Filippo Morghen Biography
MORGHEN. – Family of engravers from Florence. Its exact origin is not known. According to the testimony of Raphael, the most illustrious member, his grandfather was originally from Montpellier and, after marrying a Genoese woman, moved to Florence, where he opened a lace shop. Both their sons, Giovanni Elia and Filippo, specialized in the art of chalcography; the first was mainly a draftsman, Filippo on the contrary perfected himself in carving, an art in which he was particularly gifted. Filippo, born in Florence around 1730, learned the art of drawing from his older brother; he later moved to Rome where he remained for seven years. Already in Florence he executed the portraits of some members of the Medici family for Giuseppe Allegrini's edition, published in 1761. In collaboration with his son Raphael he reproduced many of the Prophets sculpted by Baccio Bandinelli in the choir of the Cathedral of Florence and Michelangelo's tomb in Holy Cross. In 1752 he arrived in Naples, called together with Giovanni Elia by King Charles of Bourbon to participate in the publishing enterprise of the Antiquities of Herculaneum. In Naples, where he met and married the daughter of Francesco Liani, court painter, he spent the rest of his life, carrying out numerous other works of great importance for the lively forge of the Royal Printing House; in this context he established a relationship of particular understanding with Luigi Vanvitelli, who in 1756 entrusted him with the two portraits of the sovereigns for the text Declaration of drawings of the Royal Palace of Caserta (Naples 1756). The same architect commissioned him, together with Carlo Nolli, to execute the sections of the celebratory text for the royal wedding of Ferdinand of Bourbon and Maria Carolina of Austria, a volume which later remained unpublished.
