La controversia en torno a Antonio Vendetti (1699-1796), un platero y broncista entre Roma y Madrid. La importancia del dibujo y del modelado como expresión y habilidad de los plateros en el siglo XVIII

Abstract

Antonio Vendetti was born in Cottanello in 1699 and pursued his career in Rome, where he qualified as a silversmith in 1737. It was from Rome that Vendetti worked for John V of Portugal (John the Magnanimous, 1689-1750), one of the most important patrons of Roman Baroque, and created two sets of altar canons for the royal chapel of Sao João Baptista in the church of Sao Roque, Lisbon. Between 1759 and 1779, Vendetti lived in Spain, bequeathing a significant number of silver and bronze works to the country. In this text I will attempt to analyse the figure of Antonio Vendetti and the works he left in Spain and Portugal, while also discussing the drawing and modelling skills of 18th-century silversmiths. In addressing these issues, I shall also focus on the 1756 controversy involving Vendetti, in terms of the extent to which it allows us to discuss the importance of these skills to silversmiths of that time.