discovery – Anna Bianco

Discoveries

Bouchardon and Geminiani

an_bi 3 April 2018

Le Comte de Caylus and E. Bouchardon, Caricature portrait of Francesco Saverio Geminiani, Amsterdam Ton Koopman Collection

Back in 2014 I was asked to write an article for the Festschrift dedicated to Prof. Ton Koopman for his 70th birthday (ed. Albert Clement, Studies in Baroque, Butz Verlag 2014).

I wrote a piece on one etching in his collection (TK01747), that I argue is a portrait of Francesco Saverio Geminiani (1687-1742), Italian born composer who settled in London and Ireland, but who gained international recognition for his compositions. The portrait is clearly charged, charicaturized, a characteristic that implied a close contact between the draftsman and the composer. The original drawing is by Edme Bouchardon (1698-1762) best known for his sculptures, and it was turned into print by Le Comte de Caylus (1692-1765).

You can get the catalogue here https://shop.getty.edu/products/bouchardon-royal-artist-of-the-enlightenment-978-1606065068#

A couple of years later, both in Paris and Los Angeles, was organizes an exhibition focusing on the French sculptor as there was no existing – much deserved – research on his oeuvre. A copy of the same etching finally appeared (it was unpublished before my article) and, despite the curator was not aware of my publication, he came to the same conclusion. that the portrayed is, indeed, Geminiani. (Bouchardon: Royal Artist of the Enlightenment, p. 165)

Pieces and Pieces

an_bi 2 March 2018

Social media are a great tool to help discover new things, and this is the (yet) short story of a painting that I saw for the first time on Facebook.

It is a bust portrait of a man, seen from behind, thus giving the shoulders to the beholder. He turns slightly his head towards the viewer, showing us also what he is holding in his hands, a sheet of paper with music notation and text. He is dressed in Renaissance clothes, namely from the first half of the sixteenth century and he also wears a hat across his head. His eyes are so vivid and firm that he gives the impression of being some sort of authority. Doubtlessly, this portrait is beautiful and extremely finely painted. Details of the clothing as well as the music are incredibly accurate, therefore… there might be a way to understand who the sitter is, and consequently understand the context of its realization.

Long story short: I cracked the music!

The piece is a madrigal, Madonna, i prieghi miei son che saper vorrei, published in the collection “La più divina et più bella musica” in Venice in 1541 by Gardano. The music was composed by Maistre Jhan, a French composer active in Ferrara at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

It is therefore likely that the portrayed is the same Maistre Jahn, with the manuscript version of the madrigal in his hands.

The portrait is preserved at the Tambov regional museum. I submitted it to Dr. Camilla Cavicchi who had lengthly studied the musical oeuvre of the French composer. I really wish she will manage to confirm the identity of the sitter!

I would like to thank Ms. Elizaveta Novikova for her kind assistance with retrieving the most up to date information about the painting.

Team research in progress!

The Singer
Tambov, Regional Museum
inv. No Ж З10, oil on panel, 56,5 х 42,5 cm.

The Neimeijer Archive pt.2: notes on a portrait

an_bi 13 February 2018

The Neimeijer archival boxes contain mainly excerpts from auction catalogues. The works of art documented, belong to any age and are realized with any technique, from painting to print, from drawing to sculpture.

Today, while working on files with men and women at the keyboard, I run into this portrait attributed to Giuseppe Bonito (1705-1789), auctioned on 12th October 1989 at Christie’s New York (lot. 63). Indeed, it was collected among the Vrouw[en] aan Klavier, thus Ladies at keyboards.

In the catalogue record the painting is so described:

The Property of THE SNITE MUSEUM OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, INDIANA.
63. Attributed to GIUSEPPE BONITO
Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, seated at a spinet
oil on canvas (87,5*70 cm.)

PROVENANCE
Robert B. Meyer, Chicago

Rather than a “general” lady, this woman is very well known.

She is Anna Antonia Cristina Somis (1704-1785), wife of the painter Carle van Loo (1705-1765), sister of Giovanni Battista (1688-1775) and daughter of Francesco Lorenzo Somis (1662–1736). In fact the Bonito portrait is an almost exact copy after the extremely charming family portrait while making music, with her father and brother, by Swidish artist Martin van Meytens the Younger (1695-1770). This painting formerly belonged to the collection of the Finchcocks Musical Museum that was auctioned in 2016.

M.v.Meytens, Anne Antonia Christina Somis seated playing at a harpsichord, with her father Francesco Lorenzo Somis playing the cello, and her brother Giovanni Lorenzo Somis playing the violin, Oil on canvas, 102 x 78 cm.

Even if somewhat rougher and thicker, the brushstrokes in Bonito’s painting are rather precise, especially in copying the textures of the fabrics. Slightly less successfull is the face which in Meytens canvas shines of a beautiful opalescent light, evidence of Anna’s youthful age. Her hands on the instrument are also much more refined in the Swedish version. The young woman’s gaze, while playing with her father and brother, inspire innocence and contentment. After all she is having fun with her family!

Interestingly, the tones in the other painting do serve to give the painting a different allure, creating a naughty atmosphere. The woman is alone, emerging from the dark background with a twinkly wide neckline, looking at the beholder with somewhat embarrassed red cheeks and voluptuous red lips. […]

Carle van Loo, Portrait of Cristina Somis, red chalk, 460 x 374 mm

And this on the left is a portrait of love: Carle van Loo made this beautiful profile chalk drawing of his wife, from after 1733, when they got married. Her eyes and her lips, turned slightly upwards, closely resemble her features in the painting.

An old label written in pen and pink ink and attached to the backing below the drawing reads as follows:
Mme Van loo/ née Sommis, soeur du célebre musicien de ce nom, elle même-/célebre Musicienne, qui a eté l’objet de l’admiration de tous-/les gens de goût pour (les) graces de son chant dans les concerts./Epouse de Carle Vanloo, originaire d’une famille noble de flandre, Chevalier/Romain et de l’ordre de S M…1er peintre du Roi de france, mort à Paris…/a l’age de 61.
Van Loo married Christina Antonia Somis in 1733, while he was living in Turin and in the service of Charles-Emanuel III, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia. She was a celebrated opera singer. They returned to Paris in 1734 where he quickly achieved success. This drawing, although unusually large, is characteristic of his portrait drawings. [Sotheby’s, London, 4.07.2007, lot. 139]

Carle van Loo Portrait of Cristina Somis, pastel, Torino, Galleria Sabauda (?)

Yet, my favourite portrait of her dates from later. Once again she was portrayed by her husband. The pleasing smile is still there.

(tbc)

The plate and the painter: on a little discovery in late 2017

an_bi 19 December 2017

Countless are the ways music and visual arts meet. Here is the short account of what was recently discovered behind a painting on copper.*

This tale begins at the beginning of last summer, in June, on my trip back from Arezzo. A dear friend in Bologna, Tommaso Pasquali, introduced me to Camillo Tarozzi, a renowned restorer. He had just completed his intervention on the beautiful Christ Carrying the Cross, by Alessandro Tiarini (1577–1668), on copper.

A. Tiarini (1577-1668) – Christ Carrying the Cross – private collection (image DOROTHEUM, 19.04.2016)

“The artform of painting on copper dates back to the mid-sixteenth century, when European artists found that the smooth surfaces of thin sheets of copper lent themselves to fine workmanship, were easy to handle, and even gave a luminous shine to the paint. Masters including Jan Breughel the Elder, Claude, El Greco, Reni, Guercino, Rembrandt, and Vernet are among those who produced fine works on copper” Copper as canvas : two centuries of masterpiece paintings on copper, 1575-1775, Phoenix Art Museum, Summary.

Tiarini, though, used a second-hand plate for his picture. As shown in the picture below, the plate had been earlier engraved as to result, once pressed, in a page with a lute tablature. (For more information on tablatures for lute please visit this page http://sologuitarist.net/tablature.htm; find also more material concerning the instrument and its history and repertoire here http://www.lutesociety.org/lute-portal/home).

A. Tiarini (1577-1668) – Christ Carrying the Cross – verso, upright format; private collection (image DOROTHEUM, 19.04.2016)

But when was the plate engraved and when was the painting made? According to the sale records:

“The copper panel shows rapid and incisive brushstrokes and this artistic approach can be compared to Tiarini’s Finding of Moses (1641) conserved in the Kunsthalle, Bremen. The face of Christ is similar to that in the Resurrection of Lazarus in the Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg and it can also be compared to the facial type of Saint Joseph in Saint Joseph in glory in the church of Santi Giuseppe e Ignazio in Bologna. For this reason, the present work can be dated around 1640.

Alessandro Tiarini was the godson of the painter Lavinia Fontana. He received his first training in Bologna under her father, Prospero Fontana. In 1597, Tiarini studied with Bartolomeo Cesi before being forced to leave Bologna because of a lawsuit. Tiarini then went to Florence, where he worked on the fresco decoration of the cloister of Sant´Antonio in the monastery of San Marco in 1602″. (DOROTHEUM sale catalogue online).

By 1650s in Italy, music was published almost exclusively with movable types (Rudolph Rasch in 2005 has collected various essays on music publishing in Europe; see Music Publishing in Europe 1600-1900: Concepts and Issues Bibliography, BWV Verlag). This was true also for special-notated music, like lute or gamba tablatures. Therefore I was quite sure that a lute tablature from at least the first half of the 17th century was rather unusual to find. So I reached out to someone much more expert in the field of tablatures: lutenists.

Step 1: getting to know the signs

I forwarded the image below to a dear friend Borut Novakovic, a Slovenian lutenist. I digitally reworked the picture, to allow him a better reading of the plate. I contrasted the picture and flipped it over, just as it was a regular printed page.

A. Tiarini (1577-1668) – Christ Carrying the Cross – verso, upright format, contrasted and flipped picture; private collection (image DOROTHEUM, 19.04.2016)

My lutenist friend took a very close look at the page and here are his indications.

First of all the beginning and the end of the piece are missing. The plate was possibly cut and adjusted according to the needs of the painter. Second: the music itself is rather pleasant and interesting. It is written for a nine-courses lute (at least). The small points or dots beside the numbers indicate the finger with which the performer had to strike the strings: one dot stands for second finger, two dots for middle finger.

Back in Bologna, while having a look at the plate, my friend Tommaso noticed that the numbers were impressed with a sort of loose metal type (puncheon), hammered on the surface of the copper. All the digits are identical one to the other. Occasionally, they were hammered in different direction. This fact makes the page look rather messy, especially in the lower part.

Despite these details, though, my striving to find the composer of such a piece was still unfulfilled.

Step 2: follow the signs.

At the beginning of December I was again in Bologna and I visited, as usual, the magnificent library of the likewise magnificent Civico Museo della Musica. I was going on with my regular researches when I realized I was in the perfect place to look for the composer of the lute piece. I reached out to the responsible of the library, Ms. Targa. She was extremely kind and open and proposed me to submit the question to Maestro P. Prosser, a lute scholar.

He confirmed all the theories and indications I already had. Yet he proposed a further extension of the “research team”, asking to involve the members of the Deutsche Lautengesellschaft. And that was when the sky opened.

Step 3: the more the marrier.

A team of Lute players, scholars and enthusiasts came to help: M. Lutz, P. Király, M. Rösel, P. Steur, A. Schlegel, G. Söhne joined forces with P. Prosser…

“P. Prosser sent me the request of the art historian Anna Bianco about the back of a picture that was drawn on a copper plate. The picture probably was made around 1640 in Italy (Rome/Bologna). On the other side the printing plate of a yet unknown piece can be found. If someone is able to identify the piece, it would be fine to contact me” (M. Lutz in http://mss.slweiss.de/index.php?id=3&type=research&lang=eng).

So in a couple of hours I was able to read the piece in a contemporary .pdf tablature and hear the notes in the Midi-file (follow the link to find this amazing material)!

But even more extraordinary was the less-than-24 hours later discovery:

“The piece has been identified by G. Söhne. It is a work by Alessandro Piccinini: Aria III Con parte variate. From Piccinini: Intavolatvra di liuto, et di Chitarrone. Libro primo, Bologna 1623, p. 49-51. But the version below is simpler and stems from another edition (possibly a pirate print?).” [see link]

Alessandro Piccinini (1566-c. 1638) is therefore the composer of the music. Yet the 1623 edition was still made in movable types. Therefore an actual printed page from this very plate is still to be found and many questions are still there to be answered. For instance: who engraved this plate and why? Is this a pirate copy of the 1623 edition or can it predate it? Which function did this had in respect to the known edition?

Prof. Dinko Fabris and M. Franco Pavan provided crucial information for the plate. A letter from Piccinini to Enzo Bentivoglio dating from 1614 suggests that he had the piece already composed from before he left Rome in 1611!

“…Io son dietro a una inpresa cioé di far intaliare un libro da sonare di lauto che già cominciai a scrivere sino a Roma: per stampare sarà di gran spesa, ma non ho dubio di guadagnarli dentro”
(Ferrara, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Bentivoglio, Lettere sciolte 227, c.149 Alessandro Piccinini da Bologna a Enzo Bentivoglio, Ferrara in data 27.VIII.1614)

in Dinko Fabris, Mecenati e musici. Documenti sul patronato artistico dei Bentivoglio di Ferrara nell’epoca di Monteverdi (1585-1645), Lucca, LIM, 1999, n. 432, pp. 296-97.

Piccinini says: “I am about to have a book of lute sonatas engraved, that I had already begun when I was in Rome: it will cost money, but I have no doubt I will make some money with that”. Therefore the plate might date from around 1614.

Many are still the questions to be answered. What remains is this beautiful Christmas discovery, made possible through an international collaboration among scholars and enthusiasts to whom I will always be extremely grateful.

Anna Bianco

*Many are the people I am grateful to for this tiny adventure: Tommaso Pasquali and Prof. Camillo Tarozzi, Borut Novakovic, Cristina Targa, Pietro Prosser, the Deutsche Lautengesellschaft (Markus Lutz, Frank Legl, Mathias Roesel, Peter Steur, Andreas Schlegel); a very heartfelt thanks to Prof. D. Fabris and F. Pavan. My acknowledgments go also to Mm. J. Held, M. Niessen and E. Valorz.