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Scope and Content of Collection
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Mario and Antonio Asprucci architectural drawings relating to the Villa Borghese in Rome and other Borghese commissions
Creator:
Asprucci, Mario, 1764-1804
Creator:
Asprucci, Antonio, 1723-1808
Creator:
Borghese, Marcantonio, principe, 1730-1800
Identifier/Call Number: 2021.M.12
Physical Description:
12 Linear Feet
(41 sheets)
Date (inclusive): 1786-early 1800s
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
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Abstract: The architectural drawings by Mario Asprucci, his father Antonio Asprucci, and
their associates, dating from 1786 to the early 1800s, document the buildings and gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome that
were commissioned by Prince
Marcantonio IV Borghese as well as other Borghese commissions. They reveal the importance of Mario Asprucci's contributions
and include designs he made
for the Temple of Aesculapius and the unrealized Museo Gabino.
Language of Material: Collection material is in Italian with some English and Latin.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Mario and Antonio Asprucci architectural drawings relating to the Villa Borghese in Rome and other Borghese commissions, 1786-early
1800s, The Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2021.M.12.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2021m12
Scope and Content of Collection
This group of architectural drawings, comprising forty-five drawings on forty-one sheets, documents the refurbishment of the
Villa Borghese on the
Pincian hill that was commissioned by Prince Marcantonio Borghese. The drawings include highly finished presentation sheets
as well as utilitarian,
preparatory studies. As architect to the Borghese family, Antonio Asprucci directed the work, however the drawings shed light
on the role played by his
son, Mario, and on Mario's use of a neoclassical vocabulary in the designs of pavilions, fountains, and other architectural
elements.
Seventeen sheets (2012.M.12-1 to 2012.M.12-17) relate to designs for pavilions, realized or unrealized, in the Villa Borghese
gardens. The majority of
these sheets are attributed to Mario Asprucci, including one for the Temple of Aesculapius, three for the aqueduct or Acqua
Felice, four presenting
alternate designs for fountains overlooking the Casino dei giochi d'acqua, as well as one for the Museo Gabino.
Other drawings by Mario Asprucci, his father Antonio, and their associates, relate to other Borghese commissions. These include
designs by Mario
Asprucci for a rotunda (2021.M.12-24) and for farmhouses (2021.M.12-20 to 2021.M.12-21), and a survey by an unidentified draftsman
or architect of the
Borghese granary at Pratica di Mare outside of Rome (2021.M.12-33).
Three sheets (2021.M.12-39 to 2021.M.12-41) cannot be attributed with certainty to Mario or Antonio Asprucci or their associates,
nor can they even be
confirmed as Borghese commissions.
Numerous sheets are stamped on the recto with the mark of the Italian collector Andrea Manto. Several sheets are annotated
in a later hand in
English.
The drawings are undated, unless noted. The titles are derived from curatorial notes and from Susanna Pasquali,
Mario Asprucci:
Neoclassical Architecture in Villa Borghese, 1786-1796.
Related Material
Several other archives held at the Getty Research Institute document the work of Mario and Antonio Asprucci:
- Antonio Asprucci designs, ca. 1800, Accession no. 860224*
- Antonio Asprucci architectural drawings for the Villa Borghese, ca. 1770-ca. 1793, Accession no. 880400*
- Mario Asprucci Villa Borghese ceiling and wall designs, ca. 1785, Accession no. 880431
- Camuccini, Vincenzo, 1771-1844. Mario Asprucci, architect to the Prince Borghese at Rome, Accession no. 2002.M.5.
Other repositories with drawings by Mario Asprucci include:
- Accademia di San Luca, Rome, which holds the eight Balestra competition designs
- Centro internazionale di studi architettura A. Palladio, Vicenza, which holds designs formerly owned by Alessandro Papafava
(1784-1861)
- Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna
- Kunstbibliothek, Berlin
- Soane Museum, London, which holds designs formerly owned by Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842)
- National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, which holds designs formerly owned by Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842)
- Royal Institute of British Architects, London
- Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, which holds designs formerly owned by Giovanni Piancastelli (1845-1926),
director of the Villa
Borghese
Processing Information
Karen Meyer-Roux prepared this finding aid in November 2021.
Immediate Source of Acquisition - Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2021.
Digitized Material
The archive was digitized in 2022 and the images are available online: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2021m12
Biographical / Historical
The Villa Borghese on the Pincian Hill in Rome was commissioned in the early seventeenth century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese
(1576-1633) who was a
nephew of Pope Paul V (1552-1621) and whose numerous positions within the Roman Church enabled him to become an influential
collector and art patron.
The Villa's Casino Nobile (now home to the Galleria Borghese) was conceived to house his collection of antique statuary, which
featured the
Borghese Gladiator, the
Sleeping Hermaphroditus, and the
Centaur with
Cupid
, now at the Louvre. In the following century, Prince Marcantonio IV (1730-1800) took up the Borghese tradition of art patronage,
expanding the collection and undertaking the renovation of the Villa's architecture and gardens. Antonio Asprucci (1723-1808)
was the architect who
directed this ambitious project of modernization.
Antonio Asprucci was born in Rome in 1723, the son of an architect named Mario Asprucci. He became an assistant to Nicola
Salvi (1697-1751), the
architect who designed the Trevi Fountain. In 1756, he was appointed by Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, as architect for the
duke's buildings in Rome
and undertook the restorations of the Villa Medici. In 1772, he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca, the academy
for painters, sculptors and
architects, and in 1790, was elected principe or director of the academy. He also held positions within the city of Rome,
as Sotto Maestro delle Strade
for the area of Trevi and that of Campo Marzio.
Beginning in 1773, Antonio Asprucci appeared on the household rolls of Prince Marcantonio IV Borghese and served as the Borghese
family architect until
1805 with his main project being the design of pavilions and gardens in the Villa Borghese on the Pincian Hill. In this campaign
of architectural
renewal, Antonio collaborated with his son Mario and a dynamic circle of artists and architects (including Tommaso Conca,
Jacob More, and Cristoforo
Unterberger), and antiquarians, most notably Ennio Quirino Visconti, who was later responsible for the display of antiquities
at the Musée Napoléon, now
the Louvre.
The life and work of Mario Asprucci (1764-1804), the son of Antonio, is not well documented. In 1786, at the age of 22, Antonio's
designs for an
academy of fine arts earned him the first prize in the Balestra competition, which was organized by the Accademia di San Luca.
Five years later he
entered the architectural competition organized by the Parma Academy, where his drawings also won first prize. Although Mario
learned his trade from his
father (and inherited from him the post of architect to the Borghese), he departed from the elder's late baroque idiom, embracing
instead the authority
of the antique and its rational and functional language.
Mario Asprucci developed his skills as an architect and draftsman in an environment where Rome was becoming a prime source
for classical inspiration.
For example, the Pio Clementino Museum was established in 1772 to house the Vatican antiquities. Artists came from across
Europe to learn how to infuse
a modern view of antiquity into all elements of art and design, with the neoclassical artists Antonio Canova, Gavin Hamilton,
and Henri Füssli spending
extensive periods in Rome.
Beginning in 1792, Mario attended meetings of the Accademia della Pace, an informal association of international artists that
was founded as a critical
response to the traditionalism of the Accademia di San Luca. Several architects participated in this group, producing conceptual
drawings for grand
civic architecture. Although he never left Rome, Mario was closely associated with several English figures of note: he mentored
the young architect
Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842) and, around 1794, received a commission from Frederick Hervey (1730-1803), 4th Earl of
Bristol, to design his
residence at Ickworth.
Mario excelled as a draftsman, working in the traditional media of pen, ink, and watercolor, as well as in graphite, which
was imported from England.
In spite of these auspicious beginnings, Mario's career was cut short at age 39 and his output remained overshadowed by that
of his father. His drawings
suggest that had he lived a longer life, he would have become one of the most influential voices in the early 19th-century
neoclassical urban renewal of
Rome.
References consulted:
Carole Paul,
Making a Prince's Museum. Drawings for the Late-Eighteen Century Redecoration of the Villa Borghese (Los
Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2000).
Susanna Pasquali,
Mario Asprucci. Neoclassical Architecture in Villa Borghese, 1786-1796 (Roma: Arti Grafiche La
Moderna, 2018).
Arrangement
The sheets are organized by projects. Sheets 1-17 are designs for built or unrealized pavilions in the Villa Borghese gardens.
Sheets 18-25 relate to
unidentified commissions for the Villa Borghese or other Borghese estates outside of Rome. Sheets 26-38 are by architects
or draftsmen working in the
service of the Borghese family. Sheets 39-41 are by unidentified architects or draftsmen and may not be related to the Asprucci
or Borghese with
certainty.
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Villa Borghese (Rome, Italy : Park)
Architecture--Italy--Rome
Neoclassicism (Architecture)
Rome (Italy) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Architectural drawings (visual works)