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Man and Woman from Castelpizzuto, Contado de Molise

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1718
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Man and Woman from Castelpizzuto, Contado de Molise
Date of creation: 1816
Country: Austrian Empire Austro-Hungarian Empire
Technique: etching watercolour
Material: paper
Dimensions: 10 x 16 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: genre art
Provenance: Collection of Faina Tarashchanska (Lviv), 1966

Information about author

Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Author in the original: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Artist's lifetime: 1781–1835
Country: Italy
Biography: Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781, Rome – 1835, ibid.) was an Italian painter, engraver, and sculptor. He was the son of the ceramist G. B. Pinelli. Bartolomeo was born in the Trastevere district (over the Tiber River). He studied in Bologna and later at the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome. The artist attended the Academy of Felice Giani, an Italian painter of the Neoclassic style, from whom he adopted the drawing style. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Pinelli took an interest in the engravings of the Renaissance, namely in the works by Marcantonio Raimondi, and started making etchings and lithographs out of his drawings. In 1809, Pinelli created his first series of watercolour etchings – Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes (Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi). The album was reissued in 1814 and 1815. In 1816, a new version of the album under the title New Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes (Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi di acqua forte) was released. Most of the Lviv engravings are from this series. The central theme of the artist's work is genre scenes (Costumi), which he saw in Rome and Naples, as well as the provinces of Abruzzo and Molise. Pinelli's engravings are not only of artistic value but also carry important ethnographic information. In the 1820s and 1830s, the artist created drawings and engravings for poems by Torquato Tasso (1827–1829) and the novel "Don Quixote" (1834) by Miguel de Cervantes. One of Pinelli's famous series of drawings is "Seven Hills of Rome" (Sette colli di Roma) (1827–1830). The artist's works are housed in many Italian museums and collections of other countries.

Object description

The first version of this composition by B. Pinelli was issued in the album Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi li più interessanti delle città, terre e paesi in provincie diverse del Regno di Napoli (Collection of Fifty Most Interesting Picturesque Costumes from Cities, Towns and Villages of Different Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples) published in Rome in 1814. The Lviv composition of 1816 is horizontal in contrast to the above-mentioned engraving in a square frame. In the foreground, a young woman and a young man are talking. The woman is dressed in bright national clothing with a blue apron embroidered with gilded patterns, a blue waistcoat with cuffs trimmed with yellow ribbons, a headscarf, and solid dark shoes on her feet. She outstretched her hand to the young man leaning on a long stick. The man is dressed in a long blue, red-rimmed camisole, put over a light vest, yellow underpants and white knee socks; on his head is a wide-brimmed hat. The characters are painted with bright watercolours, with prevailing yellow, blue, red, and burgundy colours. In the background is a mountain peak and a fragment of an urban development with a high tower on the right. It is Castelpizzuto in a mountain valley in the heart of the Apennines between the modern provinces of Campania, Molise, and Lazio.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner, there is the author's signature – Pinelli, the date – 1816, and the place of performance – Roma. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title Uomo, e Donna di Castelpizuto, Provincia Contado de Molise. The number "18" is in the upper right corner above the plate.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Man and Woman from Castelpizzuto, Contado de Molise

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