Last May 2nd, in Cerreto Sannita, the third volume of the series “the factories of the Saints” was presented, which sees together the Diocesan Museum Foundation of Molfetta and the publisher Claudio Grenzi engaged in the ambitious project of going beyond the most famous sculptors’ workshops of the wood of Naples – the political, economic and artistic capital of the southern Kingdom – to intercept the “secluded” places of production and the many “carpenters” who are completely unknown or considered ‘minor’, in order to recover them for the history of art by narrating their lives and stories, reconstructing, as far as possible, the catalogues.
«This is the case – states Francesco Di Palo, director of the series – ofinternational Silvestro Jacobelli (Cerreto 1724-Lima c. 1815), sculptor who certainly experienced his vocation by modeling clay in the family business, and then undertook his actual apprenticeship in Naples, at one of the reputed Neapolitan workshops dedicated to carving wooden, perhaps that of the De Mari. His return and activity in Cerreto are testified by numerous works: first of all Our Lady of Providence of 1757. Then the international turning point: his traces take us to Madrid and Cadiz; finally, along the lines of “missionary strategies”, in the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Lima, where he moved permanently, helping to reintegrate and compensate for the damage, material and immaterial, caused by the devastating earthquake of 1746″.
This book is an extract of extensive research conducted for the realization of Francesco De Nicolo’s Doctoral Thesis entitled Italy in Viceregal Peru: artistic relations. Painting, sculpture and applied arts, 1542-1821discussed in April 2023 at the Universidad de Granada (Spain), which aims to provide a contribution to the study of the phenomenon of artistic relations that linked, during the viceregal era (1542-1821), Peru to Italy , through the constant sending of works of art, as well as through the transfer of artists.
The research on Silvestro Jacobelli for the anniversary of the three hundredth anniversary of his birth (5 April 1724) therefore starts backwards, that is, from Peru, where through ‘field’ and archival investigations, it was possible to identify the traces of this forgotten but very valid sculptor. The need to know the artist better and to delve deeper into his life and to frame his works corresponded to the need to retrace the steps he took about three centuries ago before arriving in the New Lands.
In short, the publication promoted in partnership with the Tricentenary Committee, Diocese of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata dei Goti, Municipality of Cerreto Sannita and GAL Titerno, allows Francesco De Nicolo – recently curator of a study and an exhibition on Giaquinto, Porta and the southern workshops of the eighteenth century at the Diocesan Museum of Molfetta – to reconstruct the human and artistic events of Jacobelli who, with rare exceptions, was only known to local literature, recovering his memory and art within the less asphyxiated reaches of the history of Italian art.
After having brought theEcce Homo of Lucera and i Mysteries of Molfetta in the amazing hand of Aniello Stellato, with the publication of the volume published in 2023 Anellus Stellato fecet…the scientific series takes on further momentum, qualifying the Foundation’s activity and the synergy with the publisher Grenzi in a wide-ranging cultural horizon.
Tuesday 7 May 2024
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
