Collection

Pilgrim Allowing to Kiss a Relic

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1723
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Pilgrim Allowing to Kiss a Relic
Date of creation: 1810s
Technique: etching watercolor
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 10.2 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
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 Pinelli was born in the Trastevere district (over the River Tiber). Street sketches of that western suburb of Rome repeatedly appeared in his graphic works later. He studied in Bologna, later on – at Accademia di San Luca (Academy of Saint Luke) in Rome. He attended the Academy of Felice Giani, an Italian painter of the Neoclassic style, from whom he inherited the drawing style. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Bartolomeo 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 watercolor etchings – Collection of 50 picturesque costumes (Raccola di cinquanta costumi pittoreschi). The album was reissued in 1814 and 1815. In 1816, a new version of the album under the title 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 creative work is genre scenes (Costumi), which he saw in Rome, Naples, as well as the provinces of Abruzzo and Molise. Pinelli's engravings have not only 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 as well as in collections of other countries.

Object description

This is a work from the Charity of Capuchin Monks series. The first version of the work titled Eremita che fa bagiare una Reliquia was performed by Pinelli in 1809 for the album Raccolta di Cinquanta costumi pittoreschi incisi di acqua forte (Collection of fifty picturesque costumes engraved in strong water) published in 1809. In the engraving from the Lviv collection, there is no urban landscape in the background. However, the characters are performed more confidently. The author emphasizes the strict profile of the monk, the trust of the children and their mothers, and, at the same time, he places emphasis upon the skepticism of the boy with a basket on the left. Behind the monk on the podium, there is a cross with instruments of Christ's sufferings. The primary focus is riveted on a girl kissing the imagе, which is given to her by the monk. The simple and fast drawing is painted with contrasting watercolors; the artist actively used brown and light gray paints in the center of the work; the clothing of the figures to the right and left of the monk is painted in bright colors. Capuchin Monks or The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (Ordo Fratrum Minorum Capucinorum) is a Catholic order that separated from the Franciscans in the 16th century. The Capuchins were characterized by charity and asceticism. Their clothing consisted of a brown soutane with a hood sewn to it, a rope with a knot on the belt (a symbol of the inviolability of vows), and sandals worn on their bare feet.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner there is the authors's signature Pinelli f. [fecit]. In the center of the engraving under the image there is the title of the work Eremita che fa bagiare una Reliquia. In the upper right corner of the engraving above the plate there is a number "21".

Pilgrim Allowing to Kiss a Relic

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