THE PLEASURE TO be had from walking through the squares, parks and streets of London is by no means unalloyed for anyone sensitive to their visual surroundings. We are not solely referring to the eyesores and inconvenience of continuous roadworks, the vast empty spaces left by the demolition of familiar buildings or the disruption of countless ‘events’ which, for example, turn Trafalgar Square into a cheap fairground. No, we are referring to the constant fear of coming across a newly sited public sculpture or subscribed-for memorial. The subject is not new to this Editorial page but we feel it is only fair to warn readers of what they might discover and, in one particular instance, what Westminster City Council has in store for them next year.
The subject of this catalogue is the finest privately owned collection of the small cast metal reliefs known as plaquettes, assembled over the last three decades by the Milanese industrialist Mario Scaglia.
An examination of the tomb monument of Cardinal Carafa in Naples Cathedral (1567-68) by Nanni di Baccio Bigio and Giovanni Domenico Bersaglia, and the unpublished contract of its commission.
A bronze bust of Bartolomeo Ruspoli in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1683) is here identified as by Filippo Caracani.
A discussion of the polychrome statue of St Sebastian (c.1730-35) in Los Andes, Chile, which is here attributed to Adam Engelhard.
The provenance and installation of Roman bronzes by Giacomo Zoffoli, Luigi Valadier and Giovan Battista Piranesi in the collection of Gustavus II of Sweden.
Unpublished extracts from the diary of Lady Berehaven describe her and her husband sitting for their portraits in Rome (1842-43) by the Irish sculptor John Hogan.
Recent large-scale aluminum sculptures (2008) by John Chamberlain.