Cavaliere Domenico Venuti

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18th century

Superintendent of the Kingdom's antiquities and of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory. In the days of leave-taking, at the beginning of June 1787, "Cavaliere Venuti" shows Goethe even treasures still hidden; Goethe returns to admire, "with great veneration", his mutilated yet priceless Ulysses, and as a farewell is taken to the porcelain factory, where he fixes the Hercules in his memory and fills his eyes once more with the Campanian vases. Tischbein, in a letter of July, recalls him having excavations made near the Garigliano.

Main image: AI reconstruction (SPUN, 2026). No portrait survives: the face is imagined.

Cavaliere Domenico Venuti
The period image. The Royal Palace of Portici from the sea, with Vesuvius behind, anonymous painting. Public domain.

Sources: J. W. Goethe, Italienische Reise.

Il cavalier Domenico Venuti (ricostruzione AI)