Two Caesars by Domenico Pieratti
Between Mannerism and Baroque: Two Caesars by Domenico Pieratti
In this new catalogue, Andrea Bacchi reconstructs and names the sculptor who carved two Caesars, while Claudio Pizzorusso maps out the career of Domenico Pieratti, a brilliant and highly original sculptor who, we feel, deserves further exploration in order to shed light on the remarkable yet hitherto poorly studied area that was sculpture in Florence between the ages of Mannerism and Baroque.
The unexpected encounter is one of the most appealing aspects of the profession I have chosen. I can recall the very moment when my eyes lighted on two busts depicting a young Marcus Aurelius sporting an impressive paludamentum and an Augustus in his sophisticated cuirass, whose stern gaze was forever trained beyond the horizon that we common mortals can perceive.
I was instantly seized with a desire to explore and to understand, because it is part of my job to select works whose quality can lead to the discovery of what may even be an as yet little-known artist.
Who? Where? When?
The busts may have appeared to remain silent but they were in fact extremely loquacious. The answers to my questions lay in the folds of the drapery, in the construction of the cuirass, in the treatment of the sitters’ flesh and in the handling of their hair.
In these pages, Andrea Bacchi reconstructs and names the sculptor who carved the two Caesars, while Claudio Pizzorusso maps out the career of Domenico Pieratti, a brilliant and highly original sculptor who, we feel, deserves further exploration in order to shed light on the remarkable yet hitherto poorly studied area that was sculpture in Florence between the ages of Mannerism and Baroque.
