Graf Camillo Marcolini-Ferretti (1738–1814), Mäzen der Künste.

Count Camillo Marcolini-Ferretti (1738-1814), Patron of Arts. Interaction between Italy and Saxony at the dawn of a new architectural aesthetic.

This Ph.D. research explores the role of Count Camillo Marcolini-Ferretti (1738–1814), Prime Minister and patron at the Dresden court, as a cultural mediator between Saxony, Italy, and Great Britain during the late Enlightenment. Specifically, it investigates the mechanisms of cultural transfer that contributed to the affirmation of a new classical aesthetic in the arts, architecture, and institutions of Saxony between the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Although he had significant influence over the institutions and the court, Camillo Marcolini remains a marginal figure in the history of Saxon and German Classicism. The purpose of the project is to fill the knowledge gap by reconsidering his activities through the lenses of art and cultural history, as well as international network analysis.

In the late 18th century, after the crisis of the Seven Years’ War, Saxony experienced a process of artistic and institutional renewal. In the same context, Marcolini played a role as cultural mediator and promoted a new classical aesthetic that appears in the expressions of both architecture and applied arts, and in the influence of Saxon educational and productive institutions, such as the Kunstakademie and the Meißen Porcelain Manufactory.

Thanks to the analysis of new archival sources and the reconstruction of Marcolini’s family and diplomatic network, the research aims to define the complex framework of knowledge, models, and artists' exchange between Rome, Naples, and Dresden. Above all, the Marcolini family, with its extensive international relations (Austria, England, Spain, Portugal, Russia), appears to assume a key diplomatic role at the Papal Court.

The research also investigates the contribution of Marcolini to the development of Architectural Classicism through his patronage of architects considered “minor” by the mainstream critics, such as Johann Daniel Schade, Christian Friedrich Schuricht, and Christian Traugott Weinlig. To this end, several projects will be examined in their architectural and landscape elements, including Friedrichsgrund Park, Palais Brühl, Waldschlösschen, Radeberger Farm, and  Hosterwitz vineyard.

The methodological approach is based on the various types of sources directly or indirectly related to Count Marcolini, to propose a new reading of Saxon Classicism and Early Romanticism as the result of a process influenced by external models, yet locally adapted and reinterpreted. In this sense, the project considers Marcolini’s role pivotal to understanding the transformation of taste, as well as the lifestyle between the Ancien Régime and the Napoleonic era.

The research is being carried out at the Technische Universität Dresden (Prof. Dr. Marcus Köhler) and at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Prof. Dr. Andrea Maglio), and it is currently funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

Contact: Bruno Di Gesù