Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli (1662–1719) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

  sculptor and gem-engraver of the late Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 active in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, often using colorful and semi-precious pietra dura

Pietra dura

Pietra dura or pietre dure , called parchin kari in South Asia, is a term for the technique of using cut and fitted, highly-polished colored stones to create images. It is considered a decorative art...

, a type of workmanship that became a specialty of Florence. He initially trained with Gaetano Giulio Zumbo. During his lifetime, worked under the supervision of Giovanni Battista Foggini

Giovanni Battista Foggini

thumb|Tomb of [[Galileo Galilei]] in [[Santa Croce, Florence]].Giovanni Battista Foggini was an Italian sculptor active in Florence, renowned mainly for small bronze statuary.-Biography:...

, the master sculptor of the duchy. His masterpiece is the elaborate bust of Vittoria della Rovere

Vittoria della Rovere

Vittoria della Rovere was Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the wife of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. She gave her husband four children, two of which would survive infancy; the future Cosimo III, Tuscany's longest reigning monarch and Francesco Maria, a prince of the Church...

 (made from chalcedony

Chalcedony

Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of the minerals quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monoclinic...

 (face), sardonyx (pupils), Sicilian jasper

Jasper

Jasper, a form of chalcedony, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. This mineral breaks with a smooth surface, and is used for ornamentation or as a gemstone. It can be highly polished and is used for vases, seals, and at one time for...

 (lips), and black touchstone (bodice and veil). This project alone took nearly two decades to complete (1696–1713). It ultimately lacks the majesty of marble, and has the appearance of a wax museum portrait. It is found presently in Museo degli Argenti in Florence.

Sources

• Gli Ultimi Medici, Review by Peter Cannon-Brookes, in The Burlington Magazine, 1974, p 777-80.