Royal Academy Plaster Busts

The Royal Academy Plaster Busts.

Eight busts of artists and architects were installed in the 'Octagon' in the Main Galleries at Burlington House when the RA moved there in 1868.

It seems most likely that these busts were purchased at this date, perhaps from the formatore Domico Brucciani (1814 - 80).

Michealangelo

Plaster

710 mm.

The cast was cast from a bust by Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770), one of the leading sculptors of the 18th century. Rysbrack produced many portrait busts of historical figures including the artists Rubens and Van Dyck, and the architects Palladio and Inigo Jones. These were much in demand for the decoration of libraries, reflecting British patrons’ growing appreciation of their artistic forebears.

The bust has much in common with the bronze bust made by Danielle da Volterra (1509-66), a close associate of Michelangelo, in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

I have written at some length about the Rysbrack bust see - 

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2017/08/soane-museum-7-statuette-of.html

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Leonardo Da Vinci

Plaster 770 mm.

The cast appears to be taken from the bust of Leonardo by Filippo Albacini, itself derived from the presumed self-portrait in the Uffizi. This self-portrait was in turn engraved by Rafaello Morghen at the beginning of the 19th century, and in this form served as Albacini’s model.

Albacini’s bust was executed to occupy a position in the Pantheon in Rome, but was transferred to the Capitoline Museums in 1820. This was also the case for the bust which served as the ultimate model for the plaster cast of Raphael, (below)also in the Octagon at Burlington House.

John Flaxman

Plaster

700 mm tall

The cast is taken from the bust of Flaxman by Edward Hodges Bailey which the sculptor submitted as his Diploma Work following his election as an Academician in 1821.

John Flaxman 

by Edward Hodges Baily

Marble

544 mm.

1823

Given as a diploma work by the artist 1788 - 1867

Royal Academy

I have written about Hodges Baily several times see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/11/agnes-strickland-1796-1874-by-edward.html

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/02/bust-of-francis-bacon-magdalen-college.html

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/01/busts-of-john-locke-and-francis-bacon.html

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Titian 

Plaster

780 cms

Sir Christopher Wren

After the bust by Edward Pierce (Pearce) (1635 - 95).

760 mm tall.

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Raphael.

This is a plaster cast of Giuseppe Fabris' bronze bust of Raphael (1833), which is located in a niche above Raphael’s tomb in the Pantheon, Rome. Fabris’ bust was itself made to replace an earlier marble bust by Paolo Naldini (1674) which in 1820 was moved to the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

It lacks the shoulders of the Fabris Bust.

Plaster

700 mm tall.

https://archive.org/details/deliciaebritanni00bick/page/n7/mode/2up

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Royual Collection

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Sir Joshua Reynolds

Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751-1801)

770 mm tall.

"This plaster cast is taken from a bust of Sir Joshua Reynolds by the Italian artist Giuseppe Ceracchi  who lived in London during the 1770s. Specifically the cast is believed to have been made from Ceracchi’s original terracotta model, which formerly belonged to the Royal Academy although its present whereabouts is unknown. 

The RA also possesses Ceracchi’s marble bust of Reynolds (c.1778-9), (see below) although given the differences between the pinned cloak of the marble and this cast, it is unlikely the marble was the source.

The bust manifests Reynolds’ own ideas about sculpture, which he expressed in his 1780 Discourse to the Royal Academy. Reynolds rejected the naturalism of sculptors who utilised contemporary costume and lifelike detail, preferring the classicism of sculptors such as Ceracchi and his former employer Agostino Carlini. Ceracchi has based the portrait on Roman busts of Emperor Caracalla, presenting Reynolds as someone who not only practices, but also thinks deeply about art".

Blurb above culled from RA website.