Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION
Giovanni Mazzaferro
From Brescia (1670) to Mexico City (1745): cultural migrations in the shadow of the Main Art by Francesco Lana
Parte One: Brescia
 |
| Presumed portrait of Francesco Lana Terzi Source: Wikimedia Commons |
A fascinating case
Not much
has been written on the Jesuit Francesco Lana Terzi (1631-1687) [1]. When it
was done, he was mainly cited as a 'scientist' (with all necessary caveats).
Among his works, we must mention one that was printed in Brescia in 1670 with
the title Prodromo all’arte maestra (Prelude
to the Main Art) [2]. Of that volume, only the pages have been repeatedly reprinted
where the Jesuit plans to build a "flying boat" (an ancestor of the balloon).
Everything else went in oblivion. Part of what has been forgotten is also a
section of the Prelude (made up of
four chapters; a sort of treaty, therefore) dedicated to painting, entitled “L’«Arte Maestra» discorre sopra l’Arte della
Pittura, mostrando il modo di perfezionarla con varie invenzioni e regole
pratiche appartenenti a questa materia” (The ‘Main Art’ discusses the Art
of Painting, showing the way to refine it with various inventions and practical
rules pertaining to this matter). From now on, when talking about the ‘Main Art’, I will refer only to these
four chapters; the whole work will be mentioned as the "Prelude").
 |
| Project for a 'flying boat' by Francesco Lana Terzi (cfr. Battistini edition p. 107) Source: Wikimedia Commons |
The echo of
the Main Art in the circles studying
art literature was nil. Schlosser did not mention it nor did it appear in other
repertoires. The only reference was included by Mary Philadelphia Merrifield in
the Original Treatises she published
in 1849. Merrifield located a quote of Lana Terzi’s writing in a minor treatise by Gian Battista Volpato (a second row Venetian painter, only eponymous of the neoclassical
engraver). Indeed, she made use of the quote to determine that that writing (Il modo da tener nel dipinger - The way
to take in painting) was written after 1670 (the year of issue of Lana’s
treatise). Merrifield noted the extreme rarity of the work, to which she
decided to devote a few lines [3].
Finally,
the first annotated edition of the “Prelude
to the Main Art” was released in 1977, with Andrea Battistini as editor
[4]. Of course, it includes the chapters devoted to painting.
Ten years
later, in 1987, an essay of some pages was published on "Arte
Lombarda" with the title “Una fonte
lombarda poco nota dell’età barocca: «L’arte della pittura» di Francesco Lana"
(A little known Lombard source of the Baroque era: The Art of Painting by Francesco
Lana). In it are substantially presented some of the most significant passages
of the work [5].
And yet, I
will be frank and candid. I do not think I would have ever paid much attention
to the pages of Lana Terzi, if I had not noticed, quite by chance, the
"second life" of the treatise by the Jesuit Father. That second life
involves a migration to Mexico, or - to be precise - to what was then the
Kingdom of New Spain.
In 2005
Myrna Soto published with the University of Mexico (UNAM), a book called “El arte maestra: un tratado de pintura
novohispano”. (The main art: a treatise of new-Spanish painting). It was
the critical edition of a manuscript discovered in the National Library of
Mexico among the papers of the scholar Cayetano de Cabrera y Quintero. Undated
and anonymous, but clearly dating from the eighteenth century, the treatise was,
according to the scholar, the first example of "local" artistic
literature, or the first original script of an artist of New Spain on the art
of painting.
A year
later, in the series Estudios en torno al
arte (Studies on art) of the Art Museum of the Basilica de Guadalupe,
another researcher, Paula Mues, republished the treaty, noting that it was the Castilian translation of Lana
Terzi’s Main Art. The translation
provided in the manuscript remained unfinished; there were also some
interventions shortening the original treaty; and above all there were other amendments
aiming at removing the name of the author (which was indeed quoted, but as an "external
source", just as Vitruvius, Villalpando, etc.), as well as other adjustments,
which aimed at ensuring that readers would believe that the treaty was written
"in our Indies". But, in reality, it was the clear attempt to operate
a plagiarism. We should of course keep in mind that, in this case, we have
to talk about ‘plagiarism’ with full knowledge of the facts, not without taking
into account that the Mexican Main Art
is a script that, thanks to the undergone changes, had a different nature than
the original drafting from Brescia.
Anyway, the
fact that a treaty of a Brescia-born Jesuit remained, in substance, completely
unknown in Italy and re-emerged around 1745 in a Spanish translation, but
turned into something else greatly fascinated me. That is why I will first try
to review and contextualize in the necessary depth the Brescia specimen and
then give account of the studies dedicated to the Mexican manuscript of Mexico
City. It will be also an opportunity to know the first expressions related to
the art literature of a world that we Europeans are accustomed to consider undetected
for centuries, but which even then knew forms of development of the arts which did
not slavishly replicated our own trends.
The Prelude
of the Main Art
Francesco
Lana Terzi was born from a noble family from Brescia in 1631 and began the
process to join the Society of Jesus at the age of 16 [6]. His training took
place at the Roman College, followed by a series of teaching experiences in
many Italian cities. In 1663 Lana returned to his native Brescia, where, in
fact, remained until his death (except for a parenthesis in Ferrara). Lana was
part of the ranks of the "scientists" Jesuits; his
"empiricist" training, while of course denied the experience of
Galileo, at the same time questioned the Aristotelian dogma in the name of
"practice" and "experimental method". In the specific case,
the characteristic of the Jesuit may have always been that of an
"excess" of "practice" at the expense of the capacity of
abstraction. Andrea Battistini, who edited the Prologue published by Longanesi in 1977 and produced a far from
trivial introduction even with reference to the artistic interests, cites on it
a letter by Leibniz in 1708 that defines Lana "egregious writer when devotes
himself to ‘specific physics’ but ‘not as good in speculation’" [7]. To be
honest, one might reply that, in the Prologue,
the author himself "reclaims" the weakness of the analysis. In the
preface it is said that this writing is being published with special emphasis
on practical aspects of "natural philosophy" (surveyed by Lana); we
are faced with introductory considerations, precisely with a "Prologue”,
to be followed by a far more comprehensive and extensive treaties planned by
the Jesuit: "For now, I am neglecting to make exactly clear the reasons
for these operations, reserving to do it neatly in each part of the already
promised work that, besides the experiences and practical operations in every
subject and in every art, will include both theory and speculation, with the above
mentioned order and form"[8]. The fact is that only two books of the encyclopaedic
work designed by Lana were finalised before his death (these are the first two
volumes of the Magisterium naturae et
artis – Magisterium of Nature and Art) without however a remedy to the lack
of analysis. Battistini brilliantly notes that in this impression of chaos
produced by the succession of "inventions" and "practical
observations" of a disparate nature, there is one element that unifies the
discussion: the "rehabilitation of manual labour and [...] the confidence to
improve the condition of people through science" [9]. Only this
perspective unified the series of experiments and inventions presented in the Prologue: to teach deaf people to speak and
blind to write, to build a "flying boat", to give birth to a plant
without any seed, and so on. This perspective of improvement also includes the
last two sections, separated from the rest of the discussion, presented in the Prologue: "... I am finally
including the practical rules that will help improve two arts belonging to a
single part of physics, i.e. to the optic science: one is the art of painting,
the other the art of telescopes and microscopes" [10].
 |
| Titian, Polyptich Averoldi, 1520-22, Brescia, Collegiate Church of Saints Nazarius and Celsus Source: Wikimedia Commons |
The Main Art
of Painting
If we
wonder why Lana devoted a section of his treatise on painting, we can give not
one but two answers. The (less ambitious) response is that he wanted to perfect
the science of optics. The second (further reaching) explanation is that
painting is imitation of nature: as the object of Lana’s research was the
philosophy of nature, it was crucial to know how to represent it correctly, not
only from a "theoretical" point of view, but also technically. Among
the many treatises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, very few reserved
as much space to the craftsmanship of the profession. In fact, the only later mention
of Lana’s writing (the one by Volpato, then picked up by Merrifield) is just
linked to manual aspects (in this case, the use of tempera colours).
Battistini
again, although aware of the immersion of Lana’s treatise in the baroque
atmosphere of the time, points out another characteristic feature: "...
What changes… is the attitude of the art critic to the painters. In Lana, in
fact, the exceptional nature of the personality of the greatest artists, which
had become a topical subject after the biographies of Vasari, is replaced by
the anti-heroic description of a patient and detailed painting technique that
meets the standards of simplicity and accuracy, standards which are the most
evident consequences of a real scientific habitus. What is subject of admiration
is not so much the creative genius, the privileged owner of the ''Idea”, but
the craft dimension of painting, the modest but fertile ritual devoted to the
preparation of the canvas, the observation of the lights, the packaging of the
colours on the palette, the wise proportions to get the "tones and
halftones" by "mixing" basic colours, until the trial [...] of
unusual painting techniques "[11]
 |
| Alessandro Bonvicino known as il Moretto, Elias awakened by the Angel, 1521-1524, Brescia, Church of St. John the Evalngelist Source: Fondazione Zeri Bologna via Wikimedia Commons |
 |
| Alessandro Bonvicino known as il Moretto, Fall of the manna, 1521-1524. Brescia, Church of St. John the Evangelist Source: Fondazione Zeri Bologna via Wikimedia Commons |
Between theoretical speculation and practice
The Main Art is divided into four chapters.
The first of them, dedicated to 'invention’, is one that has more theoretical-speculative
features. The others, on ‘design’, ‘colour’ and the ‘different ways to paint
and draw’ respectively, discuss more practical aspects, but also bizarre ones.
In this sense, we can say that Lana’s treatise is exquisitely baroque: in
addition to teaching and delighting, it also aims at ‘surprising’ with his
inventions. In this context I believe that, more than on painting and drawing on
marble and glass (mentioned by Battistini as well as by Sciolla in his 1987
article), we should consider "the invention of producing images and
portraits with feathers of birds of different colour and variously intertwined,
in a bit different way from what you do with the colourful stones for mosaic
work" [12]. My personal impression is that, in this case, Lana was
alluding to a practice stemming from the Indian world of the New World (and
there would be nothing particularly strange, as he was Jesuit); a practice
obviously considered bizarre (and therefore ‘baroque’ by definition) in
Brescia. But when Lana’s treatise arrived in Mexico and was translated into
Spanish, the anonymous translator, leaving incomplete much of Chapter IV,
noted, however, this practice with "Pintura
de Plumas de Nuestras Indias" (Painting of feathers of our Indes),
recognizing and appropriating it [13].
 |
| Girolamo Romanino, Dinner in the Pharisee's house, 1545 ca., Brescia, Church of St. John the Evangelis Source: Wikimedia Commons |
In his
essay published in 1987, Gianni Carlo Sciolla securely attached the contents of
the Main Art to the tradition of
French classicism of 1600 [14], which would seem absolutely acceptable. The
reference that may be the closest in time is, in particular, the Idée de la perfection de la peinture by Roland
Fréart de Chambray, which draws the reader's attention on certain essential aspects
to evaluate art works: invention, proportion, colour (not only pigments, but
also light and shadow), movements and affections, and then the regular position
of the figures. All aspects that are remembered by Lana. If anything, I would
keep in mind that the Jesuit is formed at the Roman College, and then, rather
than a direct contact with the texts of French classicism, one can think of the
attendance of the Academy of Saint Luke, where Bellori had already held his
speech on the Idea and where he will release the Lives in 1674. My
recollection of Bellori’s work allows me to identify some connections. The
recommendation to "make small and rough wax models", to give order
and proportion to the figures, as well as to study their lights etc. are highly
reminiscent of Poussin that, four years later, in the pages of the Lives, "formed middle palm-sized wax
models of all figures in their attitudes, and composed thereby stories or tales
in relief, to see the effects of lights and shadows on bodies" [15]. If we
consider that the chapter devoted to Poussin refers explicitly to ‘shadow’ and
'light', and that the most important precepts in Lana are those about ‘colour’,
it seems plausible that the Jesuit proposed topics discussed in Rome in the mid
'600.
That said,
in truth, the general impression drawn from a reading of the treatise is of an
author who referred to many art concepts without having fully digested them.
Lana - let's face it - drew a bit from everywhere he felt needed: from the ut pictura poesis inspired by Horace to
the theory of proportions of the human body provided by Vitruvius; of course,
he formulated the theory of ideal beauty, but accompanied it with a
recommendation to practice in painting flowers and fruits, dogs, hares and
"such things" by nature, and to experiment with painting by lantern
light, or with light coming from one small window also during the day, giving
some first impression (only on surface, mind you, because he did not go beyond
it) he had some interest for what Bellori had called (with disparaging tone) the
realism of Caravaggio [16]. Lana believes that the beginner should start from
drawing, but he certainly does not seems to follow the procedures practiced in
the academies; in fact, he said the apprentice ought to start "from the easiest
things, i.e. he will first learn to draw from the statues or models" [17]:
however, more or less in all Academies, the design of a statue was not
considered simple and was not offered as an initial step for the student. In
short, some clear internal contradictions have probably not worked in favour of
the success of the work.
 |
| Lattanzio Gambara, Nativity of Jesus, 1561-1566, Brescia, Church of Saints Faustino and Giovita Source: Wikimedia Commons |
A painter without a catalogue
Curiously,
neither Battistini nor Sciolla seem to have asked themselves whether Lana
Terzi, as well as scientist, was also a painter. [18] There are no certainties
about it. However, a few observations let me lean towards an affirmative answer:
the treatise is written, in fact, using three different personal pronouns: the
third person singular (with prescriptive purpose: "the painter shall do"…); the first person plural ("I said that we will need to seize the parts
of our design from nature"... [19]) and, finally, the first person
singular. He is speaking in the first person singular when the Jesuit says
"I really like to do a small, crude wax model" [20]; "I will not
fail to say that, before painting, I am usually making various tones over my palette"
[21]; "Going further, I found a way of painting on marble and later on
making colours penetrate in it." [22]; "I am now adding a new
invention of mine to all those above, to make sure painting looks like very
delicate... as I did in some of my small-sized paintings " [23].
So, unless
Lana misrepresented his art curriculum (and the knowledge of the technical
aspects makes it highly improbable), the Jesuit was also a painter. Probably a
painter at amateur level. Surely a painter without a catalogue. His name did
not appear in any repertoire of artists and, more so, there isn't one picture that
we can attribute to him. In this regard, we cannot continue to ignore the fact
that Lana came from a noble family of patrons and art collectors, who, at the
end of the century, were the owners of one of the most significant collections
of paintings in Brescia. On a purely hypothetical basis, I cannot exclude that
among the paintings that Giulio Antonio Averoldi described in the Lana Terzi collection
in his Le scelte pitture di Brescia
additate al forestiere (Selected paintings of Brescia shown to a foreigner)
[24], published in 1700, there may also be some work of the Jesuit. About half
of the mentioned paintings have no authorship. And yet, let us repeats it: it
is pure conjecture.
And if we
look at the citations of works or artists contained in the work, it is clear
that, as far as the "colouring" is concerned, the references are to the
Venetians: Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. Of none of them, however, was
mentioned any single work. Reference was instead made to the Pantheon, to the
mosaics in San Pietro designed by Cavalier d'Arpino, and to minor figures who
still seem to have contacts within the Roman world. This is normal, since Lana
studied long in Rome.
 |
| Francesco Paglia, Assumption of Mary, 1675 circa, Brescia, Church of St. John the Evangelist Source: Wikimedia Commons |
The real
mystery of the work is the extended quotation of "My Clemente", which
appears in the fourth chapter when discussing the way of painting "a bòtte",
i.e. imprinting strokes with the brush to the canvas. A way of painting that
Lana considers typical of the great Venetian colourists (precisely Titian,
Veronese, Tintoretto) and especially suitable to work quickly on large surfaces.
That said, the author adds: "On this, my Clemente shows his excellence; he
is a good man not only in painting but also in sculpture, poetry, very expert
of history, and equipped with all the arts which can be of benefit to the
painter. This ingenious master of art practices a really remarkable way of
painting, since it forms a figure or a portrait not only with very few strokes
of the brush, but in such a way that more than half of the canvas remains with
the original priming, without any further colour being placed over it, making
it sure that the priming serves to show the shadows and the dark parts of the
picture. And I admired a very surprising self-portrait of him, where you see
the canvas to shine through every part - where there is no place for the colour
but only the original priming - if you look at it against the light" [25].
Who was Clemente? Sciolla did not write about this part of the Treaty;
Battistini offered three hypotheses: Prospero Sogari (1516-1584) said Clemente,
sculptor and architect from Reggio Emilia, but not a painter; Clemente Bocciardo
said the Clementone (1620-1658) and the Jesuit Rutilio Clementi, architect of
Perugia active around 1630. Of the three, the second might be the most credible
candidate, especially considering that he was known in Brescia: Averoldi again cited
a painting of him in Santa Maria delle Grazie, indeed depicting Ignatius of
Loyola, founder of the Jesuits [26] "which features a great vividness of
colour." That said, I admit I do not consider myself satisfied: reading
and rereading the passage the use of the present tense made me convinced that
Clemente was alive while Lana wrote (while Clementone had died in 1658, more
than ten years before) and that "my Clemente" must point to a
fraternal friendship, or even a relationship of discipleship of which we know
nothing. If we assume that Lana Terzi was a painter without catalogue, we must in
fact be willing to even accept the idea that there might have been a Clemente whose
merits were actually far more moderate than what the author of the Main Art assigned him and that simply he
is not known anymore to historians. A figure to be recovered, in short; as well
as the focus on the Treaty should be enhanced again, especially in light of its
second life in the Vice-Realm of New Spain.
But this,
as we know, is another story.
End of Part One
Go to Part Two
NOTES
[1] The Italian Wikipedia entry on Francesco Lana Terzi contains a huge mistake. It is argued
that he was deaf and dumb. Probably only because he exhibited his 'invention' explaining
how to teach speaking to those who, born deaf, did not know how to do it. Now, it
is sufficient just to read the pages written at that time to understand that
the author was not deaf and dumb. If this is not sufficient, we should at least
ask ourselves how he managed to teach in various Italian universities; and with
the same logic, one should say he was also blind, since he even drafted a few
pages about the possibility of teaching writing to a blind man.
[2] The full title is Prodromo
ovvero saggio di alcune inventioni nuove premesso all’Arte maestra, Opera che
prepara il P. Francesco Lana bresciano della Compagnia di Gesù per mostrare li
più reconditi principij della Naturale Filosofia, riconosciuti con accurata
Teorica nelle più segnalate inventioni, ed isperienze sin’hora ritrovate da gli
scrittori di questa materia e altre nuove dell’autore medesimo. Dedicato alla Sacra Maestà Cesarea del Imperatore Leopoldo I (Prelude or essay on some new inventions,
published beforehand the Main Art, work prepared by Father Francesco Lana from Brescia
of the Society of Jesus to show the innermost principles of Natural Philosophy,
recognized with the most accurate Theory in the reported inventions, and experiences
found today by the writers of this matter and other new ones found by the
author himself. Dedicated to the Sacred Imperial Majesty the Emperor Leopold I),
Brescia, Rizzardi Printing House, 1670.
[3] See in
this blog Luciano Mazzaferro, The 'Original Treatises' by Mary Philadelphia Merrifield. Part II. The manuscript Volpato and the 'pirate' edition of Bassanodel Grappa. The note dedicated to the art teacher of Lana is on pages 746-747
of Merrifield’s volume.
[4] Francesco Lana Terzi. Prodromo all’Arte Maestra (Prelude to the Main Art). By Andrea
Battistini, Milan, Longanesi Publishers, 1978.
[5] Gianni Carlo Sciolla, Una fonte lombarda poco nota dell’età barocca: «L’arte della pittura»
di Francesco Lana (A little known Lombard source of the baroque era:
"The Art of Painting" of Francesco Lana) in Arte Lombarda 1987
Milan, Edizioni Vita e Pensiero.
[6] See Dizionario
Biografico degli Italiani (Biographical Dictionary of the Italians), see
respective item, by Cesare Preti, vol 63 (2004).
[7] Francesco Lana Terzi. Prodromo... quoted, P. 11.
[8] Idem,
p. 61.
[9] Idem,
p. 12.
[10] Idem,
p. 61.
[11] Idem,
p. 22.
[12] Idem,
p. 263.
[13] El Arte Maestra:
traducción novohispana de un tratado pictórico italiano. (The Main Art: a new-spanish translation of an
Italian treatise on painting) Introductory essay and notes by Paula Mues Orts, Guadalupe, Museo de la
Basilica de Guadalupe, 2006, p. 109.
[14] See
footnote 5.
[15] Giovan
Pietro Bellori, Le vite de’ pittori
scultori e architetti moderni, (Lives of modern painters, sculptors andarchitects), Turin, Einaudi Publishers, 1976, p. 452.
[16] Francesco Lana Terzi. Prodromo ... quoted., pp. 254-255
[17] Idem,
p. 238.
[18] The
issue is examined in the Mexican version of the work by Paula Mues
[19] Francesco Lana Terzi. Prodromo ... quoted, p. 237.
[20] Idem,
p. 236.
[21] Idem,
p. 248.
[22] Idem,
p. 263-264.
[23] Idem,
p. 265.
[24] See Nota de’
Quadri di Pittura, con il nome de gl’Autori suoi, s’attrovano nelle Stanze in
casa del Conte Pietro de Terzio Lana, pp. 243-248 (Note of Paintings, with
the name of their authors, placed in the rooms of the house of Pietro de Terzio
Lana), pp. 243-248 in: Giulio Antonio Averoldi, Le scelte pitture di Brescia
additate al forestiere (Selected paintings
of Brescia shown to the foreigner), Brescia, Rizzardi Printing House, 1700.
[25] Francesco Lana Terzi. Prodromo ... qioted., p. 261.
[26] Giulio Antonio Averoldi, Le scelte pitture di Brescia additate al forestiere, quoted,, p. 15.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento