ENGLISH VERSION Marco Boschini. I gioieli pitoreschi... della città di Vicenza. Centro Di, 2008

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Marco Boschini
I gioieli pitoreschi. Virtuoso ornamento della Città di Vicenza; Cioè l’Endice di tutte le Pitture publiche della stessa Città

[The jewels of painting. The virtuous adornment of the City of Vicenza]

Edited by Waldemar H. de Boer

Centro Di, 2008
Isbn 978-88-7038-463-5

Paolo Veronese, The Supper of Saint Gregory the Great (detail), Vicenza, Santuario of Monte Berico

[N.B. On Marco Boschini see in this blog also: Marco Boschini, The charter of pictorial navigation. Edizione critica con la “Breve Instruzione” premessa alle “Ricche Minere della Pittura Veneziana”, Edited by Anna Pallucchini, Istituto per la collaborazione culturale Venezia-Roma, 1966; Marco Boschini. The Epic of Venetian Painting in Baroque Europe. Edited by Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo, with the cooperation by Paolo Bertelli. Treviso, ZeL edizioni, 2014]

[1] Published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence.

[2] Text of the strip :

"The guide entitled “I gioieli pittoreschi. Virtuoso ornamento della Città di Vicenza” (The jewels of painting. The virtuous adornment of the City of Vicenza) (1676) by the Venetian Marco Boschini, includes an inventory of art works available at that time in public buildings in Vicenza. Given the very large number of paintings and murals, the generally accurate attributions and the evidence provided on the subjects, as well as the information on the location of the works in question, this paper is without any doubt our most important and valuable source of knowledge on painting in Vicenza until that moment. The present work is an edition annotated with critical commentary of I gioieli pittoreschi, that explains - not only in words but also through the 530 accompanying images - what is preserved of the murals and paintings mentioned by Boschini. To supplement the text, basic information was included in relation to both the paintings and murals identified as well to the works that disappeared. In addition, this volume contains a long introductory essay, dedicated to the education and critical-artistic vision of the author, to the content, structure and genesis of the guide, to the local context of the "Gioieli pitoreschi" and the events affecting painting works in Vicenza, after Boschini’s age."

Jacopo Tintoretto, The Miracle of Saint Augustine
Vicenza, Museo Civico
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/533465518331104729/

[3] The princeps [note of the editor: first printed version] is of 1676. The editor indicates the presence of some copies where, for unknown reasons, the date on the front page has been changed directly with the ink in 1677 (a second edition of 1677 - cf. p. 18 – would therefore not exist). If you exclude a facsimile reprint of the work prepared by Nicolas Ivanoff in 1965, we would not find in fact any annotated editions, if not the one published in our times: that of Deborah Marchioro appeared in 2000, (Rome, Lithos Editions), while Nicola Giuseppe Luna made of it the subject of his doctoral thesis, which we unfortunately do not own: L’occhio di Boschini: aspetti della società e della pittura a Vicenza nel giudizio dei Gioieli Pittoreschi (1676) (Boschini’s Eye: Society and Painting Aspects in Vicenza, as Assessed in the Jewels in Painting) (1676), Udine, 2001-2002. 

It should be immediately mentioned - however valuable the edition of Marchioro may have been - the work of de Boer looks like as of completely different in terms of breath and calibre. The difference is evident already from a material point of view: the Marchioro edition is a booklet with four photographs of about 280 pages and 16 cm high (much more similar in this point of view to the princeps of Boschini); the version of De Boer is a tome with an almost 30 cm height, more than 500 pages and 500 illustrations in black and white or colour. The edition is divided into two distinct sections: a first part offering an overall picture of the work and of Boschini’s figure as an art critic; a second part in which the original text is split (perhaps this is the only limit to this edition: you lose the possibility of a continuous reading of the princeps; but it is certain not in its literary merits which lies the importance of Boschini’s guide) and noted building by building, work by work, with a completeness that really seems to set a new parameter of excellence for modern comments of past centuries’ art guides. With reference to the first part we quote the editor (p. 13): "The first chapter is limited to a short summary on the life and works of Boschini ... The next chapter gives an overview of other city guides previously published and known to us, which – exactly like the ‘Gioieli pitoreschi’ – have the pictorial art as main topic; then it analyses the extent to which the structure and content of these guides are comparable to those of the edition on Vicenza. In the third chapter the reasons are discussed which led Boschini to compile a guide on painting in Vicenza. To answer this question, the author analyses the relationship with the town and tries to figure out for what type of readers he intended to write the guide, and what kind of printing and distribution the work had.... In order to get an image of the painting in Vicenza, in the fourth chapter the most important workshops there are examined. Later on, an overview is offered of the main buyers of paintings and murals cited by Boschini. In this regard, we will analyse the aspects concerning the nature, the extent and the importance of their commissions. In this same chapter, we explore also the themes of the artworks. Chapter 5 focuses on Boschini’s critical judgment as expressed in I gioieli pittoreschi...... The chapter [note of the editor: also] ... presents an analysis of the terminology used by the Venetian, aiming at better explaining the critical judgment of the author. The last chapter, finally, discusses the events that led to the disappearance and the loss of the "Gioieli" of Boschini after 1676. This is an aspect that is theoretically also addressed in the records of the individual works. However, by providing a chronological perspective of related events, it becomes obvious how these have interacted with the guide."

Giovanni Buonconsiglio, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ,
Vicenza, Museo Civico
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/533465518331012736/

[4] The Gioieli Pitoreschi are not the only artistic guides written by Mark Boschini. The previous works should be remembered: Le minere della pittura (The mines of painting) (1664) and Le ricche minere della pittura Veneziana (The rich mines of Venetian painting) (1674). The Breve instruzione (Short instruction) put before the Ricche minere (Rich mines) is displayed inside the critical edition of the Carta del navegar pitoresco (The map of navigating and painting) proposed by Anna Pallucchini in 1965.

Bartolomeo Montagna, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. John the Baptist,
Bartholomew, Augustin and Sebastian and three Angels,
Vicenza, Museo Civico
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/533465518331012763/

[5] Some details on the structure of the guide, as reported also by the full title of the work. Object of attention of Boschini are the only art works that are in the public buildings of Vicenza, and therefore are accessible not only to all locals, but also to any foreigner. The aim is to draw up an exhaustive census (index of all paintings); and indeed more than a thousand paintings are cited (two thirds of which are today destroyed or otherwise lost). The objective of Boschini has still to be framed in a historical context: the paintings of the "primitives" are not covered by the survey; in reality (with certain exceptions) the recording by the author covers roughly two centuries of local art history (from about 1475 to 1676), as the previous works are not considered worthy of any attention. However, in the period covered by the two centuries mentioned above, there is no doubt that Boschini’s selection appears systematic.

[6] It is useful to display in detail the structure of the conclusive apparatus: 

• Correction of spelling and print errors in the edition of 1676; 
• Annotations and new chronology of used manuscripts and books; 
• Bibliography; 
• List of the artists mentioned by Boschini in the “Gioieli pitoreschi”; 
• Buildings and locations in the “Gioieli pitoreschi”; 
• Directories (Artistic assessment of Boschini: frequency of terms used; Artistic assessment of Boschini: aspects taken into consideration; Subjects of the works cited by Boschini); 
• Topographical index of the current locations of the "Gioieli pitoreschi"; 
• Index of artists and works (current or past locations); 
• Index of names.