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Seller of Zeppola Pastries in Naples

Bartolomeo Pinelli

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1748
Author: Bartolomeo Pinelli
Name: Seller of Zeppola Pastries in Naples
Date of creation: 1810s
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 first version of the engraving is unknown. The Lviv version might be dated 1816. The work is from the Neapolitan series. Like in many other compositions depicting the sellers of Naples, the scene takes place in the same square next to the temple. It might be the Basilica di Santa Maria della Sanità located north of the city centre in the Sanita neighbourhoods. From that perspective, one can see Vesuvius in the distance on the right. In the centre of the composition, in the foreground, a young salesman is talking to a boy, raising his hand with a horn and pointing to a table with a large bag of pastries. The girl, a sales assistant, is forming the pastries into a zeppola cookie. The artist highlights the light and ordinary clothes of the Neapolitan common people with bright watercolours, namely the red vests of a young salesman and a boy, their blue and yellow knee-length trousers, and a girl's long pink skirt with a blue apron. Like the young boy, the young seller is standing barefoot on the sun-baked stone terrace; on his head is a black hat decorated with a flower. The girl's hair is tied with a white headscarf; sandals are on her feet. Buildings and the sky with Vesuvius serve as the background of the composition; they are depicted in blurred ochre and pink colours and light blue tones. Rione Sanità (Health Neighbourhood) is a densely populated neighbourhood in the Stella district north of Naples' downtown. Nowadays, it is full of small street markets where food and clothing are sold; there are also ice cream shops and simple trattorias.
Zeppola is a traditional Neapolitan pastry; round pancakes are topped with cream or honey.

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: Venditore di Paste, dette Zeppole, in Napoli. The number "39" is in the upper right corner above the plate.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Seller of Zeppola Pastries in Naples

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