Culmination
In 1851 Campana married the Englishwoman Emily Rowles, whose family had connections to Prince Louis Napoleon, soon Napoleon III. Because of his cultural merits, he was given the title of marchese di Cavelli by Ferdinand II of Naples. He was an advisor to the Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimar In 1851, the Natale di Roma, the annual celebration on the traditional day of Rome's founding, celebrated by the Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia was held at the Villa Campana on the Caelian Hill, near the Basilica of St. John Lateran; among the guests was Ludwig of Bavaria. In addition to this villa suburbana, Campana had his principal Roman residence, the Palazzo Campana, at the corner of via Babuino and Piazza del Popolo; there, according to Blewett's Handbook for travellers in central Italy (London, 1856), "the Campana Museum is in many respects superior to the Museo Gregoriano at the Vatican', though the collection was open only one day a week and only to those bearing a letter of introduction. The "Campana" reliefs were more easily viewed, as they were at the Monte di Pietà. Blewett's description of the collection at Palazzo Campana is worth quoting:
The specimens consist for the most part of gold ornaments, earrings in the form of genii, necklaces of scarabæi, filigree brooches, bracelets, neckchains, torques, chapelets in form of foliage &c.; the head of the horned Bacchus, and a gold fibula with an Etruscan inscription, equal, if they do not surpass, the finest productions of Trichinopoly or Genoa. One of the most remarkable objects in this collection is a superb Scarabæus in sardonyx, representing Cadmus destroying the Dragon. The collection of Etruscan vases is also very fine, several presenting historical scenes, with Greek and Etruscan inscriptions. The Cabinet of Bronzes comprises a fine series of Etruscan and Roman objects: 2 beautiful tripods, a mirror of extraordinary beauty and size, and a cinerary urn of most rare occurrence in metal; it was found near Perugia, containing the ashes of the dead, with a golden necklace, now amongst the jewellery; a bier of bronze, with the bottom in latticework, like that in the Museo Gregoriano, with the helmet, breastplate, greaves and sword of the warrior whose body reposed upon it. There are several fine specimens of Etruscan helmets, with delicate wreaths of gold foliage placed upon them. The collection of glass and enamels is most interesting, consisting of elegant tazze of blue, white and yellow glass mounted on filigree stands precisely as they were taken from the tombs. The series of Etruscan vases, not only from Etruria proper, but from Magna Grecia, is rich and extensive
The Campana collection, reassembled virtually by Susanna Sarti, Giovanni Pietro Campana, 1808-1880 : the man and his collection (Oxford, 2001), is on-line at Corpus vasorum antiquorum: its twelve sections cover Vases (I), Bronzes (II), Jewellery and coins (III), Terracottas (IV), Glass (V), Etruscan, Greek and Roman paintings (VI), Greek and Roman sculpture (VII), Italian paintings from the Byzantine period to Raphael (VIII), Italian paintings from 1500 to ca 1700 (IX), Italian Maiolica of the 15th-16th centuries (X), Maiolica by Luca della Robbia and his contemporaries (XI), and Etruscan and Roman curiosities (XII).
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