Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, a Prophet, 1740, terracotta Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (Rome 1716 - 1799) PROPHET 1740 terracotta sculpture, inscribed on base BA[...]/ CAVA[...]PPI/ FE[...]XL ; 46x23x17.5 cm Literature D. Lipari in La Grande Bellezza. L'art à Rome au XVIIIe siècle 1700-1758 , cat. of the exhibition in Ajaccio, Milan 2020, pp. 224-225 n. 118 The Italian Soprintendenza considers this lot to be a work of national importance and requires it to remain in Italy; it cannot therfore be exported from Italy. An early work, still in the tradition of Roman Baroque sculpture, by a sculptor who became famous mainly for his later work as a restorer and merchant of ancient sculptures and excavated material, an activity documented through the series of volumes he published between 1768 and 1772 ( Raccolta di antiche statue... ), in which most of the statues he restored and sold to mostly English collectors are illustrated. His plaster cast museum was a must for all travellers and amazed even the young Canova. Cavaceppi's work as an original sculptor is not as well known, and his documented works are very rare. They date mainly from his early period, i.e. before Winkelmann's appreciation directed him towards restoration work, which he initially carried out at Cardinal Albani. He completed an initial apprenticeship in the workshop of Pierre-Étienne Monnot and later in the workshop of sculptor and restorer Carlo Napolioni. The sculpture presented here, which is not mentioned in the inventories drawn up in 1799, at the time of the artist's death, could represent a simple exercise, a work produced for a private collector, or the model for a public commission that was never realised. According to Davide Lipari, 'this statuette, notable for its excellent quality, also acquires a weighty historical value if it is considered within the artistic career of its author: the only survival of a personal language, consistent with the Roman artistic panorama of the first half of the 18th century, and far removed from the ancient taste required by his main activity, that of restorer of antique works.