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Musicians-Carciofolari in Rome

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1755
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Musicians-Carciofolari in Rome
Date of creation: 1817
Country: Poland the Ukrainian SSR
Technique: etching watercolour
Material: paper
Dimensions: 10.2 x 16.3 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 work is from the Roman series. The watercolour engraving that was replicated in the Lviv version was created by the artist in 1816. The composition in its black and white variant is presented in the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi di acqua forte (Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes), published by Giovanni Scudellari in Rome in 1817. In the foreground, one can see a quartet of musicians: two harpists, one cellist, and a boy with a triangle (musical instrument). They are dressed in bright clothes; they wear black hats with high tops on their heads. They are walking along the plain against the background of a mountain above an ancient aqueduct on the left and a forested hill on the right.
Carciofolari are musicians from Abruzzo. They mainly were a trio of two harpists and a violinist (either a violist or a cellist) who was holding the fingerboard of his instrument down. Their name comes from the word "carciofolà", which means artichoke. The verses of many Neapolitan lyrical songs ended with that word. Carciofolari were an integral part of Roman folklife.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli written in italics, the place of performance – Roma (illegibly), and the date – 1817. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title Li Carciofolari in Roma. The number "45" is in the upper right corner above the plate.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Musicians-Carciofolari in Rome

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