Collection

Buttaro or Guardian of Campania

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1737
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Buttaro or Guardian of Campania
Date of creation: 1816
Technique: etching watercolor
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 10.1 x 16.4

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 work is from the series Costumes of Central Italy in the Neapolitan album. The first watercolor engraving with such a name was performed by B. Pinelli in 1815 and issued in the album Nuova Raccolta di cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi all 'acquaforte da Bartolomeo Pinelli Romano, Nicola de Antoni impresse, Ignazio Pavon Offre e Dedica, Roma 1816. The first version differs from the "Lviv" version performed a year later by greater detailing in the depiction of figures and a fragment of an architectural building. The second version, similar to the "Lviv" one, was published in black and white in the album dated 1817. In the foreground, one can see a rider with a pointed wooden stick in his hand. A woman with a baby is standing next to him. She has just given the man something like a small square box. The rider and the woman made a goodbye eye contact. A man (buttaro) is going to protect his area – Campania – from bandits and vagrants. He is sitting on the blanket of a harnessed horse, putting his foot in a stirrup. The man is dressed in a blue jacket over a red vest, in blue trousers girded with a wide yellow belt; there is a wide-brimmed hat on his head and there are high boots on his feet. A woman is wearing a long pink skirt, blue vest; on her head there is a white headscarf. The baby in her arms is tightly swaddled. The rich range of colors of the clothing, namely red, blue, yellow and pink tones, highlight the images. The background with trees, mountains, and the sky is depicted in a dimmed blue and green range. Campania is an area in the mountainous region of the province of Salerno in the Campania region, which includes Naples.

Inscriptions

In the lower right corner there is the author’s signature: Pinelli f [fecit]. In the center of the engraving under the image there is the work’s title Buttaro, o sia Guardiano di Campagna. There is a number "39" in the upper right corner above the plate.

Buttaro or Guardian of Campania

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