The da Vinci Genius on Paper

In 2009, the Sacrestia del Bramante, part of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (1463-97) that holds the famous Last Super (1494-98), exhibits the project of Codice Atlantico (Atlantic Code). Without a doubt, the sacristy, commissioned by Duca Ludovico il Moro (1452- 1508) in the late Qattrocento dedicated to the famous Sforza family of the city, is monument incognito within the bustling capital of the Lombardia. The size of the sacristy, an unusually small dimension, is likely due to the relations of the location within the city at the time. The elegantly decorated vaulted ceiling in a night scene motif with bright golden stars, heavily panelled perimeter wall covering with inserted landscape scenes, and geometric pavement identify the relevance of the sacristy in relation to Santa Maria delle Grazie. The contrast between the interiors and the exhibition, though both produced within the Italian Renaissance, provide a literal play of importance between the da Vinci drawings and the value of the location itself.

The Codice Atlantico is the largest collection in the world of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings and studies, conserved by the Veranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan, one of the first public libraries of the world. The 1119 pages identify the ‘intellectual life of Leonardo’ within a period of 40 years (1478-1519). Touring the interiors, examining the selected pages, evidently a minor portion of the entire collection, suddenly Leonardo’s mind comes to life; a menta filled with mathematical achievements that range from astronomy and optics, to gastronomy and recipes, to literal projects in hydraulic pumps and machinery of war.

One of the most interesting facts involved in the accumulation of the pages lies in the ambition that began in the Cinquecento under the writer Pompeo Leoni who strived to collect as much of Leonardo’s intellectual exemplars and studies; appropriately called ‘Atlantico’ for their variety, interest, and diversity from what was typical of the time. In 1637, Marchese Galeazzo Arconati, through inheritance, donated the collection to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in order to be convinced and certified of their preservation. Such details only but strengthen the importance of the da Vinci ambition and interests that were highly appreciated in his own lifetime and continued throughout the centuries to be an imperative archetype of the period to which is accredited to the beginning of modern European culture, a time when Italy itself launched Europe and the West into a new era.


Visitors have the pleasure to entire a private location to literally stand a foot away from the pages that allow anther type of perception of the time. Corresponding individuals, Uomini Universali, are rare in history, and, even for those that do not study it can, by the relation of time, evaluate their isolation and conscious separation from other. Perhaps in the identification process of certain painters and assuming their importance over others can be debatable, an argument to which art historians enjoy disputing. However, the preference and setting apart the da Vinci’s of the past is less of a challenge, an argument not worth initiating and confirmed by the Codice Atlantico.

Bibliography

1. ‘Sacrestia del Bramante’ in Biblioteca Ambrosiana online, 2012. (http://www.leonardo-ambrosiana.it/la-sacrestia-del-bramante/), date accessed 26/1/2015
2. ‘Il Codice Atlantico’ in Biblioteca Ambrosiana online, 2012, (http://www.leonardo-ambrosiana.it/il-codice-atlantico/), date accessed 26/1/2015
3. Galbiati, Giovanni. Dizionario Leonardesco: Repaertorio Generale delle Voci e Cose Contenute nel Codice Atlantico’ (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1939), (http://193.206.220.110/imm/PDFProvider.php?pdf=./000/000/336/336482/336482_00001z.jpg), date accessed 26/1/2015

The Tiepolo Studies

Tiepolo: I colori del disegno is an exhibition held at the Capitolini Museum in Rome that brings Giambattista Tiepolo’s (1696-1770) skill at sketching to the forefront of the painter’s artistic talent and renown genius. The Venetian artist is considered to be one of the greatest painters of the settecento Europe. Pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini (1657-1730) and influenced by Tintoretto (1518-1594) and Veronese (1528-1588), his compositions during his lifetime in churches and villas expanded beyond the Italian peninsula to Germany and Spain. His first appraised masterpieces, 1726-29, are in the battle and triumph scenes in the Ca’ Dolfin, in Venice. The height of his career is marked by the commissioning by Prince-Bishop Carl Philipp von Greiffenklavin Würzburg. In 1750-53, Tiepolo designed the ceiling for the palace staircase which brilliantly makes use of diverse points of perspective keeping into account the motion of the viewer going up and down the steps of the grandiose ingress between the ground level and first floor.


Critics examine the tiepolesco frescos and canvases as theatrical representations that embody his artistic capacity and skill of Venetian colore. The oil sketches support even further the studies that build a composition, the monochromatic details, efforts, and gradations that serve to identify the elements that compose the final artwork. Art lovers, professionals, and practitioners consider Tiepolo’s sketches as a primary art form worthy of collection. The selection at the exhibition identifies this prized draftsmanship and demonstrates the careful studies that provide the necessary details and technique to make the works worthy of the Vasarian (1511-74) critique of disegno reserved for the studies deriving from Florence and perfected by Michelangelo (1475-1564).


The talent in the sketches can be identified in the expressiveness in figure gestures, fantasy in compositional layout, and color value hidden within the monochromatic gradation of brush pressure. The final artworks express the manniera typical of Venetian artists, reminiscent of Giorgione (1470-1510) and Tiziano (1488-1576). However, the drawings reveal a deeper mastery, a beauty in an abstract articulation within the exploration of body language, facial expressions, on-site landscapes views, and classical decorative details.

The exhibition breaks away from the traditional viewpoint of Tiepolo’s skill at religious paintings and reminds the viewer of the amount of work that is required behind the art geniuses of the time. Even though critics claim Tiepolo to be a natural born artist, the paintings that have brought the artist to the forefront of Venetian Rococo period is due to diligent investigations. The phases of his examinations ranged from grotesque decorative studies, to animal gestures and movements, to perspective angles and views. Even at the peak of his career, when the family bottega included his two famous and talented sons Giandomenico (1727-1804) and Lorenzo (1736-1776), Tiepolo continued to practice on paper, always maintaining the relationship between the eye and the hand, in order to continue his 'mastery'. At a point when it would be considered his artistic production in the hands of his assistants, the drawings reveal the artist’s participation in the foundation of the productions. The extent to which he participated in the completion of the painted canvas or frescoed walls relates to his guidance over the Tiepolo bottega. The sketches, on the other hand, are strictly reserved to the artist himself.




An entire exhibition dedicated to the preparatory and investigative drawings are a clear indication of not only the artistic process behind creating works of art but also the talent behind the artist himself. The monochromatic ink studies allow Tiepolo to break away from the Venetian stereotype that isolate artists into the category of masters of colore developed from their use of oil paint deriving from their northern European contacts and influence. This characteristic talent was described to Tiziano and in such descriptions separated the Venetian art scene, disconnecting, in a certain sense, their pieces from other great artists deriving from the the artistic conditions of the Italian Renaissance. Tiepolo’s sketches, as indicated by the title of the exhibit in Rome, provide a certain amount of proof that his career included invenzione and disegno that describe the most famous artists of the period.

   

    

    

    

      

Tiepolo: I colori del disegno Organizers and Coordinators:
Roma Capitale, Musei Capitolini, Zètema Progetto Cultura & Associazione MetaMorfosi






Illustrations:

1. Tiepolo, Giambattista. Morte di Giacinto. black ink on brown paper, 337 x 242 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
2. ____. Incoronazione della Vergine. black in on brown paper, 445 x 292 cm, Museo Stefano Bardini, Firenze.
3. ____. Caricatura di gentiluomo che dorme in poltrona. black in on brown paper, 221 x 171 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
4. ____. Orientale con scimitarra. black in on brown paper, Museo Stefano Bardini. Firenze.
5. ____. Indovino orientale. black in on brown paper, 267 x 191 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
6. ____. San Girolamo nel deserto. black in on brown paper, 435 x 295 cm,  Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
7. ____. Decapitazione di una santa. black in on brown paper, 390 x 258 cm, Museo Biblioteca Archivio, Bassano del Grappa.
8. ____. La liberta e studi per una figura ignuda e san Francesco che riceve le stigmata (detail). black in on brown paper, 419 x 285 cm, Museo Civico Sartorio. Trieste.
9. ____. Paesaggio. black in on brown paper, 498 x 313 cm,  Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
10. ____. L'Olimpo. black in on brown paper, 357 x 265 cm, Museo Stefano Bardini, Firenze.
11. ____. San Girolamo eremito. black in on brown paper, 399 x 268 cm, Museo Biblioteca Archivio, Bassan del Grappa.
12. ____. Annunciazione. black in on brown paper, 600 x 382 cm, Museo Biblioteca Archivio, Bassano del Grappa.
13. ____. Gruppo con un fanciullo che prega. black ink on brown paper, 253 x 230 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
14. ____. Madonna con il bambino. black ink on brown paper, 180 x 136 cm, Museo Biblioteca Archivio, Bassano del Grappa.
15. ____. Studio per sei figuri (detail). black ink on brown paper, 225 x 183, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Collezione Fiocco, Venice.
16. ____. Testa di orientale. black ink on brown paper, 250 x 194 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
17. ____. Orientale di spalle che legge. black ink on brown paper, 249 x 118,  Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
18. ____. Gruppo di maschere con cane. black ink on brown paper, 327x 260 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
19. ____. Levrieri e profilo di vecchio orientale. black ink on brown paper, 254 x 180, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
20. ____. Metamporfosi di Attone su un piedistallo. black ink on brown paper, 154 x 142 cm, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Collezione Fiocco, Venice.
21. ____. Ninfa rapita da un cintauro al galoppo. black ink on brown paper, 184 x 272 cm, Private Collection, Florence.
22. ____. Particolari decorativi: maschere e faretra. black ink on brown paper, 240 x 170 cm, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste. 
23. ____. Elmi e studio per una serliano e cherubini. black ink on brown paper,136 x 262, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.
24. ____. La vertu ch esaccia il Vizio. black ink on brown paper, 300 x 460, Civico Museo Sartorio. Trieste.

Image Source:

1. Tiepolo: I colori del disegno. Exhibition catalogue. Musei Capitolini, Roma, 3 Oct. 2014- 18 Jan. 2015. (Roma: Compisan Editore srl, 2014)

Bibliography:

1. Bostock, Sophie. The Pictorial Wit of Domenico Tiepolo. Vol. I. Dissertation for PHD in Art History. (University of Warwick, Department of Art History, 2009), pp. 38-80
2. Tiepolo: I colori del disegno. Exhibition catalogue. Musei Capitolini, Roma, 3 Oct. 2014- 18 Jan. 2015. (Roma: Compisan Editore srl, 2014)
3. Christiansen, Keith. ‘Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’ in Metropolitan Museum online. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tiep/hd_tiep.htm (date accessed: 1/1/2015)
4. ____ ‘Tiepolo: Theater and the Notion of Theatricality’ in Art Bulletin, Dec. 1999. Vol. XXX, pp.665-92
5. Giannini, Federico and Baratta, Ilaria.‘Biografia di Giambattista Tiepol’ in Finestre sull'Art. www.finestresullarte.info/Puntate/2013/20-giambattista-tiepolo.php (date accessed: 1/1/2015)
6. Kurian, George Thomas. ‘Tiepolo, Giambattista’ in Wiley Online Library (The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, 25 Nov. 2011) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470670606.wbecc1386/full (date accessed: 1/1/2015)