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Neapolitan Tarantella

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1698
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Neapolitan Tarantella
Date of creation: 1816
Technique: etching watercolour
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 10.3 x 16.1

Additionally

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

Information about author

Author: 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 a version of one of B. Pinelli's "dance" compositions from the albums Raccolta (1809) and Nuova Raccolta (1816). In some engravings, the couple is depicted with additional characters in the background of Naples districts. The square engraving (actually on a fragment) from the album Peter Bierl Buch- & Kunstantiquariat, Orasburg, Germany, shows a composition dated 1820. Tarantella is the most popular dance in southern Italy, namely in Naples and Sicily. It is fast and agile. One or more couples perform it with guitar, tambourine, and castanet accompaniment. On B. Pinelli's engraving, a dancing couple is depicted in the centre of the composition – a gentleman is looking at a lady and tapping the rhythm with castanets, while a woman is lifting her leg and holding a long dress with her hand. On the left side of the work, a girl is depicted sitting and beating the rhythm on a tambourine. The engraving is brightly painted with blue, red, pink, orange, and yellow watercolours.

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 Il Ballo Napoletano, detto Tarantella. The number "1" is in the upper right corner above the image.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Neapolitan Tarantella

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