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Magic Lantern

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1707
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Magic Lantern
Date of creation: 1810s
Technique: etching watercolour
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 10 x 16

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

Bartolomeo Pinelli performed the first work titled La Lanterna Magica (Magic Lantern) for Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi (Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes), released in 1809. However, the most known works were unpainted engravings dated back to 1815. The dome of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome is depicted in the background of these engravings. The area corresponds to the Trastevere district, where Bartolomeo Pinelli lived and from where the cathedral dome could be seen from the south. An unpainted engraving in the version without the cathedral dome was presented in the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi di acqua forte (New Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes), published by Giovanni Scudellari in Rome in 1817. The work was probably created in 1816. The artist presents a street scene, where in the middle of the square, the actor shows the public a "magic lantern" or a phantoscope, which looks like a large box with a turret. The actor lifts the top of the box to illuminate the picture inside. The public looks closely through the side holes of the box. Next to the actor is his wife, who accompanies the hurdy-gurdy, and their young son, who feels sad. The engraving is painted with bright watercolours, with prevailing red, blue, yellow, and green ones. In 1844, the album with 27 engravings by Bartolomeo Pinelli was released, which included selected scenes of carnival, games, actions, and street scenes, as well as this engraving.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli f. [fecit]. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the title of the work La Lanterna Magica. The number "9" is in the upper right corner above the image.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Magic Lantern

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