Journal of Art Historiography (Dec 2014)
‘Working from home: the life and art of Giovanni Baratta’: Francesco Freddolini, Giovanni Baratta 1670-1747. Scultura e industria del marmo tra la Toscana e le corti d’Europa, LermArte documenti 10, Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider, 2013
Abstract
This monograph describes the life and work of a major marble sculptor who, after his initial training and a period of work in Florence, returned to his native city of Carrara. There he developed the family workshop, where he was able to control the making of marble sculpture from the quarries through the transportation by ship to the installation. With the aid of many assistants, including his brothers and cousins who were also sculptors, he produced not only figurative sculpture but ornamental marble doorways, chimney-pieces, and columns with their bases and capitals. He had gained the patronage of the king of Denmark and the Duke of Marlborough, Madama Reale in Turin, and (through his friendship with Filippo Juvarra) the king of Spain, but he seldom moved from his home, preferring to export his sculpture to many cities in Italy and abroad.
