PRESENTATION OF THE VOLUME

The Appian Way in the drawings of Carlo Labruzzi at the Vatican Apostolic Library

by Pier Andrea De Rosa and Barbara Jatta

TUESDAY 9th APRIL 2013

at 17.30

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana – Città del Vaticano

The volume will be presented by:S.E. Mons. Jean-Louis Bruguès, Librarian of HRC., Prof. antonio PaoLucci, Director ofthe Vatican Museums, Dott. Pietro Zander, Fabbrica di San Pietro, Prof. LorenZo QuiLici.

RSVP: 06.69879421-490; rsvp@vatlib.it

PIER ANDREA DE ROSA – BARBARA JATTA

the aPPian WaY in the draWings of carLo LaBruZZi at the vatican aPostoLic LiBrarY

T he volume entitled The Appian Way in the drawings of Carlo Labruzzi at the Vatican Apos-tolic Library allows us to understand and appreciate an important group of drawings

by Carlo Labruzzi (Rome 1748–Perugia 1817) kept at the Vatican Apostolic Library. Theauthors set about to publish the entire corpus of the 226 monochrome watercolour draw-ings, carried out by the Roman painter to illustrate the sites along the Appian Way he hadvisited during the course of a journey from Rome to Benevento in the autumn of 1789. Inthis journey he was joined by Sir Richard Colt Hoare from Stourhead, who had commis-sioned the paintings: the latter was well known for his historic studies and his love of theclassical Latin authors as well as being a sophisticated connoisseur. The drawings of CarloLabruzzi were first discovered in 1903 by Thomas Ashby, but have since been made publiconly in a partial and fragmentary manner through various articles and short papers. Onlya limited number of the drawings and watercolours have been so far published, with eachimage correlated to a brief description. Most importantly, the drawings have never beenshown alongside the other views of the Appian Way by the same Labruzzi, which arekept in Accademia di San Luca and in the Museum of Rome, in London at the British Mu-seum, and in other renowned international institutions. The authors intend to describethe genesis of the collection of the Vatican Library, (which is undoubtedly the most com-

plete and the most artistically superior in quality compared to the other collections) and, at the same time, to give anupdated version of both Carlo Labruzzi’s biography and his artistic production, particularly in light of the recent dis-coveries in the archives by the very authors. Thanks to these, the authors can now safely define him as one of the mostoriginal personalities of the history of painting in Rome between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning ofthe following century. Carlo Labruzzi was also an engraver, a talented one: an entire section of the book, written by Bar-bara Jatta, is dedicated to the engraving activities of Labruzzi, which have so far never been researched and represent,however, an important part of his entire artistic work. The book is enriched by an original appendix of documents fromthe archives, researched by Pier Andrea De Rosa, that relate to various events of the painter’s life and profession. Wemust emphasize that this is an original work, brought about thanks to extended research by the two authors, which isintended for both the national community but also for the international one, considering the participation of numerousinstitutes of various countries. The English translation of numerous papers of this volume will encourage the interna-tional Community of scholars, who have long been awaiting a study/catalogue of the works of this esteemed Romanpainter, to benefit from this unpublished and valuable volume. Professor Lorenzo Quilici, renowned archaeologist andspecialist of the Appian Way, was kind enough to collaborate with the authors on this book.

The publication of this volume, a fine edition of the Vatican Apostolic Library, was possible thanks to the generouscontributions of the Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei and of the Fondazione Cavalieri di Colombo.

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