City of Split Heritage Journal, No. 34, 2007.
Original scientific paper
CARLO LANZA, THE FIRST DIRECTOR OF THE ARCHAELOGICAL MUSEUM IN SPLIT
Marko Špikić
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Odsjek za povijest umjetnosti
Abstract
The text is concerned with the life and work of Carlo Lanza (1778/81-1834), a physician and antiquarian of Italian descent from Split. The text contains information on his life, which can be divided into two parts, before and after he moved to Dalmatia. Based on an article by
S. Ivačić dating from 1834, the author reconstructs Lanza’s curriculum vitae from his birth in the town of Roccasecca, his medical studies in Naples to his rising interest in antiquarian pursuits followed by his leaving to Lombardy in the late 18th century. The paper brings
Lanza’s contacts with the classicist poets Ippolito Pindemonte and Vincenzo Monti, along with political upheavals provoked by Napoleon’s conquests in Europe. Of special interest is the congeniality of Lanza’s and Monti’s interests for the culture of the antiquity and their
dedication to the ideas of the Napoleonic France.
Having moved to Split, which is dated around 1806 and linked with the arrival of the French army, Lanza was accepted as an eminent physician, politician and antiquarian. The author emphasizes the interrelation between contemporary intellectuals and high politics,
especially in the wake of Napoleon’s fall and the return of the Austrian administration, when Lanza became the mayor of Split. It is necessary, therefore, to mention Lanza’s short publication extolling the Austrian emperor, Francis I, as a symptom of a vacillating ideology
accompanying Metternich’s political system. Lanza’s loyalty paid off since in 1818 he hosted the Emperor in his numismatic collection, which allegedly numbered around 4000 items.
The collection left such an indelible impression both on the Emperor and on his antiquarian Anton Steinbüchel that Lanza became the first head of the Museum of antiquities in Split instituted by the Emperor’s decree.
The article further provides record of Lanza’s work in Salona and the nature of his activities as a conservationist of antiquities in Split. An important role was played by Steinbüchel, head of the Viennese Cabinet for numismatics and antiquities who sent to Lanza methodological instructions for pursuing archaeological and museum work. Lanza’s intention from 1819 to execute repairs (riparazioni) on excavated archaeological items so as to make them dignified
(rendere decente) reenacts a contemporary dispute between Thorwaldsen and Canova regarding the integration of fragments. It is also important to remember short remarks from the journal Kunst-Blatt on the works in Salona and Lanza’s earliest associates: Vincenzo Solitro
and Raffaele Martini as inspectors for antiquities and Vicko Andrić as engineer in charge of technical aspects of archaeological works. Finally, the text also brings Lanza’s portrait by the eminent Viennese painter and drawer of the Cabinet for numismatics and antiquities, Peter
Fendi, today kept in Kunsthistorisches-Museum in Vienna.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
67075
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2007.
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