Blind Singer-Musician

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1731
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Blind Singer-Musician
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

This composition was first performed by B. Pinelli in 1815. It was issued in the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi all 'acquaforte da Bartolomeo Pinelli Romano (New Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes) published in 1816 by the publishing house Nicola de Antoni impresse, Ignazio Pavon Offre e Dedica in Rome. The next version was similar to the so-called Lviv one but not coloured. The latter was issued in the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi li più interessanti delle città, terre e paesi in provincie diverse del Regno di Napoli (New Collection of Fifty Most Interesting Picturesque Costumes from Cities, Towns and Villages of Different Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples) published in Rome in 1817. The Lviv version differs from the first one of 1815 by brighter colours but less attention of the author to the architecture and characters' clothing detailing. In the foreground in the centre, one can see three figures: a blind musician singing and playing a lute and two women of different heights squinting at him. These three people stand out between the bare walls of two houses in the background of the architecture, the sky, and the fragments of trees and mountains. On the left, near the wall, a barefoot boy is listening to the singer, leaning his head on his hand against the wall. On the right, in a short distance, a man stands against the wall, listening to the singing. He is wearing a blue cloak with a cape, a black hat, and black shoes with golden inserts. A blind musician is dressed in the same bright clothes. He is wearing a bright green cloak with a cape, red trousers, and white stockings; on his head is a hat. A woman and a girl are dressed much poorer in simple and not bright clothes. Instead, the figure of the guy dressed in bright blue pants harmoniously adds to the dark blue vertical of the man's clothes on the right.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli, written in italics, and the date 1816, followed by an illegible inscription Roma. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title Il Cieco che canta, e suona. The number "27" is in the upper right corner above the plate.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Blind Singer-Musician

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