Giovanni Morelli's 'Notebooks' (edited by Jayne Anderson). Federico Motta editore, 2000

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
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I Taccuini manoscritti di Giovanni Morelli
[The Hand-Written Notebooks by Giovanni Morelli]

Edited Jayne Anderson

Federico Motta editore – Regione Marche, 2000

Anonymous, The Ideal City, National Gallery of the Marches, Urbino

[On Giovanni Morelli see also in this blog: Giovanni Mazzaferro, Lotto in the Marche: a Comparison Between the Notebooks of Charles Lock Eastlake (1858) and Giovanni Morelli (1861), Part One and Two]

Giovanni Morelli

Giovanni Morelli is a name that means little to the layman, and, if anything, is better known by those interested in art. Yet, Morelli should be remembered for at least two aspects: a ) first of all, he was one of the leading art "connoisseurs" of the nineteenth century b) he must be credited with having inventoried and saved a good part of the artistic heritage of Marche and Umbria from ruin or dissemination abroad.

Morelli, first of all, was not born as Italian [1], and not only because he was born in Verona in 1816 (then part of the Austro -Hungarian Empire), but because he was the son of Swiss parents (the child's name was Johannes Morell, then italianised in the '30s). It may look like a trivial detail, but in reality it is not, especially if you think that after his studies (made exclusively abroad, first in Switzerland and then in Munich, as the family was Protestant), Giovanni convincingly joined the Italian independence movements (in all Italian biographies is remembered as a patriot, politician and art expert). He actively participated in the Independence uprisings of 1848 and particularly the Five Days of Milan. When the revolt was suppressed, Morelli retired to private life in Bergamo, focusing on studies. He was a graduate in medicine, but in reality his passion was art history. Since his university years he tightened its relations with artistic circles throughout Europe and, especially in Munich, experienced scholars of the calibre of Karl von Ruhmor and Gustav Friedrich Waagen (director of the Museum of Berlin first and St. Petersburg later on), at that time in the forefront for the establishment of museums. The journeys of Morelli allowed him to make acquaintance with Otto Mündler and Charles Lock Eastlake, not yet Director of the National Gallery. In Milan he was part of the circle of Giuseppe Molteni, painter, restorer, and keeper at the Brera Academy since 1854. Over the years, in fact, Morelli managed to enter the European circuit of connoisseurship, and made it from the front door. His fame became undisputed; Eastlake took him in the palm of his hand and spoke to him in matters of the utmost confidence, on the attribution of art pieces. Morelli developed a system of attribution that became universally known as "Morelli scientific system," and that owed much to his anatomical studies in the youth (we will discuss it later).

Franz von Lenbach,
Portrait of Giovanni Morelli
(1886)

Morelli as a patriot and politician 

The outbreak of the Second Italian War of Independence (1859) saw again the art historian personally committed to the Italian cause, first with a military role, then, once the war was won, devoting to political life. He was appointed Member of the Chamber in 1860 and would remain in the ranks of the Liberal Party of Cavour until 1870. The political appointment was also an extraordinary opportunity to contribute personally to the preservation of the artistic heritage of the new Kingdom of Italy. The sense of urgency in the aftermath of the Unification must have been pressing for Italian patriots. There were entire regions of the country, such as the Marches and Umbria, formerly under the Papal States, which totally lacked any inventory of artistic heritage. Moreover, the heritage preservation was threatened on the one hand by the administrative suppression of a vast amount of ecclesiastical bodies, on the other hand by the continuous bleeding of art to foreign buyers, taking advantage of the general administrative disruption to flesh out their collections abroad.

The journey to the Marches

In the face of this urgency, in April 1861 the Minister of Education appointed Morelli as ministerial inspector for the Marche and Umbria. The tasks were specified by Morelli himself in a letter to De Sanctis on 15 April 1861

" ... 1) to take careful note of all the objects of art scattered in the various churches, convents and other public places subject to [administrative] suppression [as ecclesiastic bodies];

2) to seize and advise local authorities all measures that may serve to prevent further waste of so many precious works of art, which, being a long time in the mind and desire of many foreign directors of art galleries, run now more than ever, the risk of being forever lost to Italy".

Morelli asked for and got to be accompanied on the journey by the other great Italian connoisseur, Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, whom he met in 1857. There is no doubt that, in addition to personal esteem, also patriotic sentiment united them. Also Cavalcaselle had fought for independence, and has even experienced years of exile because of his battle against Austria -Hungary.

The journey to the Marches and Umbria, which lasted from 17 April to 8 July 1861, is a legendary and well-known episode in the history of Italian art. Starting from Bologna, the two visited everything and went everywhere, by all means of transport (the back of a mule is one of the most frequent). As the main purpose is to write down everything, Morelli naturally kept notebooks of all what he saw and observed. It is a merit of Jaynie Anderson, the main expert on Giovanni Morelli [2], if these notebooks have now been found, after more than one century in which they were missing, and were published in 2000 thanks to the contribution of the Marches Region.

Anderson writes in her Preface (p. 3):

"Many years ago I began to look for whether, among the work notes of Giovanni Morelli, any material had remained which - to some extent - would record his way of thinking in front of the paintings. Sylvia Zavaritt remembered a small notebook belonging to the scholar in a coffer in the attic of the Zavaritt villa ... [editor's note: Zavaritt is the surname of the mother of Morelli]. With the help of a carpenter who cracked the coffer, I found myself the notes on the art works seen during the famous voyage in 1861 on behalf of the Italian government ... After the discovery of this notebook, known as notebook A, followed the discovery of a second one, the notebook B, a few years later. Their content is published here for the first time in a critical edition."

There is no doubt, however, that the recovered material does not represent all what Morelli wrote, as the two notebooks, for example, do not include the records of the relevant part of the trip to Umbria .

The facade of the Ducal Palace in Urbino

The journey to the Marches: achievements and failures

What were the consequences of the journey? To answer, in fact, one must also understand what were Morelli’s objectives: not only the protection of the heritage, not only the disruption of sales abroad, but also the creation of a great national museum in Florence, that would result from the collation of the main works art from the suppressed ecclesiastical authorities. It is no coincidence that in his notebooks Morelli noted with the word "Florence" those works of art which he felt worthy of being on public display. And it is also no coincidence that the scholar, a member of a European connoisseurship (that considered as a firm point the display of paintings in museums, as large public formats also serving to represent national identity) does think about the creation of a great museum, and maybe even dreams of directing it. Morelli, of course, drafted an official report at the end of a journey that was submitted to the Government. However, he was hugely disappointed when, in April of the following year, it was decided that the art of deleted entities would remain property of the municipalities in which art pieces found themselves. The dream of a great museum vanished forever. Morelli wrote in a letter dated 8 May 1862: "Herewith are destroyed, with a single stroke of the pen of the King, my tireless efforts of 68 consecutive days - in which I had placed so much love and which I had brought to an end with the intimate conviction to have done a service to my country - although I believe that not even a dog ever thanked me and read my report "(p. 30). However, the inventory of assets was carried out and the bleeding of works of art abroad had significantly decreased (Eastlake in his notebooks complains a lot about it).

We cannot be silent on a second consequence, this time on a personal level: it only took 68 days (maybe even a lot less) to spoil for ever the relationship between Morelli and Cavalcaselle. It does not seem (at least at this stage, but certainly afterwards) the problem was a disagreement on the attributions of the works of art, but a fundamental incompatibility of character. The fact is that the pair broke immediately, and, indeed, in the next thirty years, the rivalry between the two (especially the bitterness of Morelli against Cavalcaselle ) never waned.

Morelli and the connoisseurs in Europe

Apart from the Cavalcaselle question, it remains to explain the relationship in the following years between Morelli and the other members of the European connoisseurship to which he belonged. Or, more specifically, how did Morelli behave after the unification of Italy in respect of those connoisseurs who he had previously helped to buy Italian paintings? Of course, mischievousness abounds. Yet an examination of the documents shows that the behavior was totally professional: Morelli was in effect part of a circuit of knowledge within which he enjoyed undisputed prestige, and then, if required, he did not refuse to provide attributions or opinions. But there is no evidence (and here pops out again the patriot) he ever facilitated or encouraged sales for a personal interest. We can quote three significant events:

1) Right at the beginning of the journey, in Faenza , Morelli saw – in the local orphanage – an altarpiece by Marco Palmezzano, which did not hesitate to describe as the most beautiful altarpiece of the artist he had ever seen (Madonna and Child with Saints Michael and James, now in the Pinacoteca di Faenza). During a talk with the Orphanage’s director, he learned (but this information was not right) that Eastlake has offered on behalf of the National Gallery 3,000 crowns for the altarpiece. Morelli wrote immediately to the Ministry of Education asking that, in agreement with the Minister of Justice, they would enjoin the director of the orphanage not to sell any good except with the explicit consent of the government;

Marco Palmezzano. Virgin and Child with Saints Michael and James,
Pinacoteca di Faenza

2) Another famous episode is from 1875. The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin was about to buy Giorgione's The Tempest from a noble Venetian family. Legally there was no problem, because the work was private, but Morelli made sure it would be acquired by an Italian private person and not by a German gallery.

Giorgione, The Tempest, Gallerie dell'Accademia (Venezia)

3) More challenged, at least until recent years, was the behaviour of the scholar in the case of the Madonna of the Swift by Carlo Crivelli, which he viewed during the journey and then bought from Eastlake in 1862 for the National Gallery. Mischief-makers say that the work has been reported to Eastlake by Morelli himself. In fact, the sale was made possible because the work, although preserved in a church, was privately owned. And this is what Morelli had written in his own notebooks. However, Eastlake managed to get hold of a copy of Morelli’s official report of the Government and acted unscrupulously according to what he had read.

Carlo Crivelli, Madonna of the Swift, National Gallery of London

The Morelli scientific method

The study of the method through which Morelli attributed the works of art has always represented a moment of particular interest (but also of great difficulty) to contemporaries and followers. First of all, it must be said that Morelli was convinced that his method worked only with the works of the Renaissance. Namely, he did not believe to be able to apply the same criteria, for example, for Mannerism and Baroque. But let us talk again Jaynie Anderson:

"In his analysis of the formal language, Morelli distinguishes three groups of features of varying importance. Just as a scientific classification [note of the editor: reflecting the youth medicine studies], a few of these features have a value greater than others. The first and least important category of characteristics about the "position and movement of the human body, the face shape, the colour of the skin, the drapery." All of this is the general impression. According to Morelli, the first connoisseurs had relied too much, when making attributions, on the overall impression. In fact, the kinds of observations that could be included in this first category are rarely found in the notebooks.

The second and most important category consists of the anatomical details and other details such as the hand, "one of the spiritual characteristics of parts of the human body, the ear, the bottom landscape, if there is one, the accord or the so-called harmony of the colours." These criteria are in agreement with many of the detailed descriptions of the paintings contained in the notebooks. "In the work of a true artist all these individual parts of the body are individual characteristics and therefore full of meaning, since, as I said, only through its knowledge, you can penetrate l’âme, la tournure de l'esprit, the spirit of the creator." [...] This second category of features is the real heart of the Morelli method, applicable to all the paintings [...].

The third category of features is one that has fascinated most modern commentators of Morelli, in the wake of a discussion about his method made by Freud in an essay on Michelangelo's Moses. It consists of a group of marginal and ancillary features that you can find in most of the artists, but not all of them. They concern the identification of the idiosyncrasies, the recurrent use of certain forms of expression, used in an involuntary and sometimes inappropriate manner, "so almost every painter has certain habitual ways he discloses and that slip away without his noticing [...]". What I would call the Freudian interpretation of Morelli [...] focused on this third category of less important features. The result is a modern caricature-like interpretation of this method that meets perhaps the taste of the twentieth century but, inevitably, obscures its central and most valuable core. " (Pp. 28-29)

Of course Morelli’s Manuscript notebooks represent, especially for their "informal" nature, a unique opportunity to experience the principles of the Morelli method. Always being conscious of our own limits, now that both notebooks are present in this library, we will nevertheless try to compare, in a future post the notes by Morelli and those by Eastlake in front of the same works of art, to understand similarities and differences.

The critical edition of the notebooks is combined with a remarkable iconographic apparatus (about 300 reproductions, some made for this occasion). "The images that are presented here are the result of research conducted on the text of the notebooks in order to locate and identify the works and views cited by Morelli; a research, however, which has no pretensions to completeness and thoroughness ... Each work is accompanied by a reference to the notebook and the package in which it is cited. Between brackets are given assignments and locations indicated by Morelli, if different from the present "(p. 154).

Morelli and Garibaldi

The notebooks don't contain only artistic considerations. For example, from time to time appear observations of a political nature. It seems interesting to report here two records on Garibaldi, where it is shown that Morelli was indeed a convinced supporter of Cavour, while he saw Garibaldi, the ‘hero of two worlds’, with great suspicion (and with a good deal of antipathy):

" Tomasi [editor's note: in fact it would seem to be Stefano Tomani Amiani] tells me about traits of common sense and even spirit of our king. During his trip from Ancona to Sessa, to reach the deputations of the Abruzzi, he made such a beautiful improvised response that - against all diplomatic habits – all gentlemen finally broke out in a ‘Long live the King’. About Garibaldi he said that he is a good man, but a fool; that Italy was to use all of its active forces, even if they included some bad elements, and therefore he had to exploit all garibaldini [Garibaldi’s troops and followers]"(p. 119).

"What Garibaldi wanted and wants is the triumph of a violent minority which, after a quite long wait, feels that his hour has come; those overthrowing governments are working tirelessly to build Italy; it is the revolt against the wisdom and prudence. These untimely provocations come from a party without political views and no established program, which sacrifices to its ambition, its caprices and its hatreds the achievements that Italy owes to its own perseverance and courage, its common sense. Italy cannot consolidate these achievements without its wisdom and harmony ... "( p. 125)

Thanks

The book was sent to me free in May 2004 by Dr.Raimondo Orsetti, at that time Director of the Dipartimento Sviluppo Economico Servizio Tecnico alla Cultura of the Marches Region, whom I am thanking

NOTES

[1] See the entry for Giovanni Morelli, written by Tommaso Casini in Dizionario biografico degli italiani (Biographical Dictionary of Italians) http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giovanni-giacomo-lorenzo-morelli_(Dizionario-Biografico)/

[2] Jaynie Anderson edited the critical edition of the main artistic writing by Morelli, Della pittura italiana (On Italian painting) (Adelphi, 1991) Here is the strip of the work : "Morelli wrote his seminal book, Della pittura italiana, in German and published it in 1890 under the pseudonym Ivan Lermolieff. The work caused a sensation, because in it for the first time Morelli exposed his method of attribution, illustrating it with numerous sensational examples: for example, the identification of several portraits of Raphael, previously attributed to others, the works of Dosso Dossi and Piero di Cosimo. The Italian edition, edited by Gustavo Frizzoni, a friend of Morelli, in 1897, has not been reprinted since then. But the influence of this work has been immense - and lately, especially through the work of Edgar Wind, the importance of Morelli has been claimed also as a theorist. Several aspects of the life and character of Morelli had, however, remained in the shadows, and this edition will bring many new features in this sense. The curator, Jaynie Anderson, had access to archives hitherto unknown and thus reconstructed for the first time a surprising biographical profile of Morelli, then the accompanying text with a detailed analysis of the complicated events, until today, of the paintings attributed by him."