User:Greatreddragonfly/sandbox/project 01

(Content taken from Castellani (goldsmiths))

Original
The Castellani were a family of goldsmiths, collectors, antique dealers and potters, who created a business "empire" active in Rome during the eighteenth centuries and nineteenth centuries.

History
Fortunato Pio Castellani (1794–1865) is regarded as the forefather of the family. Fortunato in 1814 opened his own workshop in Rome. The progenitor specialized in the creation of jewels imitating the ones that then came to light from the necropolis of Etruria, the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum or that could be observed in the Campana collection. Initiating a partnership with Duke Michelangelo Caetani, a lover of fine arts and a designer of jewels himself, allowed Fortunato Castellani to quickly work for the most illustrious aristocratic families, initially Roman and at a later date even European. Fortunato also imported luxurious goldsmith works from the rest of Europe to be resold in Rome.

Fortunato had three sons, his sons Augusto and Alessandro worked with their father and continued their activities as goldsmiths and antiquarian; his third son Guglielmo, instead, devoted himself to the art of ceramics. Fortunato Pio retired in 1850, the Castellani of the second generation, however, devoted themselves only to the trade of jewels of their own production or to the sale of archaeological finds. The creative part was entrusted to Alessandro Castellani and Michelangelo Caetani, while Augusto was mainly interested in the financial aspects of the company. In 1859 the Castellani devoted themselves for five months to the restoration and cataloguing of the Campana Collection; they thus had the opportunity to refine their observations on the technique of granulation and filigree and to finally achieve an acceptable reproduction of them.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Castellani goldsmiths had a leading role in the European market. Alessandro, who had fled to France for political reasons in 1860, opened with great success in Paris and Naples new locations in which antiquities, mainly of Etruscan origin, were traded. Clients included Napoleon III, the Louvre Museum and the British Museum directed by Sir Isaac Newton. It has been hypothesized that some Etruscan finds traded by the Castellani were imitations. Recent chemical analyses on some antiquarian finds sold by the Castellani to the Berlin museum have confirmed that Alessandro Castellani has sometimes also sold false finds.

When Alessandro died (1883), his brother Augusto transformed the shop into a private museum. The trading activity continued, with the nephews Alfredo and Torquato, sons of Augusto and Alessandro respectively; the first was a goldsmith, the second a ceramist; their deaths, which occurred in the thirties of the twentieth century, coincided with the end of the activity.

Edited
The Castellani were a family of goldsmiths, collectors, antique dealers and potters, who created a business "empire" active in Rome during the 18th and 19th century.

History
Fortunato Pio Castellani (1794–1865) is regarded as the forefather of the family. In 1814 Fortunato opened his own workshop in Rome. The progenitor specialized in the creation of jewels imitating the ones that then came to light from the necropolis of Etruria, the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum or that could be observed in the Campana collection. Initiating a partnership with Duke Michelangelo Caetani, a lover of fine arts and a designer of jewels himself, allowed Fortunato Castellani to quickly work for the most illustrious aristocratic families, initially Roman and at a later date even European. Fortunato also imported luxurious goldsmith works from the rest of Europe to be resold in Rome.

Fortunato had three sons, his sons Augusto and Alessandro worked with their father and continued their activities as goldsmiths and antiquarian; his third son Guglielmo, instead, devoted himself to the art of ceramics. Fortunato Pio retired in 1850, the Castellani of the second generation, however, devoted themselves only to the trade of jewels of their own production or to the sale of archaeological finds. The creative part was entrusted to Alessandro Castellani and Michelangelo Caetani, while Augusto was mainly interested in the financial aspects of the company. In 1859 the Castellani devoted themselves for five months to the restoration and cataloguing of the Campana Collection; they thus had the opportunity to refine their observations on the technique of granulation and filigree and to finally achieve an acceptable reproduction of them.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Castellani goldsmiths had a leading role in the European market. Alessandro, who had fled to France for political reasons in 1860, opened with great success in Paris and Naples new locations in which antiquities, mainly of Etruscan origin, were traded. Clients included Napoleon III, the Louvre Museum and the British Museum directed by Sir Isaac Newton. It has been hypothesized that some Etruscan finds traded by the Castellani were imitations. Recent chemical analyses on some antiquarian finds sold by the Castellani to the Berlin museum have confirmed that Alessandro Castellani has sometimes also sold false finds.

When Alessandro died (1883), his brother Augusto transformed the shop into a private museum. The trading activity continued, with the nephews Alfredo and Torquato, sons of Augusto and Alessandro respectively; the first was a goldsmith, the second a ceramist; their deaths, which occurred in the thirties of the twentieth century, coincided with the end of the activity.