746- Naples ?) were specialized restorers of antiquities active in Rome, who were called by Carlo III, c. 1759, to work at the bronzes and mosaics excavated at Ercolano in the Royal Residence of Portici.

Thanks to the research carried out by Massimo Tettamanti in 2021, we know the details of the Valenziani’s activity in Naples.

Massimo Tettamanti focused on the writing published by Mattia in the Indice Spiegato and the Dissertazione, in 1783.

Tommaso Valenziani started the collection of Vulcanic Stones from the Vesuvio probably in the late 1750s still conceived in the spirit of the Wunderkammer Naturalia, meeting the scientific interest of volcanology, mineralogy and geology of the time and the Souvenirs of Naples, Grand Tour Capital, with the sublime sense of horror of the ascension to the Vesuvio Vulcano.

In his works Art and Science not only meet but in them, Art has the ability to give harmony to the chaos of the natural forces of Science.

William Hamilton, Ambassador in Naples for King George III, show his tribute to the Valenziani including him in his Campi Flegrei in 1776, plate XXXXIX.

Massimo Tettamanti attributed to the Valenziani the collection of the lava stones, spared, cleaned or left in their natural state, previously anonymous, in the Museo di Storia Naturale in Florence and identified in the Museum Catalogue, published in 1790, with a green leather cover bearing the gold Bourbon coat of arms and illustrated with tempera plates with the eruption of Vesuvio.

This catalogue was probably a gift by Maria Carolina Queen of Naples for her brother Pietro Leopoldo of Lorena, Granduke of Florence.

If Tommaso limited his activity to the collection of volcanic stones and the production of small objects of virtue, called ‘’galanterie’’, the son Mattia took his enterprise to a commercial level and opened his workshop at Largo di Castello, in front of the Teatro Reale di San Carlo in Naples where he started the execution of table tops in geometrical commesso of lava stones.

The clients of Mattia’s commessi come from the aristocrats of Europe visiting Naples during their Grand Tour and connoisseur, erudits, intellectuals, and scientists from the most prestigious European scientific Academies.

J.W. Goethe too met the fame of Mattia Valenziani during his visit to Naples in 1787 (Viaggio in Italia, vol. II, pag.s 13-15, 208, 212-213.

The geometrical perspective composition of cubes of this type of lava commesso is based on rhombuses that Mattia Valenziani called in his description ‘’mostacciuoli’’ from the shape of the characteristic sweets of the Neapolitan confectionary tradition.

The source of the design is after the antique and is derived from the Roman marble ‘’opus sectile’’ that Valenziani restored from Ercolano and Pompei.

Alvar González-Palacios was the first to publish a commesso top of this type attributable to the Valenziani’s workshop (Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicilie, Milano, 1982, pl. LX, pag.s 24, 369), is executed not in volcanic stones but in Roman marbles, from Capri for the archaeologist of Bohemian origin, secretary of the diplomatic legation of Austria, dated 1787 and with a celebratory dedicatory inscription to King Ferdinand IV.

Related literature

A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicilie, Milano, 1982, pl. LX, pag.s 24, 369.

L. Pellegrini, Il Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale nell’Età di Pietro Leopoldo, Paragone, 427, 1986, pag.s 77-92.

S. Monecchi, L. Rook a cura di, Il Museo di Storia Naturale dell’ Università degli Studi di Firenze, vol. III, Le collezioni geologiche e paleontologiche, Firenze 2010

C. Cipriani, L. Fantoni, L. Poggi, A. Scarpellini, Le collezioni mineralogiche del Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze dalle origini ad oggi, Firenze 2011.

S. Swynfen Jervis, D. Dodd, Roman Splendour English Arcadia, The English taste for Pietre Dure and the Sixtus Cabinets at Stourhead, London 2015

We thank Professor Massimo Tettamanti for sharing his insights while cataloguing these volcanic stone tops.

This lot has an artistic export license. Please refer to the specialist department for further information about export procedures and shipping costs.