Towards 1760, Giacomo Zoffoli and his brother Giovanni (1745-1805) opened a foundry specialising in works of art on what is now Via Sistina in Rome. In a short time, it became one of the most important workshops in the city. Besides being a founder, Giacomo also obtained his goldsmith’s licence in 1775. The brothers made their fortune by specialising in smallformat bronze copies of the most important Greco-Latin pieces in the city’s collections, and also of those which emerged during the excavations at the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Rome was by then a city visited by many artists, cognoscenti, literati and philosophers, members of the upper and middle classes who regarded the journey to the origins of Europe, the socalled Grand Tour, as a fundamental phase in their education that gave them social distinction through knowledge and taste. This journey, which could last from several months to years, and which can be seen as the precursor to today’s tourism, generated a huge market for antiques, copies and other mementoes, which the travellers would buy to show on their return home. The Zoffoli astutely took advantage of this important market niche, which would later come under the name of ‘souvenirs’. It was not only small sculptures by the Zoffoli that ended up in the travellers’ luggage, but also the vedute of Canaletto and the prints of ruins by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, all serving as means for the diffusion of classical culture in their home countries.
Towards 1760, Giacomo Zoffoli and his brother Giovanni (1745-1805) opened a foundry specialising in works of art on what is now Via Sistina in Rome. In a short time, it became one of the most important workshops in the city. Besides being a founder, Giacomo also obtained his goldsmith’s licence in 1775. The brothers made their fortune by specialising in smallformat bronze copies of the most important Greco-Latin pieces in the city’s collections, and also of those which emerged during the excavations at the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Rome was by then a city visited by many artists, cognoscenti, literati and philosophers, members of the upper and middle classes who regarded the journey to the origins of Europe, the socalled Grand Tour, as a fundamental phase in their education that gave them social distinction through knowledge and taste. This journey, which could last from several months to years, and which can be seen as the precursor to today’s tourism, generated a huge market for antiques, copies and other mementoes, which the travellers would buy to show on their return home. The Zoffoli astutely took advantage of this important market niche, which would later come under the name of ‘souvenirs’. It was not only small sculptures by the Zoffoli that ended up in the travellers’ luggage, but also the vedute of Canaletto and the prints of ruins by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, all serving as means for the diffusion of classical culture in their home countries.