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Family from Ciociaria Leaving Their Village

Bartolomeo Pinelli

  • Family from Ciociaria Leaving Their Village 2
  • Family from Ciociaria Leaving Their Village 3
Basic information
ID
Г-IV-1752
Author
Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name
Family from Ciociaria Leaving Their Village
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 Roman series. The first version of the engraving was performed in 1815; later, in 1816, its black and white version was issued in the album Nuova Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi incisi all 'acquaforte da Bartolomeo Pinelli Romano, Nicola de Antoni impresse, Ignazio Pavon Offre e Dedica, Roma 1816. The next version (almost unchanged and similar to the Lviv engraving) was issued in the album Nuova Raccolta di Сinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi… (New Collection of Fifty Picturesque Costumes) published by Giovanni Scudellari in Rome in 1817. The Lviv engraving belongs to a simpler version of the composition dated 1815. In the foreground on the left, one can see a family of young peasants with two children. They walk along the mountain path with their few possessions, leaving their native village. All characters are dressed in traditional clothes. A man is wearing a black hat, red vest, blue knee-length trousers, and white stockings. On his shoulder, he is holding a stick with a cloth thrown over it. The woman wears a traditional flattop headscarf, a vest with an apron, and a crimson skirt. On her head is a wicker basket-cradle with a child sleeping in it; she is holding the cradle with her hand. To the left of the couple, their eldest daughter is walking with some things tied into a knot on her head. All travellers are wearing ciocie, traditional Ciociaria shoes. The action is taking place on a hill. In the foreground, on the left, there is a huge black tree. On the right is a boulder through which a young tree grows. In the distance, a forested mountaintop is depicted in blurred blue tones. 
Ciociaria is an area in the Lazio region southeast of Rome that does not have clear boundaries. The name is ethnographic, derived from ciocia shoes typical of that area. At present, Ciociaria is most commonly identified as the province of Frosinone.
Inscriptions
In the lower left corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli f.[fecit]. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title, Famiglia di Ciociari partendo dal loro Paese. The number "42" is in the upper right corner above the plate.
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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