A PERUGINO PAINTING - "VIRGIN & CHILD WITH FOUR SAINTS" THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF UMBRIA, PERUGIA

ITALIAN ART OBJECT OF THE MONTH - DECEMBER 2015

"MOTHER AND CHILD WITH FOUR SAINTS"
Pietro Vannucci - known as Perugino
Oil on Wood
(158cms x 182cms)
Date c1500
National Gallery of Umbria, Perugia.

The year is almost at an end and its time to select another art object. I'm feeling a sense of achievement as I do this at having met the deadline for my postings every single month. In my semi-retirement it's good to have things that impose a bit of discipline on one's life and I've enjoyed making the choices of object, doing the research and collecting images for each one and finally writing them up and publishing them at the end of every month in the blog. From the bits and pieces of feedback I've had they've been well-received and I take great satisfaction from that. I would recommend blog writing as an excellent retirement hobby and one with a practical outlet - being one's own publisher. How good is that? I'm coming up with my last selection for 2015 early because I'm leaving the country for central America in early December and won't be back until early January. In making the choice I decided to remain very traditional and stick with a painting with a theme which relates to Christmas

The picture is a traditonal Renaissance Madonna and Child painted by Perugino and the reason I've chosen it I can hear you asking? - well Perugino is a significant Italian artist of the later 15th early 16th centuries and he was born in the little town of Citta della Pieve - the place where we bought our apartment two and a half years ago. And I also went to see the picture at Umbria's National Gallery in Perugia earlier in the year. Not only did I enjoy seeing this work and others by the artist, but I was also impressed by the high standard of the collection generally. It's a "must see" among many if you ever come to this wonderful city.

Mother & Child with four Saints - Perugino - 1500

 THE ARTIST
Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, better known as Perugino (a nickname which implied he was from Perugia), was born in the fortified Umbrian hill top town of Citta della Pieve in 1445 and came from a reputable, wealthy family. Little is known about his early life in the town but the property where he was born, in the town square opposite the cathedral, is today marked with a sculptural relief and plaque on the wall. Many of Perugino's admirers come to see it and photograph it.

The double arched property to the left of the black drain pipe is the one where
Perugino was born. It's possible to see the commemorative plaque directly anove
the first arch on the left.

 He probably trained as an arist in the nearby city of Perugia, a flourishing urban centre at the end of the 15th century. Art historians tell us that Perugia was an important centre for the arts at this time with a lot of money being spent on both public and private commissions. Artist's were resident in the city from Florence, Siena and Orvieto and many of them had apprentices.Whilst training in the city there would have been good opportunities for the young artist to imbibe such artistic innovations as a realistic use of light and mathematical perspective. He then seems to have moved to Florence to complete his apprenticeship in the workshops of Antonio Verrochio - a true Renaissance man as he was an accomplished goldsmith, sculpltor and painter of considerable repute. In Florence Perugino would have met Leonardo da Vinci, Ghirlandaio, Lippi and Botticelli and there is evidence to suggest that it was here he learned to refine his drawing skills from life studies taking an interest also in the new art's pre-occupation with issues relating to the movement and expression of individuals in compositions.

Portrait of Pietro Perugino the artist

In 1472 his long apprenticeship appears to have ended when he became a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, an organisation set up in 1439 to promote artists' interests and its from that point onwards that he set out as an artist in his own right. His considerable talent enabled him to take commissions in Florence, Venice, Perugia and Rome and some of his most important works were completed in the Vatican for the Pope. His most famous fresco is probably "The Delivery of the Keys to St Peter" of 1481-1482 which is in the Sistine Chapel.

 An efficient businessman, Perugino also ran two studios, one in Florence which he opened in the 1470's and another in Perugia which started in 1501. It would be in his Florentine workshop that he would teach the young artist Raphael the skills of a painter! Overall, he produced many paintings and examples of his work can be seen not only in museums and galleries throughout Italy, but also in many of the world's most imporant museums.

THE COMMISSION
The painting I have chosen is also known as THE TEZI ALTARPIECE as it was commissioned for placement above an altar in the TEZI family chapel in the church of Sant' Agonstino in Perugia. It seems to have been associated with a predella (a smaller strip like painting underneath the main work) which depicted The Last Supper. This turned up in Frankfurt in 1833 and was sold to the Staatliche Museum in Berlin where it is now. Its the inscriptions on the predella in Berlin that reveal information related to the commission indicating that a man called Bernadino di ser Agostino (by the 18th century this family were known as Tezi) commissioned the work from Perugino for his family chapel in Sant' Agostino.

Front elevation of Sant Agostino Church in Perugia - the lower part of which
dates from the middle of the 13th century. The church was completely rebuilt
in the 18th century. 

THE PAINTING
The picture is an oil painting on an oak wooden panel. By this time oil paint was the preferred painting medium in Italy and egg tempera had long gone out of fashion, The oil technique dried slowly, allowed layers of paint to be built up including glazes and delivered an amazing amount of detail when required. The oak panel would have been carefully prepared and sized to fill the grain of the wood before painting began.

The panel depicts the Madonna and Child on a cloud above a landscape  and surrounded by four saints. These can be identified as Saint Nocholas of Tolentino left of the Virgin, Saint Bernadino of Siena to her right. Below and to the left is the kneeling figure of Saint Jerome with his attribute of a lion lying just behind him and to the right is the kneeling figure of  a partially clad Saint Sebastian complete with arrows piercing his body. In the centre is the shape of what looks like a grave stone but it represents the position of the opening to a tabernacle which would have housed the holy sacrament.
Its these balanced elements which give the picture a great sense of harmony and serenity - a characteristic of most High Renaissance paintings of this period. The techniques are used by Peruginoe's pupil, Raphael in many of his compositions with same effects.

Madonna of the Consolation - Perugino - 1498

Art historians have shown that Perugino used the same cartoon for the Madonna that he'd used in another of his paintings the "Madonna of the Consolation" which dates from a couple of years before the Perugia one. The composition is harmonious and balanced in terms of how the artist has constructed it top to bottom and side to side. The figures are well modelled and look realistic. The landscape adds a dimension of depth to the composition. These are all devices typically used by Perugino is his compositions at this date There is another work of a Madonna and Child with Saints above the altar of the cathedral in his home town of Citta which shows similar compositional devices. The interesting thing however, is that until relatively recently, art historians believed the colour usage in the painting was not typical of the Master when compared with the other works of the period. An opinion formed that the work probably came from his studio, but that it was largely the result of his workshop assistants with the master only responsible for parts of it. Recent restoration of the work by the experts at the art gallery in Perugia has produced a revised opinion based on the true quality of the picture exposed after the cleaning.

The picture can be seen in the series of rooms 22-28 at the Galleria Nazionale in Perugia.

Perugino died in 1523 having caught bubonic plague whilst back in his home area of Umbria in the small town of Folignano. He was evidently buried in an open field there but if you visit there's a little chapel near the side of the road which remembers the great artist. There's usually a notice pinned to the door suggesting you ring a telephone number of one of a number of local villagers who will come out and unlock it so you can have a peek inside!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year when they finally arrive.

Ciao and KBO

THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT PAESTUM - MODELLED IN CORK!!

OBJECT OF THE MONTH - NOVEMBER 2015

A CORK MODEL OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT PAESTUM

I'm late in posting my monthly object feature and I apologize for that. It's all due to the fact I was travelling for most of October and unable to get down to producing a posting on time. However, I hope you will enjoy reading about what I've chosen as its a corker (forgive the pun)!!

Firstly I have to confess that in contrast to all the other things I've written about this year, I have not seen it. An article about it appeared in the October 2nd issue of the Antiques Trade Gazette which I read every week and I was immediately taken with what I saw - it had to be my object of the month for November!

CORK MODEL OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT PAESTUM c1820
SOLD AT AUCTION IN LONDON FOR £51,700 IN SEPTEMBER 2015
(2'2"x12"x10")

The article featured an early 19th century model of one of the three, well-preserved Greek temples to be found at Paestum in present day Campania, Italy. The model had been placed in a local auction house at Hampstead in North London with a pre-sale estimate of £5000-£8000. The vendor's great, great grandfather interestingly had connections with Naples; he'd been a tailor there to the Neapolitcan royal family! When sold the buyers, furniture dealers Thomas Coulbourn & Sons based in the West Midlands, paid the significant sum £44,000 pounds for it plus buyer's commission - producing a grand total of £51,700!!

Details of the Padiglione cork model of the Temple at Paestum

Models like this one were made in response to demand from British Grand Tourists staying in Italy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries for easily transportable souvenirs. Many of them visited key archaeological sites like Paestum with their tutors and often produced accurately scaled and measured drawings to take home with them and remember there were no cameras available then! Models were a great souvenir and could be used for all sorts of purposes back home including display, inspiration for architectural projects and even teaching students in some cases. A thriving model industry flourished in Naples to satsify this demand and the workshop of Dominic Padiglione, who is thought to have made this model, was one of the most important in the city.

Peastum was an important Greek settlement on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea in what was then known as Magna Graecia. It was founded by Greek colonists and named Poseidonia and it would be the Roman who later named it Paestum. The Greeks built three temples there which have survived through to the present day in excellent condition - particularly compared with the Parthenon in Athens. They all date from the first half of the 6th century BC and were constructed in the doric order. The model represents an accurate representation of the second temple, originally dedicated to Hera and Poseidon, but also used for the worship of Zeus as well.

The Second Temple at Paestum - 460-450BC.

Cork from southern European oaks started to be used for model making in Italy in the late 18th century and being pliable and porous, as well as taking carving well (precision was deemed very important) - it suited model making. Domenico Padilglione was an official model maker for the Royal Museum in Naples in the early 19th century contributing work to the Gallery of Models of ancient monuments in the royal Museum. He made additional income from making models for Grand Tourists and probably used scale drawings to produce the three dimensional structures. His wife and children were also involved in the business. His models were known for their accuracy and  quality and highly desirable.

Sir John Soane, the Regency architect to the Bank of England, renowned today for his house and collection open to the public in Lincoln's Inn, was an avid collector of models and used them in his teaching. Today the model room at Lincoln's Inn has been restored and it's once again open to the public. Models similar to the one sold at auction in September can be seen there and I'd recommend a visit next time you are in London.

The restored model room at Sir John Soane's Lincoln's Inn house.

It won't be long before it's time to introduce my last object for 2015 and I've chosen a painting with a suitable theme for the month of December. I hope you will come back then.

Ciao & KBO

Ian

AN ITALIAN PIETRA DURA PAPERWEIGHT

AN ITALIAN PIETRA DURA PAPERWEIGHT
 Date - probably late 19th century
 Dimensions - 67mm x 98mm x 15mm

MY ITALIAN PIETRA DURA PAPERWEIGHT

Well its almost the end of the month again and time to choose another piece for my Italian object series. This time I've selected a small paperweight I purchased at the Arezzo antiques fair a few months ago. Its a simple but attractive thing made from a small slab of a polished black hardstone which has been inlaid with other coloured stones in the overall form of a cross. As well as having a devotional, christian purpose it functioned as a heavy weight to hold down papers on a desk. It might have been made in Florence or Rome in the late 19th century as a tourist souvenir but I'm not absolutely sure. What I do know however is that I treasure it as the only example I have of the Italian technique known as "pietra dura" which translated in to English means "hard stone".

The technique involves the inlaying or laying down on a flat surface of pieces of coloured, polished stone selected for their decorative properties to create patterns or images. In wood work the technique would be called marquetry. Typically the designs were and are today created on a flat surface, though sometimes the pieces of pietra dura might have a low relief effect to the overall design. Marbles and semi-precious stones are used to create the designs and the stones are selected, sliced and polished for their decorative qualities and pieces chosen to perform particular functions in a design.

HARDSTONE PEBBLES SUITABLE FOR CUTTING AND POLISHING

In the best examples the craftsman would selected stones not just for colour but also for their subtle gradations of colour and pattern so they could be used to imitate for example feathers in a bird or shading on a flower petal.

A TYPICAL SMALL PIETRA DURA OVAL PANEL
OF FRUITS, FLOWERS AND LEAVES

My little paperweight has 20 pieces of coloured stone inlaid in to the piece of black marble which I've identified as probably being "nero antico".

White Carrara marble         5 pieces
Malachite                            3 pieces
Lapis lazuli                         1 piece
Rosso antico (deep red)      2 pieces
Bardiglio (grey marble)      1 piece
Giallo di Siena (yellow)     3 pieces
Other                                   5 pieces

20 PIECES OF INLAID POLISHED STONE HAVE BEEN
USED TO CREATE THE DESIGN OF A CROSS

There's nothing of any great quality here - these are surely small chips of polished stone perhaps left over from the making of a larger and more complex item, but on detailed inspection the colours and patterns of the pieces of stone are pleasing to the eye and one or two rarities as well. The main source of lapis lazuli has always been Afghanistan and its always been expensive. In Renaissance painting the blue pigment used by painters came from this mineral and was always reserved for items like the clothing of the virgin!

The complex and difficult technique of pietra dura was used by the Romans in architecural settings for floor and wall decoration in both decorative pattern and figurative work. The technique never completely died out after the fall of Rome and in the Middle Ages it was used in church floor decoration and for the ornamentation of tombs and altars. Again in the Byzantine civilisation it was used to craft floor decorations.

Not surprisingly it attracted the attention of humanists in Renaissance Italy and it was revived there in the 16th century in Rome and Florence. It was the Medici Duke - Ferdinand I of Tuscany who founded in Florence the Galleria di 'Lavori which was given the specific task of producing luxury objects incorporating pietra dura designs for members of the Medici family. Table tops made from pietra dura were especially popular - similar to this example below which was sold at Christie's in New York in 2001 I think it was. This example however, though in the style of the 16th century, was made in the late 20th century. It sold for 23.5 thousand dollars I believe.

PIETRA DURA TABLE TOP SOLD AT CHRISTIE'S
NEW YORK IN 2001.

Interestingly one of the finest and most expensive pieces of furniture ever made concerns the pietra dura workshops in Renaissance Florence. The so called "Badminton Cabinet" was commissioned by His Grace the Duke of Beaufort from the Medici owned Galleria di' Llavori in Florence during a Grand Tour visit he made to the works in 1726. Standing at almost 4 metres tall it incorporates many decorative pietra dura panels into its design and construction. Not completed until 1732 it was then shipped to England and taken to the Duke's country seat at Badminton in Wiltshire. It was sold by Christie's in London in 1990 for 8.5 million pounds and again by them in 2004 for 19 million pounds. On both occasions the price realised was a world record price for a piece of furniture sold at auction. It is now in a museum in Vienna.

FOUR IMAGES FROM THE BADMINTON CABINET
1726-32 GALLERIA DI 'LLAVORI, FLORENCE

 Though the Badminton Cabinet was the last great work of art made in Florence under the Medici the workshops continued to produce major pieces in to the 17th century and it wasn't until the 20th century that the fashion for pietra dura went in to serious decline with the onset of modernism. Pietra dura is still made in Florence and there are one or two shops there near the Duomo selling nice examples of it. Look for pieces at antique fairs and flea markets and pietra dura brooches and pins make nice presents.

Next time you are in Florence go see the Opificio delle pietra dura - the museum housed in a period building in a street round the corner from the Accademia. It has a splendid collection of pietra dura items from all periods and a good display of the materials and techniques involved in the making of it.

Oh and Monica T Price's book - DECORATIVE STONE - THE COMPLETE SOURCE BOOK, London 2007 - is a must if you want to identify decorative stones from round the world.

Ciao & KBO
Ian

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"It is only when you get home that you discover you were actually in the area, the street, the church that housed a city's greatest treasure."

Pam Brown b1928.

A DERUTA MAIOLICA DISH - A SPECIAL BOOT FAIR FIND

A TIN-GLAZED EARTHENWARE DISH MADE IN DERUTA, UMBRIA
Late 20th century
Author's collection

Well it's almost the end of the month again and I can feel autumn coming on here in Lincolnshire. The days are getting shorter, the temperatures cooler at night and some of the summer flowers in the garden are past their best. In a couple of weeks time we'll be off to Italy for 10 days and I'm already making plans for what we'll do there. The biggest thing to contend with this time is my upcoming 65th birthday on September 12th which I've been thinking about a lot this month! It's the time when the government decides one is officially "old" and dutifully pays you the state pension, but its also a time for reflection and adjustment and I'm hoping I don't let my black dog get the better of me at this milestone I'm not looking forward to passing -but enough of that - I'm now looking foward to telling you about my choice of object for the month of September which, as I promised, is a piece of Italian ceramic ware.

TWO VIEWS OF THE UMBRIAN TOWN OF DERUTA

During the course of the last 12 months we've twice been to Deruta in Umbria which is about an hour's drive from our apartment. This little town on the hillside above the Tiber near Assisi has a special place in my mind because of its association with making pots and there's still an active ceramic industry there today. Pottery production - the making of maiolica - reached its peak in the town in the early 16th century when it became well known for its lustre decorated wares and objects made there were highly desirable in elite circles. I've talked about it in many a lecture on the history of Italian tin glazed earthewares so it was a great pleasure to go and see it and visit its splendid museum a few months ago. Products from Renaissance Deruta are hard to find these days and impossibly expensive, so they would never be in reach for me as a ceramics collector. Pieces made there much more recently, however, turn up regulalarly in sale rooms and at markets.

DERUTA IS STILL FULL OF CERAMIC SHOPS & WORKSHOPS TODAY

A few months ago Jon and I went a antiquing to an outdoor fair held several times a year at the old RAF Swinderby airfield near Newark here in the Midlands. We were looking for stuff for our antiques stall at the local centre in Stamford and managed to fill the car with the kind of things we like to buy and sell. Just before we left the fair I was walking along a line of stalls when I came across a bloke who had all his stock laid out on a blanket on the grass. There in the middle of the rug was the ceramic piece I've chosen to discuss this month. Its a large, brightly coloured saucer dish with a hand painted centre and the dealer asked me £50 pounds for it and said he'd only just bought it earlier that morning. I'd recently seen similar dishes on sale in shops in Deruta, Orvieto and Florence for upward of 300 euros so I knew this one was a bit of a bargain. After some vigourous haggling I secured the dish for £35 and it was soon wrapped up and on the way home with us to Stamford. I have it on a stand in my bedroom now and see it every day. Though the subject matter of the central well could be more interesting, the deep blue, yellow, green and brown colours used to decorate it I find cheerful when I'm getting up in the morning and a constant reminder of our part-time life in Umbria 1200 miles away.

THE DERUTA DISH PURCHASED AT THE ANTIQUES MARKET

SIGNED ON THE BACK "F. NICCACCI - DERUTA, ITALY"

The tin glazed earthenware dish, which measures 43 centimeters in diameter, has a narrow yellow rim enclosing a deep flat dark blue ground border hand-painted with a complex ornate pattern of masks flanked by cornucopia alternating with cherub heads perched above confronting dolphins, the whole linked together by repeating scroll and leaf motifs. In the circular well at the centre of the dish is a hand-painted scene of an elaborately dressed and coifed woman holding up a silver cup in her right hand and her left hand supporting a dish piled high with fruit. The predominant colours here are shades of brown, yellow and green. On the reverse, within the basal rim, the dish is signed "F NICCACCI - DERUTA - ITALY."

Tin glazed earthenware pottery has been made in Italy since at least the 13th century. It originated in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and the techniques spread via North Africa to Spain. Valencia was a major centre of production in the medieval period and exported wares to other Mediterranean countries. In Italy the name "maiolica" is thought to be a corruption of "Majorca" - the island used as a port of export for tin glazed wares travelling from Spain to Italy and beyond. 

The technique of making tin glazed ceramics involved (and still does today) coating an earthenware fired body with a lead glaze mixed with tin oxide which produces an opaque, white, chalky surface when air dried. Colours for decoration are produced by mixing more liquid tin glaze with pigments derived from different sources - cobalt for example produces the distinctive blue colour. Traditionally the palatte of colours was limited to just a few - blue, yellow, brown and green, (there was no red) - as they all had to be able to withstand the temperatures of the kiln during any subsequent firing. When the white tin glaze had been air dried, the design was then applied with brushes directly to the chalky surface. If it was a complex design it might be done with the aid of pouncing, a technique involving pricking grease proof paper with the linear design and then placing it over the piece and applying charcoal dust with a pad. One of the problems about painting on tin glaze is that there's no opportunity to correct mistakes - its a bit like painting using the fresco technique. After a further period of drying the pot might then have an additional clear lead glaze added over the top or perhaps a lustre glaze which involved adding appropriate metallic oxides to the glaze and then firing the pot in a reduced oxygen environment causing the deposition of metal over the surface. The finished result would then be lustrous as well as reflective. Lustre glazes were a speciality of Deruta in the 16th century. 

DECORATING A TIN GLAZED DISH
WITH A FINE BRUSH
(courtesy of thatsarte.com)

Essentially the techniques used to make this dish are the ones I've just described - they have hardly changed in centuries and the skills involved in making this one today have been handed down the generations, which brings me round to the designer and maker of this particular pot. The internet is a wonderful research tool and its possible to carry out invaluable work without leaving one's desk at home. I put in F. NICCACCI into google not holding my breath and wasmsurpised to find several entries which would aid my detective work. 

I soon discovered the the surname NICCACCI is well known in Deruta ceramic circles. One writer suggested the family had originally hailed from Tuscany but had been involved in making ceramics in Deruta for many generations. A gentleman known as Aldo Niccacci had retired only as recently as 2010 and was famous for making the models of Franciscan friars sold in nearby Assissi gift shops. But my ceramicist is still, it would appear, active today and has a workshop in the Molinella part of Deruta. Her name is Francesca Niccacci. It turned out that Francesca had studied at close by Perugia Academy of Fine Arts and that she'd also been a pupil of well known ceramicist painter and designer Maestro Romano Ranieri who, until his death in January 2015, was artistic director of the School of Ceramic Art named after him in Deruta. Following graduation and after a spell of teaching Francesca set up her own pottery and design studio in Deruta in 1975, first as a single woman and then assisted by her husband and most recently her daughter. Today Francesca and her family make pieces for local, national and international markets and wares range from small utilitarian objects to large impressive pieces like my dish. 

FRANCESCA NICCACCI - DERUTA CERAMICIST
AND DESIGNER AND MAKER OF MY DISH
(courtesy of thats arte.com)

Francesca Niccacci is renowned for work inspired by the ceramics made in Deruta in the 16th and 17th centuries and detailed study of the fine art of the period and historical ceramic wares has been an important feature underpinning her ceramic designs. It's interesting to look at the notable design aspects of my dish to see what inspired it. 

In 1480 archaeologists in Rome discovered the buried remains of Emperor Nero's huge pleasure palace, the Domus Aurea or Golden House, not far from the forum. Many of the rooms were decorated with frescos depicting patterns combining motifs which included  abstract classical leaves, mythical beasts, masks, cornucopia and the like on a white ground. They became known as "grotesques" - the word derived from the latin word "grotte" meaning underground chamber. It wasnt long before so called grotesque decoration became fashionable and it was extensively used by Raphael in the decoration of the Vatican Loggiae in the early 1500's. Its first use on maiolica is recorded in 1507 but soon it was being used to decorate the borders of elaborate pieces of maiolica like the one shown below made in Faenza c1520. The major difference to be found in this type of Renaissance decoration is the dark blue ground colour - this was not found in Nero's Golden House.

GROTESQUE BORDERED DISH MADE IN FAENZA
c1520

Three quarter length portraits of women were common subjects on early 16th century maiolica dishes made for the upper end of society and Deruta made something of a speciality of them. Many of the females depicted were taken from paintings by artists like Perugino rather than being representations of real individuals. Sometimes they would depict such a woman sideways on, what art historians call a portrait head in profile and reminiscent of the classical images seen on Roman coins and at other times they would show the woman from the front. The example below, made in Deruta in the early 16th century and lustre glazed, is a good representation of the type of originals that would have been looked at and studied by Francesca. 

DERUTA LUSTRE GLAZED DISH c1510 - 30

It's thus possible to see how these two major influences have been combined to design the dish which I discovered at the antiques fair. The only thing I would say, which I find amusing, is that although the blue ground grotesque decoration is refined, detailed and beautifully painted like the 16th century originals, the woman depicted in the centre appears more Sophia Loren than Isabella d'Este!! Was this to make it appeal more to modern tastes? I don't know.

If you would like to see more of Francesca Niccacci's work go to the following link - www.vecchiaderuta.it.

Also visit:

www.thatsarte.com

This is an online business run by two Umbrian ladies called Manuela and Tiziana. They sell wonderful pieces of Umbrian maiolica made by artisans including Francesca Niccacci. Have a look at their website.

If you do get the opportunity to vist Deruta and want to visit Francesca's studio it can be found at:

Ceramiche D'Arte Vecchia Deruta

Via Tiberina Nord

Molinella

Deruta 06053

Umbria, Italy. 

This blog has turned out to longer than my usual ones so I hope you've stuck with it to the end. I've enjoyed doing it and I certainly will be visiting Francesca's studio next time I go to Deruta 

Ciao, KBO & thanks for reading my posting

Until next time

Ian 

THE OLDEST ITALIAN PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON

       "VIRGIN & CHILD ENTHRONED WITH SAINTS
         by MARGARITO D'AREZZO

       National Gallery, London    
       92.1cms x 183.1cms
       egg tempera on wooden panel

We won't be in Italy again until September when we're going out to Citta della Pieve to celebrate my upcoming birthday - an important milestone - but enough of that as I'm not sure I want to think about it much yet! I've decided my object choice for the month of August should be based on something I've seen recently which reminds me of Umbria and Tuscany and our forthcoming trip. When in London (I've just been there for two weeks to run an annual summer school) I often take myself off to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square for an hour or two to see some of my favourite paintings. I always find this de-stressing, therapeutic and uplifting even - especially if I've managed to choose a quietish time of day. At one time I wouldn't have spent a lot of time in the Sainsbury Wing which houses the national collection of Renaissance paintings, but now when I go its one of my favourite haunts. When I taught groups of students at Christie's Education I often took them for their first gallery visit at the start of the academic year to this part of the building and one of the first works we would look at would be the one I've chosen to explore today - the "Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints" painted in the middle of the 13th century. It resonates with our place in Italy because it's by an Arezzo painter. Interestingly it's one of the oldest works in the National Gallery's collection and it was acquired by the gallery early in its history in 1857.

THE SAINSBURY WING OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY - LONDON

THE SPACIOUS GALLERIES OF THE SAINSBURY WING
THE PAINTING EXPLORED PEEPS OUT TO THE LEFT OF THE COLUMN

THE VIRGIN & CHILD WITH SAINTS
by MARGARITO D'AREZZO c1262

Painted in egg tempera on a wooden panel bold lines define the subjects and the colours used by the painter must have been clear and bright when the painting was new. This effect would have been further enhanced by the extensive use of gold to make the frame and the highlights reflect the light. In the centre, the focal point of the composition is the Virgin holding the Christchild on her lap; she wears a byzantine crown and sits on a cushioned seat with lion supports and this grouping is all enclosed in an elliptical shaped decorative mandorla. Given the mandorla is linked to the decorative band which divides the overall compositon in two - its just struck me that two combined together look rather like a buckle and belt. The Virgin is flanked either side by four separate smaller paintings enclosed in well defined linear borders  - each telling its own story related to either Jesus or the Saints. In each of the corner spandrels surrounding the mandorla there are symbols of the four evangelists.

The subjects of the smaller paintings are as follows:

TOP ROW FROM THE LEFT
1.The Nativity
2. An angel frees St John the Evangelist from a cauldron of hot oil
3. St John the Evangelist raising Drusiana from the dead
4. St Benedict resists the temptations of the flesh by throwing himself on a thorny bush

BOTTOM ROW FROM THE LEFT
5. The beheading of St Catherine and her soul being transported to heaven
6. St Nicholas warning against gifts of poisoned oil from the devil
7. St Nicholas saving three youths from execution
8. The imprisoned St Margaret, placed there for her faith, is devoured by the devil disguised
    as a dragon but bursts out through its belly through the power of prayer.

The painting is signed with the following script in latin just beneath the hemline of the Virgin's skirt. It reads: MARGARIT (US) DE' ARITO ME FECIT which translates in to English as "Margarito of Arezzo made me".

So what have we got here which makes this painting so attractive I want to go back and look at it time and time again? Well, I love its simplicity (some would say naivity) for there is no pretence of naturalness about any of the figures or scenes in the composition. I also like to reflect on the fact it was made as sort of  "worshipping/ teaching aid" in the church where it was placed at a time when many congregation members would not be able to read. Almost certainly the painting was a small altarpiece made to go behind an altar table - perhaps in the side chapel of a church.

Many readers will probably have been to art galleries round the world which have in their collections late medieval works of art which show figures with rather flat, featureless faces and a sort of prescriptive format to how the figures are shown. The Christchild for example, is often represented as a small man rather than a recently born baby. It's easy to suggest that all of this is due to the lack of skill and awareness on the part of artists during the mediveal period and that everything became much more real and natural with the advent of the Renaissance. This, however, is too simplistic a perspective for it was never the aim of artists to represent the figures in a realistic a way. The artist is following in the traditions of early Christian art (Byzantine) developed in the middle east - the influence of which was first brought to Italy by the Romans. The mask like features of the Virgin and child distinguish them from the faces or ordinary mortals and it was conventional to represent Jesus as a miniature version of what he would become rather than as an infant.

VIRGIN & CHILD MOSAIC FROM HAGIA SOPHIA
CONSTANTINOPLE (ISTANBUL)
9TH CENTURY

Our Margerito panel is thus representing the Virgin and Child as an icon, a sort of devotional aid assisting worshippers to focus their prayers. Though this panel was considered old fashioned in style for its date by some art historians, (Vasari wrote of the artist as being 'behind the times' in the second half of the 13th century in "Artist's Lives" published in the 16th century) another view is that by faithfuly adhering to accepted ways of representing the holy figures the artist is making a devoted act of worship himself. The 8 miniature panels are full of action and narrative and through the acts of bravery, sacrifice and faith depicted designed to inspire worshippers to cultivate these values in their own lives. It's unusual for an artist to sign a work at this date so either he was proud of his achievement or possibly this is the start of a new trend for personalising works of art - something which would become much more common in the Renaissance.

Please don't be put off by the religous subject matter of many late medieval and early Renaissance Italian paintings. They are colourful, often a feast for the eyes and tell us much about Italian society at this time. Think of them as tokens of a period in Italy when the church was a leading force in society and a major source of patronage for artists looking for commissions for their work. Knowing about how a painting worked or functioned in these societies makes looking at them all the more fascinating and pleasureable.Take an interest in them and you'll possibly become hooked like me! Your friends might think you've gone a bit barmy and you might not be able to "dine out" on them too often - but who cares about that anyway. Looking at art is and should be a personal experience as much as anything else.

CIAO & KBO - IAN

EGG TEMPERA - a paint medium where the coloured pigments are ground and bound in a pure egg yoke. The end result is a quick drying matt finish which is resistant to cracking. Tempera colours do not blend so the only way to obtain gradations is to hatch, cross hatch and overpaint - hence the rather linear style which is seen in this work. It was the dominant medium in easel painting until the late 15th century.

MANDORLA - a symbolic aura or aureole (holy radiance) found in medieval and Renaissance art to enclose subjects such as the virgin and child.

ICON - a venerated image of Christ, the Virgin or a Saint. The image is believed to encapsulate the "essence" of the person depicted.

P.S. My object choice for September, the month of my birthday, is a super piece of  Deruta pottery I found at an outside antiques market earlier in the year for £35

AND - I came across the following quote in the last few days:

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."
Miriam Beard, b1961

MORGANTE - A MEDICI FAVOURITE DWARF RIDES A TORTOISE - IAN COX's ITALIAN ART OBJECT OF THE MONTH - JULY 2015

MORGANTE - A MEDICI FAVOURITE DWARF RIDES A TORTOISE


It's back to Florence for this month's object and I'm reminded of it today by a fridge magnet I'm examining which I bought last time we were in the city. We'd been on a special tour of the Vasari corridor built in the middle of the 16th century for Cosimo de Medici which links, as it always has done, the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace on the other side of the River Arno. Almost half a mile in length and passing over the top of the shops surmounting the Ponte Vecchio, this intriguing private corridor today houses a significant collection of portraits of dignitaries and celebrities from times gone by. At the end of the tour the exit leads to a corner of the renowned Boboli Gardens and a just a few yards away from the door is the sculpture which is the subject of this months blog posting. There are dozens of statues in the various areas of the beautiful Boboli, but this is perhaps the strangest of them all and it causes quite a stir with the tourist visitors who come to this part of the gardens.

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The statue is in fact part of  a fountain entitled "Fontana del Bacchino" which is made up of an oval shaped cistern sitting in front of a square pedestal which in turn is surmounted by a giant tortoise on top of which sits the figure of Morgante - the court dwarf of Cosimo I Medici. It was sculpted by Valerio Cigoli and completed in 1560. Many of the visitors who view it today are repulsed by the life like depiction of the nude, male dwarf figure and its non politically correct subject matter; when they discover a little more about it, this does little to endear it to them. Today we know that extreme short stature in humans (achondroplasia) is caused by a genetic mutation resulting in an irreversible imbalance of growth hormones during development and generally speaking individuals suffering from it now don't suffer the indignities they were forced to endure in earlier times. The statue in the Boboli of Morgante, however, fascinates many viewers and I was certainly one of those when I saw it. I knew that as soon as I got home it would be out with the books and a thorough search of the internet to find out more about this famous character.

Dwarves were a common occurrence at many European courts in the 16th century. They were considered to be curiosities of nature and as "possessions" of monarchs and Dukes they were often listed in inventories along with expensive items of jewellery, textiles and clothing. As symbols of wealth and power they were expected, in jester fashion, to amuse and entertain members of court and provide companionship to their owners. A series of 16th century art works by Johann Stradanus, engraved by Phillip Galle shows various scenes from the Coronation of Cosimo I Medici as Grand Duke of Tuscany and the examples shown below indicated the Duke had several dwarves attend him at the ceremony.

Scenes from the Coronation of Cosimo I Medici
by Johann Stradanus

Surviving records reveal that Braccio di Bartolo - known as Morgante at the Medici court, arrived in Florence in 1540. His name is an ironic one as he was named Morgante after the giant Morgante Maggiore, the subject of the 15th century epic poem by Luigi Pulci. Whilst its known that Morgante the dwarf suffered the same humiliations endured by many court dwarves on a number of occasions his status and reputation at the Florentine court was special. Vasari writes of him as "clever" and "learned" and a record from 1555 describes Cosimo I describing Morgante as "our beloved dwarf'. Other sources reveal he was not only an entertainer at court, but a special companion of the Grand Duke and on a number of occasions he accompanied him on important diplomatic missions. So important did Morgante become to Cosimo that he made a grant of land to him and gave him permission to marry. Given the important position of influence he held at court and his renowned reputation, its not surprising he should be represented in a number of works of art as well as the stone fountain already described here. I can thus finish this posting by introducing a couple of other art works where he is the primary subject.

Nano Morgante riding a dragon by Giambologna (1529-1608)
Roof garden of the Loggia dei Lanze, Florence

In this bronze sculpture by the renowned artist Giambologna \\(1529-1608) Nano Morgante sits astride a dragon - an imitation of a sculpture by the Grand Duke of Tuscany's goldsmith Corneio della Nera. Morgante has one hand raised to "still the water" in the fountain bowl - a gesture parodying an act carried out by Neptune the Roman God of the sea.

Nano Morgante in a painting by Bronzino

In January 2011 curators at the Uffizi gallery held a press conference connected with a major retrospective exhibition on the Mannerist painter Bronzino and one particular work of art held centre stage. It was a painting of Nano Morgante which, recently restored, hadn't been seen in its original form for nigh on 200 years. It had been over-painted in parts (guess which) because of what was considered to be obscene subject matter, in the 18th century. The double sided picture had been completed by the artist in 1553 and was listed in a Medici inventory of that date. The frontal view of the dwarf shows him posing with a large hunting owl perched on a raised hand whilst moths flutter round his genitals. The rear view shows the owl perched on his shoulder whilst he holds a trophy of captured birds in his right hand. Vasari wrote of the work - "He made a full length painting of the dwarf Morgante in two ways ...... the picture is both beautiful and marvellous".

Like many of Bronzino's other paintings (Venus and Cupid in London's National Gallery comes to mind) there are issues in the picture for contemplation and here the artist is, according to some art historians, playing with the idea of the merits of painting versus the "nobility" of sculpture. Showing both front and reverse views of the subject and the beginning and end of the bird hunt at the same time Bronzino appears to be commenting on the inherent flexibility of painting as a medium.

To finish off by returning to the sculpture in the Boboli Gardens - (which interestingly and for obvious reasons which I forgot to mention, is a copy of the original work) - Morgante astride the tortoise is an ironic comment on the notion of the classical equestrian statue of the glorious victor on horseback. How many of those are looked at and ignored these days?

So - like it or not - this month's object tells us a lot - not only about aristocratic artistic tastes in mid 16th century Florence, but also in providing an unusual insight in to an aspect of Medici court life which is intriguing even if we might find it unpalatable today. Fascinating!! - I don't regret showing off my non PC fridge magnet at all - in fact its one of my favourites.

CIAO & KBO
IAN

Read my blog on an ongoing basis and sign up for alerts. There's a new Object in Focus every month and other items of interest in between. Postings began with the purchase of our apartment in Umbria in January 2014. Cheers, Ian.

"JUNE" A CERAMIC LABOUR OF THE MONTH BY LUCCA DELLA ROBBIA

AN OBJECT FOR SUMMER

"JUNE" - ONE OF THE LABOURS OF THE MONTHS
By Lucca della Robbia (1399-14820)

Made in Florence, Italy about 1450-56
Diameter 59.7cms

Location - Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

I've mentioned my interest in Renaissance Italian ceramics in previous postings and promised to write about a visit I've made to the historic pottery making town of Deruta in Umbria in recent months. I'm prompted just now, however, to include a ceramic item in my monthly "object in focus" series for 2015. Back in the 1980's, long before the Victoria and Albert Museum had drawn up plans for the re-display of the Renaissance collections, I used to wander the ground floor badly lit linoleum covered corridors where objects from the Italian collections were housed and displayed. One of my favourite stopping points was a wall mounted display of 12 pottery roundels which were entitled "Labours of the Months" and its one of these, appropriately entitled "June" that I've chosen to focus on here. 

Measuring just short of 60 centimetres and with a relief decorated narrow border, beyond that is another painted border decorated in light and dark blue to indicate night and day at that time of year and with an inscription giving the number of daylight hours. The sun is shown in the Zodiac sign of cancer (note the little crab motif) and opposite in the dark blue band is the crescent moon. The labour of the month shown here is a young man harvesting a hay crop with a scythe. Near him he has bound the stalks in to a group of sheaves which lie on the ground. The other roundels in the set each depict a separate labour relevant to the annual cycle. 

THE MONTH OF JUNE
"LABOURS OF THE MONTHS"
BY LUCCA DELLA ROBBIA

The Labours of the Months were commonly found as part of elaborate schemes of decoration to be found in European late medieval/ early renaissance churches and sometimes in medieval illuminated manuscripts. The use of the cycle in terms of Italian Renaissance pottery making seems to be unique though as the curators at the V & A say there is nothing else quite like it.

THE TWELVE ROUNDELS OF THE LUCCA DELLA ROBBIA
"LABOURS OF THE MONTHS"

The roundel itself was crafted in the middle of the 15th century from terra cotta covered with a layer of tin glaze - a white powedery material which when dried could be painted on with more tin glaze tinted with various pigments. The technique was used extensively to make pots in Renaissance Italy and Lucca della Robbia (1399-1482) specialised in producing sculptural objects for installation in architectural schemes. Unusually for this workshop, only the architectural leaf motif border is sculpted - the naturalistic decoration itself painted on to the surface of the roundel.

The set of roundels  appear to have been made for  the private study (studiolo) of Piero Medici at the Palazzo Medici in Florence, created by him in the 1450's next to the family church of San Lorenzo. What is also fascinating is that each of the roundels has a curved disposition indicating they were used to decorate the barrel vault of Piero's study. Fragments of bits of green and purple tiles on the edge of some of the roundels indicate they must have been set in a a pattern of green and purple tiles - probably representing as closely as possible the colours of the Medici family. The design of each roundel is based on contemporary agricultural practice but descriptions in classical texts was probably also important. Piero had a copy in his library of a 1st century treatise "De Re Rustica" by Columella which describes the labours.

Studiolos were important rooms in the houses of Renaissance princes being used for private study, contemplation and also for the display of collected objects including rare illuminated books, natural history specimens, coins, cameos, medieval ivories and other costly items. The choice of subject for the ceiling roundels, the eternal passage of the seasons, not only resonates with the notion of God's ordering of the universe, but also with man's adaptation to them in the cultivation of food. It has also been suggested that the ceiling might be interpreted as a metaphor for the continuity and order of the Medici regime. 

At the Palazzo Medici in Florence, now known as the Palazzo Medici Riccardo, only the wonderful Gozzoli series of frescoes has survived in situ, for the studiolo was destroyed in an extensive remodelling of the building carried out in 1659. The set of roundels was purchased for the V & A (then the South Kensington Museum) in 1861 from an Italian private collection during the time the museum was actively seeking to develop its Renaissance. collections. In the recent re-display of the Medieval and Renaissance collections the curators chose to place the roundels in a curved structure which would show their original disposition next to a case containing the types of objects that would have been kept in the original room; its an evocative display and worthy of seeking out if a visit to the V and A in London is made. 

THE ROUNDELS ON DISPLAY IN THE RENAISSANCE
GALLERIES AT THE V & A IN LONDON.

CIAO & KBO

This is the 6th Object in Focus and part of a series of 12 about fascinating Italian "items of interest".  New postings are produced at the beginning of each month and other occasional postings occur about other subjects occur inbetween. Take a look back at previous postings which start with the purchase of our apartment in Italy in 2012. Thanks, Ian

THE PIAGGIO "APE" - AN ITALIAN DESIGN CLASSIC

THE PIAGGIO APE
THE CURIOSITY THAT BECAME A MIGHTY PRESENCE IN URBAN & RURAL ITALY AND IT'S STILL GOING STRONG!

Every time we visit our apartment in Citta della Pieve we park our Panda hire car on the gentle slope outside the garage below our flat. Invariably we find ourselves next to a strange little vehicle the likes of which I'd never seen before until we started visiting Italy regularly. It's an odd creature having only three wheels, one at the front and two at the back, and the cab doesn't seem big enough to hold more than one person - perhaps two small Italians at a push; certainly not two blokes of the height and girth of Jon and I. This distinctive type of vehicle I've come to know as an "APE" and this one belongs to the chap who owns and uses the workshop in the garage next to ours. He comes and goes in it regularly and when it "phut phuts" up and down the hill it never fails to bring a smile to my face. Despite my obvious amusement I soon came to appreciate this as a vehicle with great versatility as I've seen it's open truck back filled with various sorts of stuff ranging from old scrap to bits of broken furniture and waste from neighbours' gardens. The best thing of all is its ability to negotiate the narrow little alleys and passageways which are ubiquitous in the "centro historico" of our little town where other four wheeled vehicles would never be able to venture. Once I'd become familiar with this little Ape I started to see them everywhere we went, both in towns and in the country - some built with a van like backs and others in the form of the truck I've already described. During our last visit when I saw our neighbour's Ape yet again I decided to find out a bit more about its origins.

The little APE that parks near our garage in Citta della Pieve

Apes are made by the well known Italian firm of Piaggio and to understand their origin its interesting to consider the start up of the company in 1884. Founded by Rinaldo Piaggio early manufacture concentrated on locomotives and carriages but during World War 1 production shifted to aircraft and this continued in the post-war period. During World War 2 bomber aircraft were made, but by the end of hostilities the Piaggio factory at Pontedera near Pisa had been decimated by enemy aircraft. Enrico Piaggio, son of Rinaldo the founder of the company, decided it was time to take it in a new direction and to concentrate on the design and production of vehicles which would aid Italy's economic reconstruction and would provide cheap, reliable methods of transportation for the masses. Aeronautical designer Carradino D'Ascanio, who'd been involved in the design process leading to the first modern helicopter, turned his talents to the new project which had a strict design brief.

Corradino D'Ascanio, seated, discusses a design with
a colleague.

 The new vehicle had to be:
1. easy to drive for both men and women, 2. able to carry a passenger, 3. not get the owner's clothes dirty (this is Italy after all!). The result - the design and production of the Italian Vespa two wheeled scooter which went into production in 1946. Within ten years over a million of them had been produced and sold! 

The Vespa 48 launched in 1946

The Vespa fulfilled the design brief beautifully and its not surprising it became a runaway success, but it didn't address the problem of the lack of four wheeled vehicles much needed for moving goods around from one place to another. In 1947 D'Ascanio took on the task of designing a petrol driven, cheap to build vehicle which could act as a workhorse and help get the Italian economy going again. This time the result was not a four wheeled vehicle but one with three and the solution was easy - turn the amazing little Vespa scooter into a three wheeled vehicle which could carry goods. Essentially it was a three wheeled vehicle (one at the front and two at the back) with a flat bed mounted over the extended axle but driven in exactly the same way as the scooter! The scooter had been named a VESPA which translates into English as 'wasp' and though when the first model of the new vehicle went into production in 1948 it was called a TRIVESPA - it was soon rebranded an APE which translates into english as a 'bee'. This was a much cleverer name as it connected it to the vespa and espoused the positive work ethic image the company wanted to emphasize. The first Ape cost 170,000 lire and it was available in 50cc, 125cc and 150cc engine variations. With its easy to drive handle bar mechanism, low fuel consumption, versatility and a reasonable cost the new Ape was within reach of small farmers and businesses - it's not surprising it would soon take off and become a sure fired success. 

The Piaggio APE Mark 1 - 1948

  In 1958 new adaptations led to an overall enlargement of the body and the introduction of a cab with doors, a mounted headlight at the front instead of the old mudguard and a 170cc engine. Since then little has changed other than variations in engine size,various styling changes and the development of some models to adapt the vehicles for particular uses. There have been all sorts of variants produced over time and there is no space to list them all here, but if interested anyone can check out the details on the internet. Production has run in to the millions of units since it first started and at one point production at the Pontedera factory near Pisa was running at more than 10,000 a year. In 1999 Piaggio opened a factory in India for the sale of Apes there and in the far east. Today this iconic little vehicle meets the strictest European emission regulations and an electric version has gone in to production too.

The Ape factory production line at Pntedera, Pisa.

1964 Ape with a cab at the front

I laughed when I also discovered that more recently Apes have been produced in what the marketing people have called "lifestyle" models including the Ape Cross Country. Production at Piaggio's India factory has also enabled the little Italian Ape to be adapted into whats been dubbed an "autorickshaw" or tuc tuc - perfect for negotiating India's crowded city streets.

The APE Autorickshaw extensively used in Indian cities.

Its been a lot of fun finding interesting photographs of APES being used to carry unusual loads or where adaptations have been made to the vehicle to suit it to different purposes. Here are three of my favourites. 

As Piaggio as a company has changed from privately owned family firm to a shares based limited company (2006) and its interests have expanded overseas, so the fortunes of its products have changed too. Over the years the production of Apes has declined in Italy and risen in India where production costs are much cheaper. It's sad that Piaggio announced on October 16th 2013 that the manufacture of Apes in Italy would cease and that all models would be entirely made in India. I am not sure if that has happened yet but it's yet another example of globalization, economies of scale and accountancy decisions impacting on local economies and accentuating decline in one place in favour of another. On a more positive note - this little vehicle has to be seen as a 20th century design phenomenon which not only helped the Italian post war reconstruction but went on to become a classic. Long may its production continue - wherever it is made!! Oh and I almost forgot - at a Wisconsin classic car auction held in 2013 a 1963 APE Model C was to be sold with a pre-sale estimate of 5 - 10 thousand dollars. It sold for the healthy sum of 25,300 dollars!!!

Ciao & KBO - Ian

PS - Just watched "The Second Best Marigold Hotel" which has a number of scenes in involving APE Indian taxis!!!!

AND - as of March 2017 - there's been another spate of TV programmes with an Indian setting including "The Real Marigold Hotel" on the BBC & "The Good Karma Hospital" on ITV - tuc tucs by the hundred!!