Biography

Italian craftsman. He came from a dynasty of artisans who had been active for some time in the Medici workshop in Florence; an ancestor called Bartolomeo is mentioned among the craftsmen employed at the Cappella dei Principi, Florence, during the reign of Ferdinand I. According to a manuscript (1739; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale) by his contemporary, the collector Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri, Torricelli studied drawing with Alessandro Rosi (1627-1707) and modelling with Gaetano Zumbo (1656-1701) and was employed by Cosimo III at the Grand Ducal workshop to carve cameos and reliefs. The cameos he created include one of the elderly Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) and another, unusually large, of Cosimo III and Tuscany in front of the Temple of Peace (chalcedony, Florence, Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure).