The conservation of Antonio Corradini’s Bust of a Veiled Woman has been made possible thanks to the generous support of The Boston Chapter of Save Venice.

A brilliantly gifted artist of humble origins, by his thirties Venetian-born sculptor Antonio Corradini dominated the European art world, his reputation reaching as far as Madrid, Vienna, Dresden, and Saint Petersburg.

The key to Corradini’s success was his donne velate—female busts or statues with veiled faces that became his signature pieces. According to the Venetian painter Antonio Balestra, upon the unveiling of Corradini’s first, groundbreaking veiled woman (Allegory of Religion) in December 1717, the sculptor “astonished the whole city [of Venice].” Carved for the funerary monument of Manino Manin in Udine, but first presented in his hometown to impress local art collectors, the statue revealed Corradini’s extremely refined technique and unmatched ability to “make of marble what appears to be a transparent veil.” In addition to Corradini’s talent to turn stone into a translucent veil, the public was also amazed by the iconographic novelty of the donne velate. Indeed, reporting in August 1752 on Corradini’s Allegory of Modesty for the Cappella Sansevero, Naples, archeologist Filippo Venuti insisted on how “neither do the ancient texts mention any marble statue with a veiled face, nor has any similar miraculous marble been found among those unearthed up to now.” A month later Corradini died. By then, his donne velate had flooded the European art market, making him one of the most celebrated sculptors of all times.

Corradini’s Bust of a Veiled Woman is first documented at Ca’ Rezzonico in 1889 and it is believed to be part of the original decoration of the palace’s great hall (first-floor portego). The bust does not show any visible sign of the mould’s parting lines and should thus be regarded as an extremely rare example of Corradini’s plaster models. This observation sheds new light on Corradini’s working methods and, possibly, on that of early-18th-century Venetian sculpture. It is common knowledge that it was Neoclassic sculptor Antonio Canova who first introduced the use of plaster models in the process of elaborating marble sculptures—a technique he had learned in Rome from sculptors like Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. Rather, Corradini’s Bust of a Veiled Woman would suggest that such a practice was already in use in Venice well before Canova. On the other hand, it could also be argued that Corradini too assimilated that very method in Rome, where he resided in the early-1740s, right before moving to Naples around 1748. That being the case, the Rezzonicos could have bought Corradini’s bust on the Roman market, perhaps following the election of Carlo della Torre Rezzonico as Pope Clement XIII (1758).

The sculpture appeared seriously damaged by prolonged moisture exposure. The surface was suffering from numerous condition issues, including the accumulation of grime and dirt, cracking and buckling, and areas that had been integrated during previous conservation treatments.

Antonio Corradini (1688 – 1752) [attr.]
Bust of a Veiled Woman
mid-18th century, plaster
h. 58 cm

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