TORRICELLI, Giuseppe Antonio

(b. 1659 Firenze, d. 1719 Firenze)

Italian craftsman. He came from a dynasty of artisans who had been active for some time in the Medici workshop in Florence; an ancestor called Bartolomeo is mentioned among the craftsmen employed at the Cappella dei Principi, Florence, during the reign of Ferdinand I. According to a manuscript (1739; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale) by his contemporary, the collector Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri, Torricelli studied drawing with Alessandro Rosi (1627-1707) and modelling with Gaetano Zumbo (1656-1701) and was employed by Cosimo III at the Grand Ducal workshop to carve cameos and reliefs. The cameos he created include one of the elderly Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) and another, unusually large, of Cosimo III and Tuscany in front of the Temple of Peace (chalcedony, Florence, Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure).

Cosimo III and Tuscany before the Temple of Peace

This exceptionally large cameo is the work of Torricelli, one of the major specialist in semiprecious stone relief carving, active in Florence in the Medici workshop at the time of Cosimo III.

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Cosimo III de' Medici

This unfinished statuette was perhaps intended for the exterior of a cabinet. Cosimo’s head, hands and feet have been sculpted in hard chalcedony, probably by the specialist in free-standing semiprecious stone carving, Torricelli. Besides the parts in chalcedony, the bronze flag and military trophies are also original. The Grand Duke’s armature was carved in wood and the pieces were mounted in 1952.

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