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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Four Engraved Seal-stones wash drawings mid-17th century British Museum |
"These four drawings were cut out of their original seventeenth-century mounts and remounted by Charles Townely. It was he who inscribed the mount from the Albani Drawings. Townley came into possession of a number of drawings originating from the Paper Museum. He knew only so much of their history, however, and so traced them back only as far as the library of Cardinal Alessandro Albani. The intaglios illustrated are all of the Roman period. The drawings were gathered together by Townley because they all show motion powered by mythical or fantastic creatures."
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Seal-stone - Female torch-bearing figure driving chariot drawn by wolf-headed serpents drawing attributed to Pietro Testa 1640s British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Seal-stone - Aphrodite drawn through the waves by Hippocamp, with Eros towed behind wash drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman Bronze Statuette Triple-bodied Hekate drawing attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi ca. 1621-46 British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman Bronze Statuette Triple-bodied Hekate drawing attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi ca. 1621-46 British Museum |
"In Greek mythology Hekate was the goddess of the Underworld who became closely associated with magic and witchcraft. She was identified particularly with crossroads, and tri-form statues of her were frequently set up to mark their junction. The original subject of this Roman Imperial bronze was formerly in the collection of Cardinal Chigi and is now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. The goddess is shown holding attributes of her magical powers. These include blazing torches, a rope and a sword."
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Etruscan Bronze Warrior Statuette drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Etruscan Bronze Warrior Statuette drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman marble statue of man wearing toga drawing attributed to Pietro da Cortona ca. 1631-39 Royal Collection, Windsor |
"The statue [above] owned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini (and still in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome) was much discussed in Barberini circles for the particular form of the toga. They had all read their Tertullian de pallio. The horizontal band of folds across the upper chest, passing under the right arm, with a similar band placed vertically on the left chest, and the end of the pouch (sinus) clasped in the left hand, is a highly unusual arrangement, even now known only in this example and one other. The drawing shows the statue in an unrestored state and faithfully reproduces every slight detail of the cloth, including the little crease in the surface of the vertical band of folds."
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman marble statue of Wild Boar Uffizi Gallery drawing ca. 1650 British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Barberini Obelisk folding drawing ca. 1635 British Museum |
"The hieroglyphics on the obelisk record that it was dedicated by Hadrian in memory of Antinous, set up in Rome in a temple of Fortuna. In the third century it was moved to the spina of the Circus Varianus, near the Via Labicana. There, in fragments, it was noted by Sangallo and Ligorio – among others – in the sixteenth century. In 1630 Cardinal Francesco Barberini, whose astrological studies led him to a particular interest in Egyptian antiquties, had it disinterred and in 1632 it was moved to the forecourt of the new Barberini palace on the Quirinal, where it lay (still in fragments) until 1769, when it was given to the Vatican. (Since 1822, finally restored and erected in the Pincian gardens, it has been known as the "Pincian" obelisk.) In 1635, on the recommendation of Peiresc, Francesco Barberini called the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher to Rome. Kircher (1602-1680) was the first to attempt a scholarly study of hieroglyphics and his career as an expert on the subject flourished under Barberini patronage. He was powerless to read hieroglyphics properly (that had to await the discovery of the Rosetta stone in the late eighteenth century) and his interpretations appear bizarre to us now, but he did realize that they must be phonetic signs, not allegorical symbols. These drawings, and the associated pair showing the other two sides of the obelisk, are probably the originals made to assist Kircher in his studies."
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Bronze Brooches or Fibulae drawing mid-17th century British Museum |
"[The drawing above] depicts a cross-bow type and four other types of bronze fibulae (for fastening cloaks), two animal brooches and a small disc-shaped pin (shown from front and back). Variously Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman in date, and of types commonly found in cemeteries in the neighborhood of Rome, they may have been drawn as a group because they were all in a particular collection – one assembled by Cassiano himself or one of his acquaintances with similar interests, such as Claude Menestrier."
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman Calendar "Monologium Rusticum Colotianum" drawing by Jean Matal ca. 1590 British Museum |
"The calendar is carved on four sides of a marble block, found in Rome on or near the Palatine Hill before the end of the fifeenth century. It takes its name from Angelo Colocci in whose collection it was in 1527, but by 1550 it was in the Palazzo Farnese (it is now in Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale). Below the approriate zodiac symbol, the column for each month lists the Nones, the lengths of days and nights, the name of the zodiac sign, the name of the tutelary deity, agricultural work to be done, and the major holidays (feriae sacraque). The drawing is by the Burgundian jurist Jean Matal (Johannes Metellus), who lived and worked in Rome in the later sixteenth century. His epigraphic papers remained in Rome after his death, though how Cassiano acquired this one is not known. Matal either copied it from the original in the Farnese palace or from one of the numerous copies that circulated among antiquarians of his time."
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Fall of Phaeton Roman Marble Sarcophagus Relief drawing ca. 1500 British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Roman Marble Sarcophagus Reliefs drawing ca. 1500 British Museum |
"The left-hand drawing shows one of three groups on the front of an unusual type of sarcophagus (now much restored and in the Vatican Sala delle Muse, its earlier history obscure) in which centaurs wrestle with satyrs. The figure of a herm to the left, who is umpiring the contest, is transposed from the left side of the sarcophagus. The subject is shown before the subsequent restorations. The right-hand drawing is taken from the end of a small Bacchic sarcophagus."
– quoted commentary from The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, catalog of a 1993 exhibition in the Prints and Drawings Gallery of the British Museum