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Ceracchi [Cirachi], Giuseppe
(b Rome, 4 July 1751; d Paris, 30 Jan 1801). Italian sculptor, active also in England and the USA. He is best known for his portrait busts of the heroes of the American Revolution, executed during his two visits to the USA (1791–2 and 1794–5), where he made a significant contribution to the introduction of Neo-classicism. The son of a goldsmith, he studied in Rome with Tommaso Righi (1727–1802) and at the Accademia di S Luca. Following his arrival in London in 1773, Ceracchi worked for Agostino Carlini and modelled architectural ornament for Robert Adam (i). He also taught Anne Seymour Damer to model in clay, and c. 1777 he produced a life-size terracotta statue of her as the Muse of Sculpture (marble version, London, BM) holding one of her own works, a Genius of the Thames. His bust of Admiral Keppel (marble version, 1779; Mausoleum, Wentworth Woodhouse, S. Yorks) was considered ‘extremely like’ by Horace Walpole when the terracotta model (1777; London, RA) was shown at the Royal Academy in 1777. Ceracchi produced the only bust of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1778; terracotta and marble versions, London, RA), modelled from life, although the finished marble may not be his work. The portrait is based on Roman busts of Emperor Caracalla. In 1778 Ceracchi also worked with Agostino Carlini on the sculptural decoration of Somerset House, London, producing figures of Temperance and Fortitude in Portland stone for the Strand façade.
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