Pietro Leopoldo I of Tuscany and Horace Mann: a Solemn Encounter
“I create you Knight in the name of my brother, the King of Great Britain”. With this formula, preceded by three touches of a drawn sword on the left shoulder, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pietro Leopoldo I, conferred upon Horace Mann the knighthood of the Order of the Bath.
The ceremony took place at Palazzo Pitti on October 19, 1768, and now, more than 250 years later, in the splendid setting of Corsini in Florence, the enlightened sovereign and the English diplomat will once again be united before the visitors of the 33rd edition of BIAF in the form of two busts; the Grand Duke sculpted in marble, while Sir Horace Mann’s effigy is molded in terracotta.
The celebratory portrait of Grand Duke of Tuscany Pietro Leopoldo I, dated 1777, is a significant addition to the catalogue of works by the carrarese sculptor Domenico Andrea Pelliccia, who the previous year executed the Monument to the Grand Duke at the Lazzaretto of Leghorn. We are looking here at a work of immense sophistication, in which the meticulous care lavished on the definition of detail translates into a diversity in the carving, where everything becomes tangible and appears to belie the cold nature of the Apuan stone. The naturalism of the material, however, fails to subdue the portrait’s inner intensity despite it’s being trapped in a frozen, suspended, impenetrable expression.
The portrait of Sir Horace Mann is by the English sculptor, Prince Hoare, who was in Rome and in Florence from 1743 to 1750. The expression of our English diplomat, confident and full of determination, becomes the subject of this sculptural portrait. The face, proudly turned to the right, seems to invite us to see with him that promising future that his career, seems to let us get a glimpse, albeit at this early stage, of his promising future career. Framed between the curls of the thick wig that fall over the right shoulder, even the clothing reflects Mann’s high social status as well as that decorum à la française that characterized the typical clothing of the 18th-century gentleman.
