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Sailors on the Pier of the Port of Naples Listening to "The Story of Rinaldo"

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1759
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Sailors on the Pier of the Port of Naples Listening to "The Story of Rinaldo"
Date of creation: 1816
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

The work is from the Neapolitan series. The multi-figure composition, Marinari sul Molo di Napoli, is known from Pinelli's engravings dated 1809 and 1815. However, in both previous versions, the musician was a citizen of Naples, singing and playing the lute for sailors. In the Lviv version, one of the sailors is depicted in the image of a singer and musician. It is a foreground composition which shows four Neapolitan sailors. One of them, depicted on the left, sits on the podium and plucks the lute strings; he is singing a long cantastoria about the knight Rinaldo. An experienced sailor with a pipe sits to the right, listening carefully to the song's story. Between them, two young sailors are standing embracing; they perceive with their souls the words of the romance, which was popular in Naples then. All the characters are dressed as Parisian sans-culottes; in particular, they wear long baggy pants, white shirts, and light vests; there are Phrygian caps on their heads; they are barefoot. The sailors' clothes are bright, with dominant blue, red, and yellow colours. The action occurs in the background of Vesuvius, depicted in blurred light blue tones.
Rinaldo is the most popular Italian character from the ballad "Orlando in Love" (Orlando Innamorato). It was written by the Renaissance author M. M. Boiardo.

Inscriptions

In the lower right corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli, written in italics. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title: Marinari sul Molo di Napoli, ascoltando l'Istoria di Rinaldo. The number "47" is in the upper right corner above the plate.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Sailors on the Pier of the Port of Naples Listening to "The Story of Rinaldo"

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