(Rome active 1635–1683)
Night clock with a painted dial, inlaid hardstone panels, and patent silent escapement,
inscribed and dated on the movement: Petrus Thomas Campanus Inventor Romae.1682.,
138.5 x 68 x 26.5 cm

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, London, 10 July 2008, lot 39;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
A. Egidi, I fratelli Campani da Castel San Felice. Vita e opere di tre inventori post-galileiani, Spoleto 2011, pp. 194–197, figs. 71–75, mentioned p. 106 (as ‘Pietro Tommaso Campani […] Pittura ad olio su rame di Carlo Maratta’);
R. Valeriani, in: M.G. Bernardini, M. Bussagli, A. Anselmi (eds.), Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia delle arti, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2015, p. 414, cat. no. 168, illustrated p. 345 (as ‘Pietro Tommaso Campani);
A. González-Palacios, Il mobile a Roma dal Rinascimento al Barocco, Roma 2022, mentioned p. 465

This lot is an exceptional and highly important seventeenth-century night clock, created in 1682, by the celebrated family of clockmakers from Castel San Felice, Umbria, the Campani brothers, who worked in Rome in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Similar bronze gilt caryatids incorporating lapis lazuli, are found in the night clock in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. KK 3395). A similar painted dial of the present clock is found in the night clock conserved in the British Museum in London (inv. no. 1958,1006.2128); which also has a movement by Pietro Tommaso Campani dated 1683 (but with a different architectural casing).

Pietro Tommaso Campani
(Rome active 1635–1683)

This lot is one of the very few examples of a seventeenth-century night clock to survive in working order. The invention of the silent clock, ‘orologio muto’ in 1656 was created in response to a practical consideration: the sleep of Pope Alexander VII (1655–1667) which was disturbed by the sound of a ticking clock. The invention of the silent clock mechanism itself is attributed to the second of the three Campani bothers, Pietro Tommaso, whose signature and date ‘Petrus Thomas Campanus Inventor Romae.1682.’ is found on the standing barrel of the present lot. A further innovation was that these timepieces could be seen in the dark by means of the illumination of a candle or oil lamp hidden behind the fretwork Roman numerals on the face of the clock. There is a small funnel incorporated to direct the smoke. The Campani brothers were granted a papal privilege (patent) for their invention.

Pietro Tommaso, the maker of the present clock, is widely considered to have been ‘the driving force’ behind the creation of this new type of clock (see S. A. Bedini, Introduzione, in: P. Tommaso Campani, Discorso intorno a suoi muti oriuoli con Lettera di Pier Tommaso Campani nella quale dimostra l’origine e l’artificio dell’oriolo, 1660, reprint, Milan 1983). The technical details of the invention are described: ‘Pietro Tommaso invented a silent ‘escapement’ in which he converted reciprocal into rotary motion, resulting in continuous instead of intermittent motion and, since there was no ‘escapement’ as such, the clock functioned in complete silence […].The pendulum hangs from a curved arm connected with a weighted bar, at one end, and at the other, an eccentrically placed disc on the hub of the escape wheel. This arm is set in motion by a forked piece fixed to the top of the pendulum. Once going, the weighted bar gives the impetus to the balanced wheel’ (see H. Alan Lloyd, The Collector’s Dictionary of Clocks, New York 1964, p. 53).

Ingenious mechanical innovations of this kind, including the present example, were often placed within an elaborate architectural case in the manner of an altar or an ‘aedicule’ reliquary, of the kind favoured by the upper echelons of the clergy and other aristocratic patrons at the time. These cases, such as the present work were themselves works of the highest quality, which were created by the most distinguished master cabinet makers and painters of their time. The case of the present example, which incorporates lavish decorative "pietra dura" and bronze detailing, has been attributed to the German cabinet maker Jakob Hermann who created the magnificent case for the work given by Pope Alexander VII to Emperor Leopold I, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Attributed to Jakob Hermann

(? circa 1615–1685 Rome)

Set within the elaborate case which is surmounted by the gilt bronze figure of the goddess Minerva, are two painted copper panels. The painted dial is enclosed in a gilt brass border decorated by various inlaid hardstones (including lapis lazuli, quartz, amethyst, agate and Sicilian jasper) and flanked by ormolu caryatids with lapis lazuli detailing. Similar bronze gilt caryatids incorporating lapis lazuli, are found in the aforementioned night clock in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

The clock’s dial is a moving semicircular panel set into the painted sky. The divisions of time are marked to the nearest half-quarter of an hour, as the dial moves at the end of the hour, the next hour appears at the opposite end of the dial, as if inspired by the movement of the sun.

At the bottom of the clock case there is a secret drawer in which all the removable parts of the clock (the pendulum, the four putti figurines, the Minerva statuette, the oil lamp, the winding key, the hatch-opening key) can be stored. In addition to the door with the painted dial, the clock can also be opened from behind to install and refill the oil lamp.

The present night clock can be compared to two other contemporary examples inscribed by Pietro Tommaso Campani: the first is the one already mentioned in the British Museum; the second, in a private collection (sale, Christie’s, London, 8 November 2007, lot 181, sold for ₤120,500) has a similar form, but with different coloured stones and a painted dial derived from a composition by Ciro Ferri (see op. cit. González-Palacios, 2022, pp. 465, 469, fig. 308).

The German cabinet maker Jakob Hermann arrived in Rome probably before 1653 and stayed here until his death in 1685 (see A. Bertolotti, Belgian and Dutch Artists in Rome in the 16th and 17th Centuries: News and Documents, Florence 1880, pp. 246–248). In Rome, Hermann had highly prestigious commissions from the most important patrons of the period, including popes Alexander VII, Clement IX, Clement X and Innocent XI. The inscribed and dated 1668 cabinet of the night clock in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, is one of his most celebrated. Other important works from his Roman activity are the four cupboards commissioned by Pope Clement IX, a clear demonstration of his reputation as one of the most sought after cabinet makers in seventeenth-century Rome (see op. cit. González-Palacios, 2022, p. 432–435, figs. 287–288).

Roman School, 17th Century
traditionally attributed to Carlo Maratta
(Camerano 1625–1713 Rome)

The painting on the rectangular face of the night clock shows an allegory of the fleeting nature of Time (‘Volat Irreparabile Tempus’ is inscribed on the scroll held by the putto at the bottom of the painting). The Four Seasons are represented by an old man warming his hands on a brazier for Winter, an animated female figure bearing fresh flowers for Spring, a resting female figure holding ears of corn in her lap for Summer, and a youthful male figure representing Autumn is draped in a red cloth and holds bunches of grapes which also adorn his head. Father Time flies above, with a cherub seated below (on iconographies of Time in seventeenth-century night clocks, see C. Cieri Via, Visualizzare il tempo. Idee e immagini dall’antichità all’età barocca, in: L. Galli (ed.), La forma del Tempo, exhibition catalogue, Milano 2020, p. 50).

This painting has previously been attributed to Carlo Maratta (see op. cit. Egidi, 2011), who decorated several clock dials during the second half of the seventeenth century (A González-Palacios, Arredi e Ornamenti alla corte di Roma, Milano, 2004, p. 104) as well as Filippo Lauri (see op. cit. Valeriani, 2015). The iconography also shows similarities to works by Giacinto Gimignani (see F. Ceretti, in: op. cit. L. Galli, 2020, pp. 158–159, no. 21) and painterly details can be compared to works by Bartolomeo Chiari.

A comparison of various known Roman clocks shows that the paintings on the dials were usually executed by important masters of the time, such as the night clock in Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, with the painted dial by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (see op. cit. González-Palacios, 2022, p. 468, no. 307). Often, the same subjects are found on several different clocks: an indication of the success of certain compositions (see the example of an Allegory of Time by Carlo Maratta in: op. cit. González-Palacios, 2022, pp. 458–461, illustrated).

It is not known exactly who commissioned the present night clock, but it was clearly made for an important patron, as indicated by the quality of the craftsmanship, as well as by the use of expensive, prestigious and rare materials.

The fashion for such night clocks spread from Rome across Italy, to patrons including Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany, and important collectors elsewhere in Europe, including King Philip IV of Spain and King John Casimir I of Poland.

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