Goatherd in Rome

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1705
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Goatherd in Rome
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

This engraving was issued in the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi pittoreschi incisi di acqua forte (New Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes), published in Rome in 1817. The composition with the central image of a milkman was repeated by the painter in 1819; it was titled Il capraro di Tivoli (Goatherd of Tivoli). However, that work showed a young girl with a kid on her lap sitting next to the milkman; the young man milking a she-goat was depicted looking at the girl. In the Lviv composition, the young man is looking at the viewer while milking a she-goat. There is a kid next to the she-goat, and two other goats are in the background on the left. The rocky steep bank, from which the green branches of trees are hanging, is depicted in the foreground on the right. The artist used subdued tones of colour. Only trousers, a belt, and a scarf of the goatherd are painted with bright colours, drawing particular attention to the man’s figure in the foreground.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner, there is the painter's signature Pinelli. In the centre, under the image, is the work's title Il Capraro, in Roma. The number "8" is in the upper right corner of the engraving above the image.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Goatherd in Rome

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