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Man and Women from the Village of Masciuni in the Province of L'Aquila in Upper Abruzzo

Bartolomeo Pinelli

  • Man and Women from the Village of Masciuni in the Province of L'Aquila in Upper Abruzzo 2
  • Man and Women from the Village of Masciuni in the Province of L'Aquila in Upper Abruzzo 3
Basic information
ID
Г-IV-1730
Author
Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name
Man and Women from the Village of Masciuni in the Province of L'Aquila in Upper Abruzzo
Date of creation
1816
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 composition is known from the album Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi li più interesanti 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 in Rome in 1817. The album presented it as an etching that was not painted with watercolours. In its colour version, the engraving was known from the album published in 1816. The Lviv version differs from it in brighter colours. In the foreground, one can see two figures, namely a young man depicted in profile sitting near a stone and playing a piffero and a young girl dressed in traditional festive clothing, who approached the man, fascinated by music. Her hand is touching a branch of a young tree with small red fruits. The girl is wearing a yellow and blue dress with peculiar cuffs and epaulettes, a long skirt of the same colours, and an apron with floral motifs put on over it. A headscarf is on her head; on her feet are red lace-up shoes. The young man is wearing a blue camisole and a red jacket, narrow trousers and knee socks; black shoes are on his feet; on his head, there is a wide-brimmed hat. The action occurs in the background of a valley with trees where the outlines of a high mountain range are seen in the distance. 
Piffero is a wind instrument, a kind of pipe or surma-horn, an analogue of the Ukrainian shawm. It is called pipita in the southern regions of Italy.
Inscriptions
In the lower right corner, there is the author's signature Pinelli written in italics, and the date 1816, followed by an illegible inscription. In the centre of the engraving, under the image, is the work's title Uomo, e Donna del Paese di Masciuni, Provincia dell'Aquila, Abruzzo Ultra. The number "27" is in the upper right corner above the plate.
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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