ENGLISH VERSION Giuseppe Bossi. Del Cenacolo di Leonardo (1810)

Giuseppe Bossi, Del Cenacolo di Leonardo, Title Page

Traduzione di Francesco Mazzaferro
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Giuseppe Bossi

Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci [On Leonardo da Vinci 's Last Supper]

Reprint of Milan Edition 1810

Skira editore, 2009

Isbn 978-88-572-0421-5

[1] In 1807, soon after leaving the post of Secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Giuseppe Bossi was commissioned to make a copy of the Last Supper, painted by Leonardo in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The work (now lost) was completed in 1809, but certainly the most tangible result to date is this treatise, which Bossi wrote in 1810 and published later in 1811 (about the time of printing, see the explanations later)

[2] From the Introduction by Laura Pope

"The treatise written by Bossi, entitled Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci [n.d.t.: “On the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci”] and published in 1810, is divided into four books. In the first part, the author takes into account the opinion of several witnesses who observed and provided opinions and comments about the work of Leonardo in Milan in a matter of years ranging from 1498 to the year of publication of the volume, 1810. By his own admission, he neglects some views that will be mentioned in the following books or whose minor importance adds little or nothing to what has already been said. In the second book Bossi gives a general description of the Last Supper, analysed in single figures... Facing the discourse of critical fortune, in the third book the author engages with the complex discourse of the many copies made, already  short after the creation of the original (pro memoria, 1494-1498), as it came out of Leonardo’s brush.

These are works in Milan, but not only, which - in addition to witnessing the huge success of Leonardo’s Last Supper - provide us with useful information on the status of the work just a few decades after his execution. The period considered goes from 1510 to 1675. In conclusion, Bossi also writes on copies and prints, also mentioning the one possessed by the viceroy of Italy. In the final part of the treatise, in the fourth and final book, the author addresses the more technical and artistic aspects, about the time it took to complete Leonardo’s Last Supper and practical assessments on how this was painted ... In appendix to the text, Bossi lingers on the proportions of the human body at the centre of Leonardo's studies not only for the realisation of his Last Supper, and the research put in place by the Florentine artist on the story’s composition" (p. 18).

[3] The book, published by the Royal Printing of Milan, bears the date 1810 on the title page, while in reality it only came out in the summer of 1811; on this we have two incontrovertible pieces of evidence, on the one hand the Correspondence of Bossi, on the other one his Memoirs. The copy of the memoirs reprinted here is preserved at the Library of the Superintendent of Milan. Ivana Novani writes on p. 29: "The Biblioteca Ambrosiana holds the text of the manuscript volume on the Last Supper. It also contains an unpublished to the work [editor’s note – also not reproduced here]. Bossi was in fact designed to add a fifth book of his work, entitled Dell’architettura del Cenacolo e delle opinioni di Leonardo intorno all’architettura in generale [n.d.t. On the Architecture of the Last Supper by Leonardo and Leonardo’s opinions about architecture in general]. In the Ambrosian collection are preserved some of his interesting notes on the collaboration between Bramante and Leonardo in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which .. deserve to be published and commented upon ."

[4] Leopoldo Cicognara writes in his Catalogo ragionato on this volume: " The work on the Cenacle is the best book written that we know in terms of criticism, among those having for its object to illustrate a grand  work of art. The most splendid edition is adorned with a beautiful portrait of Leonardo, and various tables taken from original drawings by Vinci with unsurpassed fidelity and taste." In 1817, the material used by Bossi for the preparation of his copy of the Last Supper reached Weimar. The occasion was propitious for Goethe (who had admired the painting of Leonardo da Vinci during his Italian journey) to publish an essay on the Cenacle, which opened with a tribute to the (literary and artistic) work by Giuseppe Bossi. The essay was published in the journal Über Kunst und Altertum (On art and antiquity) under the title Giuseppe Bossi on Leonard da Vinci’s Last Supper in Milan; some pages have been translated into Italian in Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Scritti sull'arte e la letteratura (Writings on Art and Literatur), edited by Stefano Zecchi (Turin, Bollati Boringhieri publisher, 1992), while the first integral Italian translation, with the title the Il Cenacolo di Leonardo, dates back to 2004 (Abscondita publisher).

Giuseppe Bossi, Del Cenacolo di Leonardo, pp. 208-209

Giuseppe Bossi. Del Cenacolo di Leonardo, p. 205

[5] It is difficult not to admire in the first Book, the richness of the sources cited, with philological accuracy, on the Last Supper. Moreover, the reputation of Bossi as a great collector of books and regular visitor of archives is well known and is reflected in the Catalogo della libreria del fu cavaliere Giuseppe Bossi (Catalogue of the library of the late Knight Giuseppe Bossi). We ensure to list the books, indicating in brackets the year reported by Bossi, matching also, when available, the work in which they appear:

Luca Pacioli (1498): De Divina Proportione;
Giorgio Rovegnatino (1500): Dialogue with the Taegio reported by Domenico Pino (see below);
Pomponio Gaurico (1503): De Sculptura;
Raffaello Maffei (1516-17): Commentarj urbani;
Bernardino Arluno (1520-30);
Paolo Giovio (15..): Leonardi Vincii vita;
Matteo Bandello (15..): Novelle;
Sabba da Castiglione (1549): Ricordi;
Michelangelo Biondo (1549): Della nobilissima Pittura, e sua arte;
Giorgio Vasari (1550 e 1568): Vite;
Giovambattista Giraldi (1554): Discorsi intorno al comporre dei romanzi, delle commedie e delle tragedie;
Leandro Alberti (1561): Descrizione di tutta Italia;
Gaspare Bugati o Bugatti (1570): Istoria universale del mondo;
Francesco Bocchi (1571): Eccellenza del San Giorgio di Donatello;
Paolo Mini (1572): Difesa di Firenze;
Francesco Sansovino (1575): Ritratto delle più nobili e famose città d’Italia;
Raffaello Borghini (1584): Il Riposo;
Giovan Paolo Lomazzo (1584 e 1590): Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scoltura et architettura e Idea del Tempio della Pittura;
Giovan Battista Armenini (1586): De’ veri precetti della pittura;
Gregorio Comanini (1591): Il Figino;
Girolamo Gattico (1600 circa): handwritten history of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie;
Giovanni Botero (1608): Detti memorabili di personaggi illustri;
Pietro Paolo Rubens (1610): manuscript owned by Roger de Piles and destroyed in 1720. The excerpt on Rubens is proposed by Roger de Piles in L’Idée du Peintre parfait, particularly in the context of the biography of Rubens himself. See 1993 edition Gallimard in this collection pp. 126-128 ;
Federico Borromeo (1625): Musaeum;
Bartolommeo da Siena (1626): De vita et morbus beati Stephani Maconi Senensis Cartusiani…;
Vincenzo Carducho (1633): Diálogos de la pintura;
Francesco Bisagno (1642): Trattato di pittura;
Francesco Scannelli (1642): Il microcosmo della pittura;
Ilario Mazzolari (1648): Le reali grandezze dell’Escuriale di Spagna;
Francesco Pacheco (1649): Arte de la Pintura;
Raffaello Trichet Du Fresne (1651): biography of Leonardo in the princeps of the Treatise on Painting by Leonardo;
Giandomenico Ottonelli e Pietro Berrettini (1652): Trattato della Pittura e Scultura;
Francesco Scoto (1654): Itinerario d’Italia;
Rolando Fréart de Chambray (1662): La perfezione della Pittura;
André Félibien (1666): Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellents peintres anciens et modernes;
Richard Lassels (1671): Viaggio d’Italia;
Agostino Santagostino (1671): L’immortalità e gloria del pennello;
Pier Paolo Bosca (1672): Origine e Stato della Biblioteca Ambrosiana;
Carlo Torre (1674): Il ritratto di Milano;
Joachim von Sandrart (1675): Accademia tedesca;
Isaac Bullart (1695): Accademia delle Scienze e delle Arti;
Roger de Piles (1699 e 1715): L’Idée du Peintre parfait;
Florent Le Comte (1702): Cabinet des singularitez d’architecture, peinture etc…;
De Rogissard (1707): Délices de l’Italie;
Sebastiano Resta (1707): Indice del libro intitolato Parnaso de’ pittori;
Palomino Velasco (1715): Museo Pictórico y Escala Optica;
Anonymous (1716): Treatise on Painting by Leonardo published by Pierre -Francois Giffart, in which the artist's biography has been expanded by an anonymous drafter;Edward Wright (1722): Some observations made in travelling through France, Italy etc..;
Johann Georg Böhm (1724): Leonardo's biography, prefixed to the first German edition of the Treatise on Painting;
Jonathan sr. Richardson e Jonathan jr. Richardson (1728): Traité de la peinture et de la sculpture;
Jean Pierre Mariette (1730): letter LXXXIV of the second volume of the Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura of Giovanni Gaetano Bottari, addressed to the Count de Caylus;
Charles de Brosses (1738): letter VIII of Viaggio in Italia;
Antoine Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville (1745): Abregé de la vie des plus fameux Peintres…;
Lépicié (1752): Catalogue raisonné des Tableaux du Roy…;
De La Condamine (1757): journey diary in the Mémoires de l’Accademie roy. des Sciences;
Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1758): Voyage d’Italie;
Wolfgang Knorr (1759): Vite e ritratti di alcuni pittori;
Joseph Jerôme de Lalande (1765): Voyage d’Italie;
Jean-Pierre Richard (1766): Description historique et critique de l’Italie;
Giuseppe Piacenza (1770): biography of Leonardo added to the Turin edition of the Baldinucci;
Pilkington (1770): The Gentleman and Connoisseur’s Dictionary of Painters;
Durazzini (1771): Serie degli uomini i più illustri in pittura, scultura e architettura;
Francesco Bartoli (1776): Notizie delle Pitture, Sculture, e Architetture, che ornano le principali Città d’Italia;
Francesco Maria Gallarati (1779): handwritten description of the Last Supper;
Carlo Bianconi (1787 e 1795): Nuova Guida di Milano;
Domenico Pino (1796): Storia genuina del Cenacolo insigne...;
John Chamberlaine (1796);
Johann Dominicus Fiorillo (1798): Storia delle arti del disegno dal loro risorgimento fino ai tempi più recenti;
John Sidney Hawkins (1802): biography of Leonardo , at the beginning of the edition of the Treatise on Painting by John Francis Rigaud;
Gault De Saint-Germain (1803): the French edition of the Treatise on Painting published in Paris in 1803;
Carlo Amoretti (1804): Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studii e le opere di Lionardo da Vinci;
Luigi Lanzi (1809): third edition of the Storia pittorica dell’Italia.