Autore: Giuseppe Pavanello (edited by)

Fonti e Documenti per la Storia dell’Arte Veneta

Cierre Edizioni, Sommacampagna, 2013

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Artists’ private art collections, like their libraries, are now a favourite subject of study in art the engravings of Dürer, Jacques Callot, Stefano della Bella, Pietro Testa and Giulio Carpioni. He also looked very carefully at Rembrandt’s history research. They may shed light on individual culture and learning as well as possible visual sources that may be a key to the secret workshop behind artistic creation. In the case of Giambattista Tiepolo, great progress has been made on investigating what he actually kept in his house and studio, such as his works – paintings, drawings and engravings – which even Antonio Canova had his eye on. The dis-
covery of unexpected visual sources have revealed some fascinating interests. Tiepolo thus appears to have made use of or borrowed from prints and those made after Rubens, and so on. One important document providing information about items owned by Giambattista and his son Giandomenico is this catalogue for an auction held at the Hotel des Ventes, Paris – with M. Bonnefons de la Vialle as commissaire-
priseur – on 10-12 November 1845. The title alone is eloquent evidence of the variety of the items: “Collection d’estampes anciennes d’après et par des peintres et graveurs des écoles d’Italie, d’Allemagne, de Flandre, de Hollande, de France et d’Espagne. De dessins, d’anciens livres curieux sur les sciences et les arts, de nielles florentins, d’ornements pour l’orfévrerie par des artistes du XVe au XVIIe siècle”.

Venice, Rome, Naples, London, Paris, Lisbon: even just listing the cities in which Pellegrini worked gives us a good idea of his truly Europe an scope. This book is the first monograph entirely devoted to the Veneto painter. Compared to what was previously known about him, it includes a considerable number of fresh additions to his catalogue, historical information and descriptions of relations involving artists, art dealers and more or less illustrious figures in often adventurous historical situations – Pellegrini was even deported to the Azores – in a period which witnessed upheavals that changed the political set-up in Europe as in few other ages. As a major artist in the field of portraiture, Pellegrini travelled widely in Europe: in Italy with its ancient regime states and to Britain, Portugal and France. This book also contains his unexpectedly important correspondence. On reading it, we are surprised to learn how many relations are woven into his biography, especially later on in his life. After becoming well off enough to lay aside his brushes, he enjoyed the good life in several cities, such as London, Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome. To illustrate this, we only need mention the fact that the soprano Giuditta Pasta was one of his closest friends. He was also a friend of Antonio Canova. In 1813 he wrote to the sculptor from London, “I wanted riches but they have made me melancholic. Now I am more cheerful, and one of these days I will set fire to everything and be quite happy again. I see that only paints and the palette really make me happy. O how happy I should be to meet again so many friends who will now be all wrinkles and I think I can see that they will laugh at my own good looks, which are half Portuguese,half English and a little French.”