Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
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Lorenzo Lotto
Il «Libro di spese diverse» con aggiunta di lettere e d'altri documenti [The «Book of Accounts» with the addition of letters and other documents]
edited by Pietro Zampetti
Istituto per la collaborazione culturale Venezia-Roma, 1969
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| Lorenzo Lotto. The Book of Accounts http://museoanticotesoro.santuarioloreto.it/pag_news_articolo.asp?idart=16&sezione=na |
{Nota bene: for a review of a later edition of Lotto's Libro di spese diverse in 2018 see: https://letteraturaartistica.blogspot.com/2018/05/lorenzo-lotto4.html]
SUNDAY - Scaffalart
A new edition with facsimile of the "Book of various expenses”compiled by the Master from 1538 to 1556
Announcing the Lotto numbers
[1] In 1895 Adolfo Venturi published this manuscript in the journal Gallerie Nazionali Italiane (Italian National Galleries), giving it the title of Il Libro dei conti di Lorenzo Lotto (The Book of accounts by Lorenzo Lotto). This publication - writes Pietro Zampetti at page p. IX - "produced when the studies about the artist were still at an initial stage, no longer meets current needs. In that circumstance, Venturi (who had made use in a large part of the transcript by Levi) believed it would be appropriate not to reproduce the manuscript according to the original draft (therefore comparing accounts in the assets and liabilities format), but to follow a chronological order. Therefore, he transcribed the items as a sequence, in a column, all items referring to the relationship of the artist with the various customers and sponsors, going so far as to group together in the same sequence annotations scattered, in fact, in different pages... the current edition - continues Zampetti - instead follows faithfully the original text, page by page." The publication by Levi in “Italian National Galleries” is available at:
[2] On the following page, i.e. at p. X, the editor warns that the Book is integrated "by all other known autographs, as well as relevant documents for the understanding of the text and especially the reconstruction of the life and figure of Lotto. Among them, we recall the Lettere bergamasche (Bergamo letters), found and published in 1962 by Chiodi. The transcription of the Book is accompanied by the list of works cited by the painter, and the one of the artists and craftsmen mentioned."
[3] Around the end of 2003, the Pontifical Delegation of the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto has published a new (and valuable) facsimile edition of the work, edited by Floriano Grimaldi and Katy Sordi (unfortunately, we do not have it in our library, but we got a chance to see it at the Book Fair of Turin in 2004). Below is reproduced the text of the review relating thereto, published in Il Sole 24 Ore of 30 May 2004. The author is Marco Carminati. The original article is kept inside the edition which is object of this review.
Announcing the Lotto numbers
by Marco Carminati
" «O Lotto, good as the goodness and virtuous as virtues, Titian - up from Augusta and in the midst of grace of all the favours of the world - greets and embraces you». This is the beginning of a famous letter which Pietro Aretino addressed to Lorenzo Lotto in 1548. The letter is a masterpiece of perfidy. The poor Lotto, who for decades had struggled to find important commissions, is brutally reminded that Titian is making a great career at the service of Emperor Charles V, and that wants to do "hello hello" with his hand. "But there is no envy in your chest," rages Aretino, because even "if you have been surpassed in the craft of painting" (another blow), no one can "equal you in the office of religion" (the sender seems to point to the fact that Lotto was equally fanatic in religion and unable as a painter).
In fact, Lorenzo Lotto was not incompetent at all. He was a sensitive and restless man, a misunderstood genius, certainly not clever in gaining the favours of the mighty of the land, but by no means incapable of running an art workshop and to keep books. This is demonstrated by the fact that, from 1538 until his death in 1556, the master compiled with extreme diligence a Libro di spese diverse (Book of various expenditures), or a 'daybook' full of dates and items. Thanks to the Book we can follow step by step the pictorial production of the Master in the last two decades of activity (he will record all works, the names of the buyers and the sale prices). We can also revive a lively slice of the daily life of the tormented artist, his work commitments, his joys and disappointments, and his material needs.
We return to talk about the Book of various expenditures because a few months ago the Pontifical Delegation of the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto published a facsimile edition and a new modern transcription, edited by Floriano Grimaldi and Katy Sordi, after the glorious and unobtainable one curated by Peter Zampetti in 1969. The Book of various expenditures is kept in the Loreto Archives because Lorenzo Lotto died as oblate friar in the shadow of the Holy House at the end of 1556, providing that all his "goods" would remain as a legacy to the sanctuary.
For many centuries the memory of Lotto’s Book was totally lost. In 1891 the Italian government had sent to Loreto the archivist Guido Levi with the task of rearranging the historical files of the sanctuary. He had asked to be helped by advocate Pietro Giannuizzi. The two went to work and at some point, "among a pile of papers stacked in a dark and small room, and apparently destined to be burned" jumped out the Libro di spese diverse. Between Levi and Giannuizzi a small war broke out because both claimed authorship of the discovery of the volume, which meanwhile had been sent to Rome to be transcribed. Adolfo Venturi brought it back to Loreto in 1895, the same year in which the first monograph on Lorenzo Lotto was released, written by the infallible Berenson, even in total ignorance of the exceptional archive discovery.
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Lorenzo Lotto, The Alms of St. Anthony (Venice, 1542)
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Returning to the Holy House, the Libro di spese diverse experienced a little mishap: it went lost again. Lotto's manuscript had been hidden in such a well camouflaged closet to look like an actual wall. And when in 1936 it was decided to move the Historical Archive in other rooms of the Apostolic Palace, the closet and its contents went forgotten. After the move, the book went missing. The mystery was solved only in 1958. The nuns who had come to live in those places, doing renovations, found the cupboard, opened it, and found themselves Lotto’s manuscript along with other precious scrolls. Everyone breathed a breath of relief.
Seen in its outward appearance, the book does not show a great appeal. It is a book bound in cardboard, made up of 200 cards and looks like a modern phone book with the letters of the alphabet in columns on the right side of the page. Lotto used these letters to record from A to Z the names of the debtors and creditors: the left page is dedicated to 'liabilities', the opposite one is dedicated to 'assets', according to the principles of double-entry bookkeeping.
Needless to say, these pages give us important news on the big commissions of Lotto, such as the Pala di San Francesco alle Scale in Ancona (1549). Or we learn of the desperate attempt by the artist to make money by auctioning forty of his paintings, with thin proceeds of 40 shields against the expected 400. And again we read of the decision to come to "Loretto" in 1552 to "live in Santa Maria”, finally safe from the vain delusions of the world.
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| Lorenzo Lotto, The Assumption (1550) (Altarpiece of San Francesco alle Scale, Ancona) http://letteraturaartistica.blogspot.it/2013/11/giovanni-mazzaferro-lotto-in-marche.html |
Even more interesting are the items of expenditure that Lotto affixed to the bottom of the volume. These are two long lists of expenditures, clearly separated from one another. On the left side there are the costs “for art”, i.e. those related to the work of the painter. On the right side, the list the expenses "for things, use and dressing”, namely those of a more personal daily needs. Given that Lotto handled indifferently pounds, ducats, 'shields' and paoli, we note that a large part of the costs of the workshop were going to buy canvases and "accessories for it”, various dyes, linseed oil, turpentine, candles for "the lights of the workshop", nails and wood for carpentry. Then there were the living costs for students and assistants, as well as for porters and boatmen in charge of delivering the works at home. Lotto did not fail to note the professional expenditure patterns for a "couple of glasses" and more than once we observe that he generously loosened the purse strings to get "naked women." Do not worry; it's just models, who came home for the pose. But, for the avoidance of doubt, in an item of expense he felt the need to specify: "For undress a naked woman (only to see) 12 soldi".
Turning to the personal wardrobe, we find everything and more: a "suit to work” along with "ribbons, jackets, hoods and trousers" but also "caps, shoes, laces, socks and clogs”. It seems there are not luxury goods, if we exclude "A book of the Emperor Marco Aurelio on his life" and a soft "white lamb leather" (which is not a luxury goog: Lotto used it against the ‘sciatica’)".
Lorenzo Lotto , "Libro di spese diverse" (Book of various expenses), edited by F. Grimaldi and K. Deaf, The Pontifical Delegation for the Shrine of the Holy House, Loreto, 2003 (two volumes in slipcase , facsimile , p. 200; modern transcription and apparatuses, pp. 288) , € 97.00
To be remembered: F. Grimaldi, "Oblatio Spectabili Viri magistri Laurentij Loti Veneti", Tecnostampa publishers, Loreto 2003, p. 238, sip.
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