Mercy of the Monks

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1721
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Mercy of the Monks
Date of creation: 1810s
Technique: etching watercolour
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 10 x 16.2

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 first version of the composition by B. Pinelli, titled La Carità dei Frati, literally The Mercy of the Capuchin Friars, was issued in the album Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi (Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes), published in 1809. In that composition, the architectural elements documenting the entrance gate of a specific monastery in Rome were performed in detail. The engraving of 1809 was replicated in the album Pittoreskes Italien, published in 1840 in Leipzig. The work presented in the Lviv collection in a slightly modified version has been known since 1816 from the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi di acqua forte (New Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes). The engraving depicts a Capuchin monk standing on the threshold before the monastery's gate, pouring hot soup from a jug for the poor and infirm, including vagabonds, cripples, and mothers with children. The simple and fast drawing is performed with contrasting watercolours; the artist used brown and light grey colours in addition to bright ones such as yellow, red, and blue tones.
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 right corner, there is the artist's signature Pinelli f. [fecit]. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title La Carita dei Frati. The number "20" is in the upper right corner of the engraving above the plate.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Mercy of the Monks

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