Cesare Faraglia (1865-1946)

by Raffaella Bucolo, BSR Research Fellow

Photograph by Cesare Faraglia of a drawing by Stephen Welsh, Rome Scholar in Architecture, 1922-25

Cesare Faraglia, who was born in Rome on the 10th October 1865, was a highly respected photographer who worked with archaeologists and art historians during the first half of the twentieth century. Almost nothing is known about of the early years of Faraglia’s activity as a photographer:  his work began to be published in art magazines from 1905. He must already have been well-known before that date, however, since eminent scholars and collectors, such as Ludwig Pollak and Giovanni Barracco, chose him to photograph their art works and private rooms. A photograph of Pollak’s living room in Palazzo Odescalchi was taken by Faraglia between 1928 and 1943.

The true launch pad for Faraglia’s career was the close collaboration with the German Archaeological Institute for which he worked as a freelance photographer from the end of the nineteenth century, and after 1906 in a much closer collaboration. In 1906 he was commissioned to photograph the antiquities at the Vatican Museum, a considerable task that took him almost forty years to complete. After 1910 and until the end of his life, Faraglia’s photographs filled the pages of scientific journals, catalogues, art books and works on architecture and archaeology.Faraglia’s photographic studio was located at 14 via Messina 14: he referred to himself as the photographer of “Institutes and Archaeological Schools”, a self-definition that he reproduced on his stamps, letterheads and also in advertisements.

Cesare Faraglia worked for many of the foreign research Institutes in Rome, which commissioned his photographs of important monuments such as the Arch of Septimius Severus and the Arch of Constantine, which he was able to do thanks to the construction of bespoke scaffolding. Proof of Faraglia’s professional renown can be seen by the fact that he was invited by the “Governatorato di Roma” to document, together with other important photographers, the largescale demolition of the historic city centre that took place between 1924 and 1940.

Faraglia collaborated for many years with the British School at Rome and his works are kept in various parts of the Photographic Archive. He worked side by side with eminent scholars of the British School and was also the author of the figures published in Henry Stuart Jones’ seminal volumes about the marble antiquities in the collections of the Capitoline Museums (A catalogue of the ancient sculptures preserved in the municipal collections of Rome. The sculptures of the Museo Capitolino, Oxford 1912; The sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Oxford 1926). Faraglia was also the author of a number of photographs of the British School’s interiors, as well as of the studios and artworks of the fellows in Fine Arts, who are sometimes immortalized alongside their artistic works in the photographs.

Bust portrait of Barbara Hepworth by John Skeaping, Glass negative, 21 x 27 cm, taken by Cesare Faraglia between 1923 and 1924
Self bust portrait by John Skeaping. Glass negative, 21 x 27 cm, taken by Cesare Faraglia between 1923 and 1924

Cesare Faraglia died in Rome at the age of eighty-one: his significant contribution to of the field of fine arts is recorded on his tombstone.

Sources and Further Reading

Becchetti, P. (1983) La fotografia a Roma dalle origini al 1915, Rome, p. 305.

Bockmann, R. (2017) Cesare Faraglia (ca. 1870–1950). Ritratto femminile, detto Busto Fonseca, 1912, in: M. F. Bonetti, C. Marsicola (ed.), Alfabeto fotografico romano. Collezioni e archivi fotografici di istituzioni culturali in Roma (Ausstellungskatalog Rom), Pomezia/Rome 2017, p. 296, Kat. B4.

Bucolo R. (2015), Margarete Gütschow. Biografia e studi di un’archeologa, Supplementi e Monografie della Rivista Archeologia Classica, 13-n.s. 10, Rome, pp. 52, 160-161.

Bucolo R. (2016), Cesare Faraglia. Fotografo degli Istituti e Scuole di Archeologia.

Poster for the Conference: Archeologia e documentazione fotografica d’archivio dal dagherrotipo all’avvento della fotografia digitale, (Aquileia, 28-29 April 2016)

Di Giammaria P. (2015), Gli albori della raccolta fotografica dei Musei Vaticani e la Fototeca oggi, tra conservazione e innovazione B. Fabjan (ed.), Immagini e memoria, Gli Archivi fotografici di Istituzioni culturali della città di Roma, Atti del convegno (Roma, Palazzo Barberini, 3–4 Dezember 2012), Rome, pp.157-168.

Di Pinto R. (2009), Attorno ai Patti Lateranensi. Indagine sulla formazione dell’Archivio Fotografico dei Musei Vaticani, in: A. Paolucci, C. Pantanella (edd.), I Musei Vaticani nell’80° Anniversario della firma dei Patti Lateranensi, 1929-2009, Florence, pp. 401-425.

Margiotta A. (2007), Fotografare le demolizioni, in R. Leone, A. Margiotta, F. Betti, A. M. D’Amelio (edd.), Via dell’Impero. Demolizioni e scavi. Fotografie 1930-1943, Rome, pp. 13-19.

Rossini O. (2018), Ludwig Pollak. La vita e le opere, in: O. Rossini (ed.), Ludwig Pollak. Archeologo e mercante d’arte. Praga 1868-Auschwitz 1943. Gli anni d’oro del collezionismo internazionale da Giovanni Barracco a Sigmund Freud, Rome, pp. 14-35.

Schallert, Röll 2014: Schallert, R., Röll, J. (2014), La Fototeca della Bibliotheca Hertziana (Istituto Max Planck per la Storia dell’Arte), in: B. Fabjan (ed.), Immagini e memoria, Gli Archivi fotografici di Istituzioni culturali della città di Roma, Atti del convegno (Roma, Palazzo Barberini, 3–4 Dezember 2012), Rome, pp. 169-182.

See also Cesare Faraglia | Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte (biblhertz.it)

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

Photography at the British School at Rome, 1913–1930

Although not an official faculty, the BSR has long been a hub for photography. The photographic collections of the BSR are extensive, with staff and fellows documenting crucial records of Italian history and European classical studies from the advent of the invention of photography, onwards. Photography formed an important part of the scholars and BSR associates’ research, with several collections documenting historic remains, architecture, topography and the communities of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italy. This image from the Gardner collection of architecture scholar J. S. Beaumont, (c.1914), suggests the continual evolution and increasing accessibility of this technology was also cause for play, exploration and re-evaluation of traditional methodologies. 

J. S. Beaumont, Between Two Women (c.1914), Gardner Collection, BSR Digital Collections 

Photographic records in the BSR archive, such as the Parker collection, begin with the earliest form of negatives: egg white albumen on glass sheets which were treated in light sensitive chemicals. Later photographs in the BSR collections dating from the nineteenth century, include silver nitrate glass negatives such as those in the collection of the Bulwer sisters. Most of these images relate to the archaeology, architecture, arts and topography of the regions around Rome being studied by the school from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The BSR’s photography collections include the Ashby, Bulwer, Gardner, Mackey, Parker and Ward-Perkins collections plus other photography from the period such as images captured by Cesare Faraglia who was an official photographer for several Roman institutes.

Photography collection, BSR Archive
Photography collection, BSR Archive
Photography collection, BSR

For many artists in this period, photography and cinema had dispensed with the desire to create realist imagery. Although the Fine Arts Scholars at the BSR were usually not encouraged to adopt contemporary themes and technology, it is possible to trace in the BSR archives some of the impact that photography and the moving image were beginning to make on art practice at the School. Sculptors such as Alfred Hardiman (1891-1949) and John Skeaping (1901-1980) made photographs of Rome’s sculpture and art and their own models to assist their processes, several of such images can be seen in the BSR archive. There are also many photographs of the artists at work and on their travels. Scholars and faculty made use of photography in their lectures and publications such as the images projected through the Magic Lantern.

The archives holds several pieces of equipment and artefacts from these various stages of photographic history, such as a restored Magic Lantern and several cameras, see here.

Explore the Photography in the BSR’s Digital Collections.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Meet Alfred Frank Hardiman (1891-1949)
Meet John R. Skeaping (1901-1980)
Meet Cesare Faraglia
(1865-1946)
Learn more about Architecture at the BSR, 1913-1930
Learn more about Architecture at the BSR, 1913-1930
Learn more about Sculpture at the BSR, 1913-1930
Learn more about Mural Painting at the BSR, 1913-1930
Learn more about Engraving at the BSR, 1913-1930

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

The Stephen Rowland Pierce Collection in the British School at Rome Fine Arts Archive

The archival collection of the 1921–3 Rome Scholar in Architecture, Stephen Rowland Pierce, is of immediate interest to those interested in the genre of restoration drawing. Pierce completed studies of historical monuments across Italy, drawing in pencil, ink and watercolour and often collaborating with archaeologists and sculptors.

One of his restoration projects was for the Temple of Olympian Zeus which he carried out in collaboration with Professor of Archeology (and later a fascist politician) Biagio Pace of the University of Palermo. The drawings that resulted from this study, accompanied by an essay and photographs, were published by Pace in the Journal of the Royal Academy of the Lincei.

For some of his drawings, Pierce also collaborated with Alfred Hardiman, Rome Scholar in Sculpture 1920–3, developing a network of interdisciplinary interests and connections.

S. R. Pierce, A sketch completed in collaboration with Alfred Hardiman, circa 1922 (BSR Fine Arts Archive)

The archive also holds historical documents relating to the time Pierce spent at the BSR: correspondence, reports the artist submitted to prolong his residency in Rome, newspaper clippings, and obituaries.

S. R. Pierce’s personal file, Report of study for 1921-2 (BSR Fine Arts Archive)
S. R. Pierce’s personal file, Newspaper clipping, 1925 (BSR Fine Arts Archive)
S. R. Pierce’s personal file, S. R. Pierce’s letter to Evelyn Shaw, 13th June 1926 (BSR Fine Arts Archive)
S. R. Pierce’s personal file, Newspaper clipping, 24th November 1950 (BSR Fine Arts Archive)

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Meet Stephen Rowland Pierce (1896–1966)
Learn more about Architecture at the BSR, 1913–30
Learn more about Photography at the BSR, 1913–30

Fine Arts at the British School at Rome 1913–1930: Bibliography

Publications and resources relating to the BSR Fine Arts Network 1913–30


General: Fine Arts at the BSR 

Life at the British School Rome Blogs  https://britishschoolatrome.wordpress.com/category/library-archive/

BSR Digital Collections: http://www.bsrdigitalcollections.it/

Liss Llewellyn website: https://www.lissllewellyn.com/

Responding to Rome, British Artists in Rome 1995-2005. (2005). The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art and the British School at Rome.

Powers, A. (1985). British Artists in Italy 1920–1980. Kent: Canterbury College of Art.

Wallace-Hadrill, A. (Ed). (2001). The British School at Rome: One Hundred Years. Rome: BSR.

Wiseman, T.P. (1990). A Short History of the British School at Rome. Rome: BSR.


Biographies of Eugenie Sellers Strong 

Beard, M. (2002). The Invention of Ellen Jane Harrison. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 

Dyson, S.L. (2004). Eugenie Sellers Strong: Portrait of an Archaeologist. London: Duckworth & Co. 

On the Villa Borghese

Hawthorne, N. (1860). The Marble Faun.

On Anticoli Corrado

Sully, J. (1912). Italian Travel Sketches (London: Constable)

Sturdee, P. (1888). “Bohemianism in Anticoli-Corrado,” The Scottish Art Review (Glasgow: E. Stock)

Hyde, F. “Anticoli Corrado, A Town of Models,” The International Studio 47, no. 187 (1912): 219-23.

Birnbaum, M. “Maurice Sterne,” The International Studio 46, no. 181 (1912): iii-xiii

Architecture

Campbell, L. (1989). A Call to Order: The Rome Prize and Early Twentieth-Century British Architecture. In Architectural History, vol. 32, pp. 131–151. 

Dennis Sharp Archive Collections: https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/archives-and-library/archive-collections/dennis-sharp

Benton, C. (2004). ‘Connell, Amyas Douglas (1901–1980)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sharp, D. and Rendel, S. (2008). Connell, Ward and Lucas: Modernist Architecture in England. London: Frances Lincoln.

Thistlewood, D. and Heeley, E. (1997). Connell, Ward and Lucas: Towards a Complex Critique in The Journal of Architecture, Vol 2, Spring 1997. London: The Royal Institute of British Architects/Routledge.

‘English Houses of the Thirties’ (1975). Amyas Connell interview with Geoffrey Baker in A305, History of Architecture and Design 1890–1939, The Open University: https://dezignark.com/blog/a305-15-english-houses-of-the-thirties/.

Benton, C. (2004). ‘Connell, Amyas Douglas (1901–1980)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mural Painting

The Marriage at Cana (1923) by Winifred Knights. Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/39515.

Llewellyn, S. (2016) Winifred Knights 1899-1947, [Catalogue]. London: Lund Humphreys.

Liss, P. et al. (1997). Sir Thomas Monnington 1902-1976. Rome: The Fine Art Society, Paul Liss and British School at Rome.

Liss, P. et al. (1995). Winifred Knights 1899-1947.  Rome: The Fine Art Society, Paul Liss and British School at Rome.

Liss, P. Llewelyn, S. Et al. (2013). British Murals & Decorative Painting 1920-1960. Bristol: Samson & Co. 

Liss, P. Llewelyn, S. Et al. (2013). British Murals & Decorative Painting 1910-1970. Bristol: Samson & Co. 

Hebson, N. (2014). Moda WK: Work in response to the paintings, drawings, correspondence, clothing and interior design of Winifred Knights, (an expanded legacy). London: AND Public. https://nadiahebson1.xhbtr.com/moda-wk-publication

Sculpture

Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851-1951. https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/ Henry Moore Institute.

Blackwood, J. (2011). Sculpture of John Skeaping (The British Sculptors and Sculpture Series). London: Lund Humphries.

Hepworth, B. (1946). ‘Approach to Sculpture’, The Studio, London, October 1946, vol. CXXXII, no. 643.

Holman, V. (2015). Alfred Hardiman, RA, and the Vicissitudes of Public Sculpture in Mid-twentieth-century Britain in Sculpture Journal, January 2015, 24(3):351-373.

Engraving

Campbell Fine Art https://www.campbell-fine-art.com/ 

Griffiths, A. (1996). Prints and Printmaking: An Introduction to the History and Techniques, London: British Museum Press.

Stephen Rowland Pierce (1896–1966)

Stephen Rowland Pierce was an architect who combined practical knowledge of buildings with scholarly curiosity towards history and archaeology. He studied at Hastings School of Art and received the Rome Prize for Architecture in 1921 by winning the open competition for a Town Church. While at the BSR, he lived and worked alongside a multidisciplinary group of architects, artists and researchers including Frederick Lawrence, Winifred Knights, Alfred Hardiman, Lilian Whitehead and Thomas Ashby (an avid archaeologist and Director of the BSR). Ashby inspired Pierce to conduct historical studies of buildings by placing them in a broader context. His study of the Temple of Zeus at Girgenti, for example, was praised by the scholarly community on publication. While at the BSR, Pierce spent significant time studying classical Greek, Roman and early Renaissance architecture, using the holdings of the BSR Library. 

Part of Pierce’s time at the BSR was dedicated to travelling. Between 1921 and 1923, he visited Pompeii, Paestum, Naples, Orvieto, Siena and other Italian cities with ancient heritage. During field trips, he made sketches in preparation for his diploma studies and to aid the work of archeologists Thomas Ashby and P. K. Baillie Reynolds, with whom he had developed scholarly collaborations. Thus, his architectural drawings included both the visual interpretation of archaeological remains used as historical evidence and visions towards the reconstruction of the buildings in focus. Pierce completed studies of historical monuments drawing in pencil, ink and watercolour. His restoration project for the Temple of Giove Olimpico was carried out in collaboration with Professor of Archeology (and later a fascist politician), Biagio Pace of the University of Palermo. The drawings that resulted from this study, accompanied by an essay and photographs, were published by Pace in the Journal of the Royal Academy of the Lincei. For some of his studies, Pierce also collaborated with Alfred Hardiman, Rome Scholar in Sculpture 1920–3, developing a network of interdisciplinary interests and connections. 

After completing his residency at the BSR, Pierce practiced as an architect and planning consultant. In partnership with Charles Holloway, Pierce designed several significant public buildings across the UK: Slough Town Hall (1937), Norwich City Hall (1938) and the County Hall in Hertford (1939). The art historian Nikolaus Pevsner considered the Norwich City Hall Project the “foremost public building of between the wars”. With its lavish Art Deco detailing, the building referenced the acclaimed Stockholm City Hall. For this project, Pierce cooperated with the 1922 Rome Scholar in Sculpture, James Woodford, who designed bronze doors for the building. After 1938, as vice-chairman for the BSR’s Faculty of Architecture, Pierce selected candidates for the RIBA prizes and studentships, including the Rome Prize.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Explore the Stephen Pierce Collection in the BSR Fine Arts Archive
Learn more about Architecture at the BSR, 1913– 30
Meet Winifred Knights (1899–1947)
Meet Alfred Frank Hardiman (1891–1949)
Meet Lilian Whitehead (1894–1959)
Visit the BSR Library, 1913–30
Meet Frederick Orchard Lawrence (c.1893–1971)

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

The Building, 1913–1930

The BSR moved into a new building in Rome’s Valle Giulia near the Borghese Gardens in 1916. This impressive structure, adorned with Corinthian-style columns and a portico, was originally designed as the British pavilion for the International Exhibition of Art in 1911. The event celebrated 50 years since Italian reunification and attracted more than 7 million visitors.

The Pavilion was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the notable British architect known for his attentiveness to historical architectural styles. The commissioners of the building, the British Board of Trade, wanted to maintain a strict and official classicist style to represent the country at the international event. Lutyens, who had never been to Rome prior to designing the Pavilion, studied the context through books, prints, and engravings. Lutyens incorporated a reference to the western front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London in his design for the Pavilion.

The British School at Rome, c.1910s (BSR Photographic Archive, BS Collection)

As the result of lobbying by the British Ambassador to Italy, Sir James Rennell Rodd, the Pavilion was donated to Great Britain by the City of Rome. Rennell Rodd had previously put forward the project for an international cultural centre for artists and researchers interested in taking inspiration from Italy’s classical heritage and culture. After the closure of the Exhibition, the original Pavilion was rebuilt in stone, with new foundations and adapted to the needs of a new institution — the BSR. Additionally, three new wings were designed to accommodate the BSR’s library, administrative quarters and artists’ studios. One of the studios was utilised as the common room and displayed Thomas Ashby’s (Director of the BSR from 1906 to 1925) collection of Piranesi prints. The project was complemented with the addition of an exhibition hall and a cortile. This new extension was paid for by the widow of the painter Edwin Austin Abbey as a tribute to her husband.


Lutyens split his time at the BSR with the large-scale project for the Viceroy’s Palace in New Delhi. This, along with some construction problems and the outbreak of the First World War, caused numerous delays and the new building was finally opened on 30 April 1916.

The courtyard of the BSR, facing west, 1927 (BSR Photographic Archive, BS Collection)

During the tenure of the BSR’s Director C. A. Raleigh Radford (1936–45), the new east wing was designed by H. C. Bradshaw, the BSR’s architect and a winner of the very first 1913 Rome Prize in Architecture. During 1962–3, the library extension was completed. 1965 saw an opening of the archaeological workroom presided over by the notable archaeologist Dr Mary Aylwin Marshall, who was known to contemporaries as Molly Cotton. It was Cotton’s generous bequest that allowed for the transformation of the workroom into a modern archaeological laboratory equipped for collaborative post-excavation analyses.

Facilities at the BSR have been updated more recently, thanks to sponsorship and support from the Packard Humanities Institute and Lord and Lady Sainsbury of Preston Candover’s Linbury Trust and other donors. In 2002, the lecture theatre and gallery spaces were opened by the BSR’s President, HRH Princess Alexandra.

Learn about more recent transformation of the BSR’s building here.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Learn more about Architecture at the BSR, 1913–30
Visit the Borghese Gardens
Visit the BSR Library, 1913–30

Sources and Further Reading

Learn more about Engraving at the BSR, 1913–30

Life at the BSR Blog: https://britishschoolatrome.wordpress.com/category/library-archive/

Wallace-Hadrill, A. (Ed). (2001). The British School at Rome: One Hundred Years. Rome: BSR.

Wiseman, T.P. (1990). A Short History of the British School at Rome. Rome: BSR.

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

Sculpture at the British School Rome, 1913–1930

The Rome Prize for Sculpture was established as part of the new Fine Arts Faculty in 1913. Its inception was part of a broader movement to create a new generation of British sculptors who, influenced by the classical and traditional sculpture of Rome, could contribute monumental works to public spaces in Britain. In T. P. Wiseman’s words, the stipulations to entrants in sculpture “reflected rigid conditions of classical study still firmly established in the art schools in Britain at the time”, with entrants asked to submit models, drawings and designs of set subjects. These included nude figures, drapery, hands, feet and architectural features to set sizes. In the final round of the competition entrants had to submit “a design for a Figure group or Relief (as determined by the Faculty of Sculpture) for a given purpose and to a given scale”.

The British sculptors awarded the Rome Prize in the early period of the BSR include Gilbert Ledward (1888–1960) in 1913 and C. S. Jagger (1885–1934) in 1914, both of whom left the school in order to fight in the First World War. Ledward joined the army and served in Italy, while Jagger never completed his Rome Scholarship after joining the Artists’ Rifles in 1914. Both went on to become some of Britain’s most notable sculptors of memorials to war.

After the war, Alfred F. Hardiman (1891–1949) had a productive residency at the School. He was followed by J. A. Woodford (1893–1976) in 1922, David Evans (1893–1959) in 1923 and John R. Skeaping (1901–80) in 1924. Skeaping was joined by Barbara Hepworth (1903–75), who lived at the BSR for a period with him over 1925–6. Later in this period, scholars included E. Jacot in 1925, H. Wilson Parker in 1927, C. Brown in 1928 and J. F. Kavanagh in 1930. Other sculptors such as Henry Moore and Hepworth visited the school as traveling scholars. Several of these sculptors came from artisanal, metalworking and working-class backgrounds, a result of the emerging focus on design in technical training in British educational institutes.

Alfred Hardiman working on Peace
Alfred Hardiman working on Peace (1926) in the BSR studios, early 1920s, BSR Fine Arts Archive.

As was envisioned at the founding of the prize, the art, culture and environment of Rome, as well as the proximity of practitioners of architecture, archaeology and painting, were deeply influential on the sculpture scholars. The sheer abundance of Rome’s classical, Renaissance, Baroque and modern art, as well as the topography and archaeological findings that were being unearthed in surrounding regions at the time, all formed part of a rich nexus of artistic influence on the Rome Scholars.

Despite the traditionalist strictures of the prize and the School, several sculptors in the 1920s used their time in Rome to develop new ideas and techniques; many were influenced by the modernist trends coming out of France and Germany, as well as the recent interest in African and Oceanic sculpture. Henry Moore’s time in Italy and briefly at the BSR in 1924 greatly shaped his later work. And Barbara Hepworth met her first husband, fellow sculptor John Skeaping, whilst he was a scholar at the BSR (1924–6). Hepworth herself had been a runner-up for the Rome Prize which Skeaping had won and was in Italy on a traveling scholarship. They married in Florence and she lived with him at the school from 1925 until 1926, when they returned to Britain due to Skeaping’s ill health.

Bust of Barbara Hepworth by J. R. Skeaping, BSR Fine Arts Archive

Whilst in Rome, Hepworth and Skeaping learnt marble carving from Italian master carver, Giovanni Ardini. Ardini’s remark that “marble changes colour under different people’s hands” was particularly striking to Hepworth, and she wrote that Ardini’s mentorship “opened up a new vista for me of the quality of form, light, and colour contained in the Mediterranean conception of carving”.

Skeaping was later known as a proponent of direct carving whereby works are shaped from the beginning out of the final material – usually stone or wood – thus emerging with the nature of that material itself. He was later known for his figures of animals and the designer of the fountain in the centre of the BSR courtyard, whose reliefs onto travertine depict the deer which went on to feature again in his later animal forms.

Sculptural practice took place in the BSR’s studios. Although materials were less costly in Italy than in Britain, the stipend for artists at the BSR was not substantial. Some sculptors such as Alfred Hardiman struggled to purchase the materials necessary to finally cast their works in expensive materials such as bronze. Several of the BSR sculptors worked alongside architects to realise monumental works, as envisioned by the School’s strategic aims. Hardiman, for example, went on to produce sculptures with Rome Architecture scholar S. R. Pierce at Norwich County Hall.

In the BSR Archive you can find correspondence between the scholars and faculty as well as several photographs of some of the Rome sculptors at work alongside images of the works they made and were inspired by.

Each of these sculptors received a Rome Prize medal, several of which are held in the BSR archives.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Meet John R. Skeaping (1901–80)
Meet Alfred Frank Hardiman (1891–1949)

Sources

Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851-1951. Henry Moore Institute.

Holman, V (2015). Alfred Hardiman, RA, and the Vicissitudes of Public Sculpture in Mid-twentieth-century Britain in Sculpture Journal, January 2015, 24(3):351-373.

Hepworth, B. (1946). ‘Approach to Sculpture’, The Studio, London, October 1946, vol. CXXXII, no. 643, p. 97.

Wallace-Hadrill, A. (Ed). (2001). The British School at Rome: One Hundred Years. Rome: BSR.

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

The Borghese Gardens

The Borghese gardens, known now as the Villa Borghese, are only a short walk away from the BSR. They are an historic site, converted from a vineyard in the seventeenth century by Scipione Borghese. In the nineteenth century they were redesigned as a landscape garden, inspired by the English style. Despite this influence, they far surpassed the English gardens in the eyes of some commentators.

The American author Nathaniel Hawthorne describes the Borghese gardens in his novel, The Marble Faun (1860). The gardens, according to Hawthorne, had a “sylvan character”; “the scenery amid which the youth now strayed was such as arrays itself in the imagination when we read the beautiful old myths, and fancy a brighter sky, a softer turf, a more picturesque arrangement of venerable trees, than we find in the rude and untrained landscapes of the Western world. The ilex-tress, so ancient and time-honored were they, seemed to have lived for ages undisturbed, and to feel no dread of profanation by the axe any more than overthrow by the thunder-stroke”.

Photograph of the Loggia and the Fountain of the Lions at the Villa Borghese, taken by Peter Paul Mackey c.1890-1901 (BSR Digital Collections, ppm-1254)

The gardens were filled with trees and flowers that seemed to almost overwhelm the senses. As Hawthorne writes, “in other portions of the grounds the stone-pines lifted their dense clump of branches upon a slender length of stem, so high that they looked like green islands in the air … there were avenues of cypress, resembling dark flames of huge funeral candles, which spread dusk and twilight round about them instead of cheerful radiance”. There were “anemones of wondrous size, both white and rose-colored, and violets that betrayed themselves by their rich fragrances, even if their blue eyes failed to meet your own.” Thus, Hawthorne concludes, “these wooded and flowery lawns are more beautiful than the finest of English park-scenery, more touching, more impressive”.

It is “an ideal landscape, a woodland scene that seems to have been projected out of the poet’s mind.” There are fountains, and statues of Roman figures: “The result of all is a scene, pensive, lovely, dream-like, enjoyable and sad, such as is to be found nowhere save in these princely villa-residences in the neighborhood of Rome; a scene that must have required generations and ages, during which growth, decay, and man’s intelligence wrought kindly together, to render it so gently wild as we behold it now.”

Photograph of the Fontana di Esculapio at the Villa Borghese, taken by Peter Paul Mackey c.1890-1901 (BSR Digital Collections, ppm-1253)

They were open informally to the public since their inception, with Hawthorne writing that the gardens offer “a seclusion, but seldom a solitude; for priest, noble, and populace, stranger and native, all who breathe Roman air, find free admission, and come hither to taste the languid enjoyment of the daydream that they call life.” This was formalised in 1903 when the gardens were bought by the commune of Rome. They did not lose their ability to inspire the arts. In 1924, Ottorino Respighi finished the Pini di Roma, a four-movement orchestral piece, arranged as a symphonic poem (a piece of music written to evoke the content of a poem). This piece depicted the pine trees of Rome; the first movement was centred on the pines of the Borghese gardens. The light, high tempo opening movement portrayed children playing loudly by the pines, dancing in circles and pretending to be soldiers.

Photograph of the Giardino del Lago at the Villa Borghese, taken by Peter Paul Mackey c.1890-1901 (BSR Digital Collections, ppm-1257)

It was not just in music that the gardens featured. They were present in the paintings of several artists from the BSR, including those of Tom Monnington and Winifred Knights. Monnington’s The Annunciation, painted over 1924 and 1925, was set in the Borghese gardens. The scene features several figures stood talking beneath the trees, with a gentle woodland set in the background. The shape of the trees, and the articulation of their branches and leaves, were almost certainly inspired by the gardens close by. The pond, and the pathways around it, similarly mirror this picturesque landscape. The gardens also served as the setting for Knights’ The Marriage at Cana. A figure who is portrayed sketching by a tree may be a reference to her own time spent in the gardens. The tall trees and woodland background, along with the serene and restful body of water, are inspired by this “gently wild” locale.

The Rome scholars undoubtedly spent much of their time relaxing in this space, soaking in the atmosphere, and enjoying a Roman scenery that, though it may well have been inspired by the landscape gardens of England, was unavailable to them back home.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Meet Sir Walter Thomas Monnington (1902-1976)
Meet Winifred Knights (1899-1947)
Visit the BSR’s Building
Explore the Winifred Knights Collection in the BSR’s Fine Arts Archive
Explore the Sir Walter Thomas Monnington Collection in the BSR’s Fine Arts Archive

Sources and Further Reading

The Marriage at Cana (1923) by Winifred Knights. Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/39515.

Hawthorne, N. (1860). The Marble Faun.

Wikipedia – Villa Borghese gardens

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

Alfred Frank Hardiman (1891–1949)

Alfred Hardiman (1891-1949) was the 1920 winner of the Rome Prize for Sculpture and resident at the BSR for four years. One of a new wave of artists emerging from British artisanal communities, he was born the son of a master silversmith in Highbury, London in 1891. He studied and worked as an engineering draftsman before coming to artistic study at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy. Whilst a student, Hardiman came into contact with the sculptures of Augustes Rodin and Ivan Meštrović, which influenced his work throughout the 1920s. Whilst studying, he also met contemporaries Charles Wheeler and his predecessors as Rome Sculpture scholars, Gilbert Ledward and Charles Sargeant Jagger. He would practice his art by using other scholars as models. Amongst these was fellow Rome Scholar and painter, Winifred Knights.

Hardiman served as a draughtsman in Royal Naval Reserve in the First World War and was elected a member of the British Society of Sculptors before being awarded the Rome Prize. He was a Rome Scholar from 1920 to 1923, staying an extra year at the school with his wife, Violet Hardiman (née White) who worked as Bursar and Secretary for the School. As the BSR administration did not permit married couples to cohabit at the School until later in the 1920s, the Hardimans had to live off premises.

Alfred Hardiman working on Peace
Alfred Hardiman working on Peace (1926) in the BSR studios, early 1920s, (BSR Photographic Archive, BS Collection)

Hardiman’s practice was strongly influenced by his time in Italy where he produced several of his most notable works in the BSR studios, including busts of his fellow Rome scholar Winifred Knights (1899-1947) and BSR director Thomas Ashby (1874-1931). He was particularly struck by the classical art he was exposed to in Italy and the scholarship of the BSR community. Several relics of Etruscan art, the culture of the Italian peninsular prior to the Roman empire, had only recently been re-discovered in Rome and were exhibited at the nearby Villa Giulia. The BSR’s Eugénie Sellers Strong (1860-1943) had studied and lectured on the period. One such work was the Apollo of Veii (c.510 BC) excavated by Guilio Giglioli in 1916 which had also had an influence on Hardiman’s contemporary, Italian sculptor Arturo Martini (1889-1947).

Another clear influence on Hardiman’s sculptures was the Charioteer (c.475-470 BC) from Delphi. Hardiman was one of several sculptors and artists of the period, such as Martini and Ledward, who were incorporating elements of classicism into their works, aligning with some of the primitivist modernist trends of the period and the ‘return to order’ after the violent disruption of the First World War. Avant Garde cultural movements such as Futurism and Novecento Italiano had grown up in Italy in the previous years. While artists like Hardiman brought some modernist elements into his approach, the traditionalism of the Rome Prize may have curbed too much deviation away from classicism. Valerie Holman describes Hardiman and other sculptors of the time as having an admiration for the “uncorrupted purity of form” of Greek and Roman art, an aesthetic tendency that cannot be separated from the context of the Fascist political movements emerging after the First World War in Italy and Europe at this time.

Both classical and modernist influences can be seen in the key work Hardiman made in Rome, Peace (Piccadilly Gardens, 1926), which now stands as the sculptor’s own memorial in St James’s garden in Piccadilly, London. Several versions of this two-metre high statue were made whilst at the BSR, but the final version was not cast until 1926 due to the cost of materials. Numerous images of this work in progress can be found in the BSR archive. The sculptures Hardiman made in Rome mark a period where he was not yet constrained by the requirements of the later public commissions which he was to become known for. Hardiman also became a member of the Faculty of Sculpture and went on to collaborate with the architects associated with the School.

After his period in Rome, Hardiman worked alongside architects on public works and building projects in Britain which remain standing today. One of his statues was extremely controversial. In making the Haig memorial, Hardiman struggled to balance the swings of opinion and public taste, the requirements of Haig’s widow and supporter, with his own aesthetic and practical intent. Other more striking successes can be found at Norwich County Hall, where he worked with fellow Rome Architecture scholar S. R. Pierce (1896–1966), and in several other cities across the UK. During the blitz in the Second World War, Hardiman’s studio and home took a direct hit from a bomb. The buildings, his possessions, materials and many original pieces, models and casts were completely destroyed and he struggled to receive full compensation for his losses. He died of cancer in 1949.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Explore the Alfred Hardiman Collection in the BSR Fine Arts Archive
Meet Winifred Knights (1899-1947)
Learn more about Sculpture at the BSR, 1913-1930
Meet Stephen Rowland Pierce (1896-1966)

Sources and Further Reading

Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851 – 1951. https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/ Henry Moore Institute.

Holman, V (2015). Alfred Hardiman, RA, and the Vicissitudes of Public Sculpture in Mid-twentieth-century Britain in Sculpture Journal, January 2015, 24(3): 351-373.

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

John R. Skeaping (1901–1980)

John Rattenbury Skeaping (1901-1980) was born in Woodford, Essex. He studied at Goldsmiths, the Central School of Arts and Crafts, the Royal Academy schools, and won the Rome Prize in 1924. Skeaping was resident at the BSR until 1926. Whilst in Italy he spent time with Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), who had been runner up to the prize in 1924 and was in Italy on a traveling scholarship. They married in Florence in May 1925 and lived at the BSR until 1926 when Skeaping returned to Britain due to ill health.

In Rome, Skeaping developed his method of direct carving, joining Hepworth to study with Italian master marble carver Giovanni Ardini. The Rome Prize stipulated traditional forms and methods, but whilst in Italy, Skeaping, along with Hepworth, began to experiment with new ideas and form a distinctive aesthetic. 

We can find at the BSR an early example of Skeaping’s fascination with animals which would go on to define his career. The BSR commissioned Skeaping to create reliefs for the fountain in the School’s garden courtyard (c.1925). Four travertine panels depict deer grazing, tripping and dozing under geometrically stylised leaves. Their slender hooves and curved forms are still a subtle but evocative and constant presence in the centre of life at the School. As Skeaping’s practice developed and became more confident in questioning traditional sculpture with modernist methods and forms, his sculptures began to emphasise the dynamism of animals. His later pieces are worked out of unusual materials, such as precious stone, to emphasise a creature’s bodily forms and the possibility of movement. Skeaping teased out a remarkable muscular potential: animals are poised to jump or swiftly move through space, or indeed sleep; their power emerges from the stillness of wood and stone.

After his time in Rome, Skeaping went on to become one of the most admired sculptors of the twentieth century in Britain, exhibiting alongside Hepworth and Henry Moore (1898-1986) as part of the London Group. Although Hepworth and Skeaping divorced in the early 1930s, the period of time spent together in Italy and back home in Britain was to have a lasting influence on both artists’ careers. 

Skeaping’s archival material in the BSR collections includes correspondence detailing the development of his practice and his time in Italy as well as his later views on arts practice and education. There are also photographs of his works in progress and finished pieces.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Explore the John Skeaping Collection in the BSR Fine Arts Archive
Visit the BSR Building
Learn more about Sculpture at the BSR, 1913-1930
Meet Alfred Frank Hardiman (1891-1949)

Sources and Further Reading

Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851 – 1951. https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/ Henry Moore Institute.

Blackwood, J. (2011). Sculpture of John Skeaping (The British Sculptors and Sculpture Series). London: Lund Humphries.

Hepworth, B. (1946). ‘Approach to Sculpture’, The Studio, London, October 1946, vol. CXXXII, no. 643, p. 97.

Wallace-Hadrill, A. (Ed). (2001). The British School at Rome: One Hundred Years. Rome: BSR.

Wiseman, T.P. (1990). A Short History of the British School at Rome. Rome: BSR.

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.