Chestnut Seller in Naples

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1704
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Chestnut Seller in Naples
Date of creation: 1810s
Technique: etching watercolour
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 10 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

Presumably, the work dates back to 1816. It is included in the album Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi li più interessanti delle città, terre e paesi in provincie diverse del Regno di Napoli (Collection of Fifty Most Interesting Picturesque Costumes from Cities, Towns, and Villages of Different Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples) published by Giovanni Scudellari in Rome in 1817. Bartolomeo Pinelli frequently repeated this composition in different versions. Very close to it is the engraving "Seller of Sorbet (Sherbet)", later known as a lithography. In the foreground are bright figures of the Neapolitans performed in the unique author's style. This is a young man filling a girl's handkerchief with roasted chestnuts. Nearby, one can see the girl's mother with her hand outstretched to the seller. Obviously, she is giving a coin to the seller as a payment. The characters are shown in one of the squares of Naples between the religious buildings with Vesuvius in the background, whose top is seen in the distance. The characters' clothing is painted with bright colours, while the distant views – with dimmed ocher and blue ones.

Inscriptions

In the lower right corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli f. [ficit]. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title Penditore di Castagne dette Verole, in Napoli. The number "8" is in the upper right corner above the image.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Chestnut Seller in Naples

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