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Asprucci (Mario and Antonio) architectural drawings relating to the Villa Borghese in Rome and other Borghese commissions
2021.M.12  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Related Material
  • Processing Information
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition - Acquisition Information
  • Digitized Material
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Arrangement
  • Access

  • 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 catalog record  for this collection. Click here for the access policy .
    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.
    See the Library Catalog  of the Getty Research Institute.
    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)