Paolo Vanoli. The 'Book of Letters' by Girolamo Borsieri: Ancient and Modern Art in the Early Seventeenth Century Lombardy

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Paolo Vanoli
Il ‘libro di lettere’ di Girolamo Borsieri:
arte antica e moderna nella Lombardia di primo Seicento
[The 'Book of Letters' by Girolamo Borsieri: 
Ancient and Modern Art in the Early XVII Century Lombardy]

Milano, Ledizioni LediPublishing, 2015

Gaudenzio Ferrari, Stories of Christ's Life and Passion, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Varallo (Vercelli)

The name of Girolamo Borsieri, scholar from Como who lived between 1588 and 1629, is known by specialists only. Besides sporadic citations elsewhere, it is worth to refer once again to Schlosser, who quoted in his Art literature the second edition of the Nobility of Milan by Paolo Morigia (the first one was in 1595), edited and expanded just by Borsieri: "In Borsieri’s Supplement the last two chapters are especially important; they deal with the rich ‘private galleries’ in Milan ..., from the most famous and oldest of Leone Leoni to the others, and also contain a brief description of the best public paintings and sculptures of Milan." (p.367)

Only as late as in 1966 Luciano Caramel presented the transcript of 71 letters written by Borsieri on art topics. The letters were chosen from a much larger set of letters (about 750) preserved at Como’s Municipal Library [1]. This leads us to this work by Paolo Vanoli, who, in addition to publishing around one hundred letters, finally outlined a comprehensive portrait of the personality of the Como scholar.

In fact, there used to be, until today, a problem: there was widespread awareness of the importance of Borsieri, but we knew practically nothing of his writings, since he published very little. Against very rare writings released as publications, there is instead a quantity of manuscript material that (although they does not constitute the entire corpus of Borsieri) are of particular interest, and which Vanoli examined analytically in Como’s Library.

Bernardino Luini, Madonna of the Roses, Milan, Brera Gallery

Between an antiquarian training and artistic interests

The biographical data on Borsieri are very limited. Born in Como in 1588, he originated from a wealthy and educated family (his father Giovanni Battista, in his turn, was interested in music and had collecting interests), was addressed to church life and was always linked to the hometown, also for financial vicissitudes affecting his family, which deterred him from the beloved studies in the last decade of his short life. At first, the interests of Borsieri seemed directed to his literary and poetic production, but steered towards antiques and art creation since 1612. These were the years which witnessed a rapprochement with the erudite circles in Milan, concentrated around the Cardinal Federico Borromeo and the still new-born Ambrosiana Library. Until now, against the absolute lack of evidence in merit, the opinions and the information provided by Girolamo around Lombard artists at the beginning of 1600 were, in fact, those which attracted the interest of scholars. Vanoli revisits the work of Borsieri and above all emphasizes his interest for antiques, which appears to have been really predominant and kept him in regular contact with internationally known figures, such as the German epigraphist Mark Welser.

Trying to summarize Borsieri’s vast handwritten production, we could say that the great project that he followed over the years was that of the preparation of the Theatrum Insubricae Magnificentiae (Theater of the magnificence of Insubria), a work divided into twenty-four tomes, which owed to give account of the antique materials (epigraphs, coins, bas-reliefs, medals, statues) belonging to the territories ranging between Como, Milan and Novara (with a time range that reached until the Middle Ages). The Theatrum was reported several times as being ready for imminent publication (especially in 1614). However, at least as regards the manuscript material stored at Como’s Municipal Library ms mark. 4.4.21, it remained instead in a fragmented and incomplete state, for unknown reasons. In addition to antiquities, there are writings testifying Girolamo’s interest for Lombard artistic production and his involvement in the circuit of the local collectors, both personally and for third parties. We speak, first of all, about the Supplement to the Nobility of Milan, cited by Schlosser (see above) and published in 1615. But the Supplement seems "to have been really intended as a 'support work', an instrumental adaptation of more valuable materials, originally for publication in a more prestigious work. And the more prestigious publication was to be, in the words of Borsieri himself, the Simulacrum of Milan: "I do not want to discuss here the best paintings of Milan’s modern artists, as I wish to deal with them at length in the Simulacrum of Milan, where I have begun to prove, that today’s Lombardy does not need the painters flourishing in Rome, as it also have those who can be counted among the biggest" (p. 56). The fact is that not only the Simulacrum was never published, but probably even not extended in manuscript form, since there is no trace of it in the fund of Como’s Municipal Library.

Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli called Morazzone, Resurrection of Lazarus, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada

The correspondence and the 'Book of Letters'

Faced with the objective difficulties determined by the lack of almost any printed output from Borsieri, the examination of the correspondence becomes crucial. His letters are witnessed by two volumes, also preserved in the Public Library of Como with signatures ms. sup. 2.3.43 and 2.3.44. They are always and only letters sent by Girolamo, in a period between 1606 and 1626. The chronological indication appears in the title given to the collection and is particularly valuable, because the individual letters are almost never accompanied by date indication. Roughly, the order of presentation is chronological, but there are situations when, obviously, this arrangement is not respected. One thing has to be made immediately clear: the letters, which go under the title of Lettere accademiche, historiche e famigliari (Academic, historical and family letters), are an annotated (and probably retouched, compared to originals) anthology, put in place precisely by Borsieri probably for publication (again, another missed project) of a 'Book of Letters'. Thus, this is a collection through which he chose, through letters, to give a picture of himself, for example as a scholar who refused to participate in the court life (declining an offer to that effect by the Savoy), who was dedicated to the pleasures of the villa, an example of moderation and decorum, and so on. If the selection of 1966 by Luciano Caramel was focused on the letters of artistic subject, here Vanoli rounds the picture and also adds letters that reveal the preeminent antique interests [2].

It is not just about offering a more complete picture. By publishing letters on antiquities, Caramel tries to search for a method, i.e. the method precisely used in the evaluation of the artefacts to be the theme of the correspondence exchanges, and also considers that some elements of it are used also in relation to the valuation of works of modern arts. And here we leave the word to Vanoli: "The common feature [note of the editor: with the figure of the Roman antiquarian Lelio Pasqualini] is the interest in Christian antiquity, the dense network of correspondence and above all, the precision of the analysis performed 'in the field', by comparing stylistic and iconographic materials and thanks to an extreme caution when relying on literary sources or previous repertoires of antiquity. The basic process is to 'compare', to reconstruct the material civilization of the ancient world through the cross-comparison of the findings, which is always submitted to a more rigorous, preventive philological reclamation"(p. 82).

In a letter of 1610, Borsieri himself indicates that he intends to follow the same method for the paintings of the 1500s and 1600s: "If time is left to me afterward, I will be delighted ... to compare the paintings of Gaudentio [Guadenzio Ferrari] with those of Lovino [Bernardino Luini], Lanino [Bernardino Lanino also said the Vercellese] and Marco d'Oggiona [Marco d'Oggiono], all artists who seem to have shared perfection among those who painted in our region" (p. 82). It is the demonstration of a maturity in criticism that Borsieri offers to his interlocutors, often at the end of commissioning, with a rare ability to synthesize the salient features of the work of an artist in a few words. Paradigmatic in this sense is a letter to the Milanese collector Scipione Toso, where Girolamo describes the styles of the protagonists of Lombard painting of Borromeo’s age like following: "At any rate, there are the  Procaccinis, the eldest of whom [Camillo Procaccini] does not find anybody equalling him in the safety of the design today, while the youngest [Giulio Cesare Procaccini], although being passed from sculpture to painting, could make practical use in a few days only of the manners illustrated by Parmigiano and Correggio. There is Cerano [Giovan Battista Crespi], who with the liveliness of the northerners across Alps and the firmness of ours, even attracts the attention of the roughest farmers to observe minutely the works which he commits to the public. With little distance there is Moranzone [Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli called Morazzone], whose natural force - jointly with the vagueness - that he has learned under Salimbeni, makes him fierce and majestic. There is Salmetia [Enea Salmeggia], who happily meets the imitation of delicacy and simplicity in the use of brushes in the beginning of the past century, but also obliges the enemies themselves of devotion to devoutly gaze each image of him. There is Moncalvo [Guglielmo Caccia called Moncalvo], that expresses the soul and tenderness of little children and apparently has found the happiness which already characterised the old Lovino [Bernardino Luini]"(p. 207).

Giovan Battista Crespi called Cerano, Flight to Egypt, Bristol, City Art Gallery

The poems

We just have to talk briefly about their poetic compositions, and more particularly the Scherzi (Jokes), rhyming verses of which was published a collection of four books in 1612. In fact, in the following years, Borsieri continued to work at least three more books of Scherzi, which remained unpublished and are also kept in Como. Especially in them (but also in other small unpublished works like the Pio Salterio Affetti Spirituali and the Salium) there are dozens of poems dedicated to the ekphrasis of art works, on a basis that reminds us of the Galeria by Giambattista Marino (which is dated 1620, i.e. is essentially coeval). The interpretation of the Scherzi is aided by the presence of the so-called Table of Scherzi, which provides guidance on the works of art referenced in the verses composed by Borsieri. Nevertheless, reading them, it moves on a dangerous terrain. We do not know exactly which works were actually owned by the erudite in Como and belonged to his collection (and in particular they were at his villa in Borgo Vico); and which ones were owned by acquaintances, famous collectors, church structures and so on. Beyond the literary value, the Scherzi thus contribute to witness a taste, which in many ways is confirmed by the letters of the scholar in Como.

NOTES

[1] Luciano Caramel, Arte e artisti nell’epistolario di Girolamo Borsieri (Art and artists in the correspondence of Girolamo Borsieri), in: Contributi dell'Istituto di Storia dell'arte medioevale e moderna. Volume One, Milan, Vita e Pensiero Publishing House, 1966.

[2] The letters published by Caramel are 71; those by Vanoli 98. It should also be said that – besides mimicking those of Caramel, and adding new ones – Vanoli also discards fifteen letters published in 1966, which he evidently considered not relevant.