Johann David Passavant. [Contributions to the History of the Ancient Schools of Painting in Lombardy (1838)]

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
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Johann David Passavant
Contributi alla storia delle antiche scuole di pittura 

in Lombardia (1838)
[Contributions to the History of the Ancient Schools of Painting in Lombardy (1838)]
Edited by Alfonso Litta
Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), Silvana Editoriale, 2015

(review by Giovanni Mazzaferro)

Johann David Passavant, Self-portrait (1818), Frankfurt, Städel Museum
Source: Wikimedia Commons

N.B. On Johann David Passavant see in this blog also: German Connoisseurs between 19th and 20th Century and Susanna Avery-Quash and Corina Meyer, 'Substituting an approach to historical evidence for the vagueness of speculation': Charles Lock Eastlake and Johann David Passavant's contribution to the professionalization of art-historical study through source-based research.

What is the first thing I thought when I finished reading this book? Or - better - what came to my mind as I was reading it and what accompanied me until its last page, so that now I cannot stay without talking about it first of all?

It is simple: the inclusion of the Contributi alla storia delle antiche scuole di pittura in Lombardia (Contributions to the History of the Ancient Schools of Painting in Lombardy) by Johann David Passavant, in the book series Fonti e strumenti per la storia e l’arte di Bergamo (Sources and tools for the history and the art of Bergamo) is so much stretched that it can only be explained because it gave the editor an opportunity to find a publisher (an opportunity to catch immediately). Passavant himself says he wanted to limit his news on painting to the schools of Milan, Lodi and Treviglio. Bergamo was not considered. And beware: it is true that the writing includes Treviglio, administratively in the Bergamo district today, but it should be remembered that, following the Battle of Agnadello (1509), Treviglio indeed remained under the control of Milan, while Bergamo was a Venetian possession until the French Revolution.

On the other hand, if I were Giulio Orazi Bravi and Simone Facchinetti, the directors of the series, I would not hide my satisfaction, simply because works of this quality are released only unfrequently, in my view, perhaps only five times a year at most.

Bramantino, Our Lady of the Towers, Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. See Passavant  p. 39.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The first history of Milan painting in the Renaissance 

The text proposed by Alfonso Litta (descendent of one of the most famous noble families in Milan) is the Italian translation of the articles written by Johann David Passavant and published in an approximately weekly basis in the magazine Kunst-Blatt between August and September 1838. It is – in substance - the first printed history of Milan painting in the Renaissance, when excluding the (not particularly detailed) pages by Lanzi in the Storia Pittorica (Pictorial History). The problem of the reconstruction of the Milan painting school is well known and, luckily, has been discussed in several recent art literature publications. Unlike in other regions, like in Bologna with Malvasia, in the area around Milan "in the strict sense" there was no organic reaction against the Tuscan-centric vision of Vasari's Lives. To be precise, several scholars used to speak of Lombard painting and Lombard school, but it in a "large" sense only: Lombardy includes the lowlands including Emilia with the Carracci and Guido Reni, Guercino and Correggio. Almost nothing on Milan itself. Milan is limited to Leonardo and, at most, his disciples. In this context, writings such as those by Girolamo Borsieri in the first-seventeenth century (whose 'Libro di Lettere’- Book of  Letters - has been just publishedin an annotated edition [1]) are key to the reconstruction of a collector's taste, but also to better understand the complexity of an art world that otherwise would be exclusively interpreted as Leonardism.

Gaudenzio Ferrari, Detail of  the Paradise: 'The Concert of the Angels', 1535. See Passavant, p. 49
Saronno,  Santuario della Beata Vergine dei Miracoli
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Actually, starting in the second half of the eighteenth century onwards, several attempts are known to write a history of painting in Milan (see pp. XVII-XVIII); however, all failed. The best known ones are undoubtedly those of Antonio Francesco Albuzzi, author of a (incomplete) manuscript between 1772 and 1778, entitled Memorie per servire alla storia de’ pittori, scultori e architetti milanesi (Memoirs to serve the story of painters, sculptors and architects from Milan). The (highly expected) critical edition of the manuscript is about to be printed [2]. Moreover, we should also recall the efforts by Giuseppe Bossi, whose interests for Leonardo had already resulted in his Cenacolo. However, he was not able to produce more because of his premature death. And finally we should mention the work of Gaetano Cattaneo, who in turn took up the challenge but could not finish it. The curious thing about all these attempts is that the relevant documentation was gradually accumulating, passing first from the desk of Albuzzi to that of Bossi; from the one of Bossi to that of Cattaneo and, after his death, to Ignazio Fumagalli, whose heirs sold it to Count Gaetano Melzi before 1846. Unfortunately, almost a century later, all papers went destroyed in the bombing of 1943.

Cesare da Sesto, Baptims of Christ, Milan,  Gallarati Scotti Private Collection. See Passavant p. 64
Source: Wikimedia Commons

But some scholar was able to browse the folders. Among them, Passavant knew of their existence and was able to examine them thanks to the courtesy of Gaetano Cattaneo. Most likely, Passavant read the documents between 1834 and 1835, during his prolonged stay in Lombardy [3]. In 1838, he published the Beiträge zur Geschichte der alten Malerschulen in der Lombardei (Contributions to the history of the old schools of painting in Lombardy) on the Kunst-Blatt. The echo of the publication was certainly not universal and above all, after the citations by Eastlake, Kugler and Rio [4], it gradually diminished. The lack of attention is in my view linked to nationalistic reflexes. It's just obvious that in the newly united Italy it was easier to quote the work of Calvi (1859) or that of a Garibaldi supporter like Cavalcaselle (1871) than to refer to the experience of Passavant, a German art critic. The most worrying aspect is that, to date, the Contributions had remained in oblivion: since 1987, they were mentioned in passing only in three occasions. And this opens a methodological problem, which must not be neglected.

Boltraffio, Casio Altarpiece, Paris, Louvre Museum.See Passavant p. 80
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The critical anamnesis

I should like to note that Litta has been educated in Giovanni Agosti’s (unmistakable) school. The latter authored a brief presentation underlining the need to reconstruct the critical reception of the art works. In front of a painting, in short, one cannot and should not use the information provided by the most recent source, but rebuild the history of criticism on the work. Often, one ends up discovering that attributions which are actually considered very recent were proposed centuries before; certainly, one can better assess the maturing of the discipline in a historical perspective. Passavant’s Contributions, for example, were undoubtedly the successful meeting point between two types of sources. On the one hand, the manuscript tradition we mentioned earlier, with the (few) printed sources which were thoroughly researched (Vasari, Lomazzo, Lanzi and the Morellian Anonymous [5]). On the other hand, a method that is already the one of a connoisseur, with the methodical survey of every inch of Milan’s territory and a descriptive method that is typical of anyone who has started his career as an amateur painter (thereby, knowing the technique) and recalls in some ways Morelli’s observations. There is nothing perfect in Passavant: for instance, he yet believed that there were two Bramantinis. However, there are valuable insights, both in the press articles and (even more, according to Agosti and Litta) in the Johann David’s notebooks preserved in Frankfurt on the Main, recently studied by Miriam Laffranchi and hopefully waiting for a much needed publication.

Marco d'Oggiono. Altarpiece of the Three Archangels, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera. See Passavant p. 91
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Passavant

Born in Frankfurt from a merchant family, Passavant published his articles on the Kunst-Blatt when he was 51 years. He was experiencing years that would mark the rest of his life. He had not joined the art world at an early stage, and when he did it in Paris, he joined the atelier of the neoclassical painter David. The meeting that changed his life was however with the German Nazarene painters in Rome. He stayed in Italy for years, traveling tirelessly and putting aside early artistic activity for publications; after Italy, it was the turn of England and Belgium. One of his most successful works (the Kunstreise durch England und Belgien – Art Journey through England and Belgium) was printed in Frankfurt in 1833. For the twist of fate, it was translated into English three years later by Elizabeth Rigby, who will become the future Lady Eastlake [6], with the title ‘Tour of a German artist in England’. Between 1834 and 1835, Passavant was in Milan. It is in this period that he started a systematic study of painting in Milan in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is not at all certain that this was only an activity he performed as a scholar. In the same years Johann David served in fact as an agent on behalf of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, and had the task of purchasing works considered interesting for the museum collection. In 1838 were released - as described – the Contributions on the Kunst-Blatt; in publishing terms, however, the masterpiece of Passavant was the famous monograph on Raphael (Rafael von Urbino und sein Vater Giovanni Santi) published in three volumes between 1839 (the first two ones) and 1858, and translated into French, English and Italian. In 1840 he became director of the Städel Museum and retained the position until his death (1861), becoming one of the great museum directors and connoisseurs such as Gustav Waagen in Berlin and Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery in London.

Bernardino Luini. Entombment of St. Catherine. Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera.
Fresco coming from Villa La Pelucca in Sesto San Giovanni (Mi). See Passavant p. 116
Source: http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/

The artists

Each article is based on an analysis of the work of three or four artists at the most. Hereafter an (incomplete) summary is provided. 

• Article I: Leonardo da Besozzo and Vincenzo Foppa
• Article II: Vincenzo Civerchio, Bernardino Buttinone, Bernardo Zenale
• Article III: Bramante, Bramantino, Andrea Solario, Gaudenzio Ferrari
• Article IV: Bergognone and Cesare da Sesto
• Article V: Gian Antonio Boltraffio and Francesco Melzi
• Article VI: Marco d'Oggiono and Salaino
• Article VII: Bernardino Luini
• Article VIII: Albertino and Martino Piazza
• Article IX: Callisto Piazza

It was already said that the work method of Passavant passes from source analysis to direct examination, through the analysis of the work according to aspects reminiscent (and anticipating) those of the Morelli method. It should be added that, as with all great connoisseurs, the merit of certain attributions lies in the possibility of having travelled around Europe and comparing the works seen in person. Johann David cites French, British, and German collections with the same ease with which he deals with the parish churches of Lodi, establishing links that anyone else would have escaped. A case as an example: Passavant attributed to Marco d'Oggiono a painting kept in Berlin and listed as from circles near Gaudenzio Ferrari on the grounds that "it accords very in style with an Assumption of Our Lady by our Teacher [Oggiono], which is in the Pinacoteca of Brera” (p. 95).

Albertino Piazza da Lodi, Berinzaghi Polyptych Lodi, Chiesa dell'Incoronata. See Passavant p. 142
Source: http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/artwork-3522.html

The commentary

We would not be comprehensive, however, if we failed to say that the great advantage of this edition consists of the wealth of the comments in the notes. It is evident that we are facing a job that lasted for years. Coming back to the critical anamnesis of a work, one understands what it means to practice it for each work, in a rigorous and meticulous way, making always punctual quotations. Of course, in the case of Litta, the anamnesis concerns the previous attributions of the pictures and subsequent events that might have confirmed or revolutionized Passavant’s theses. The truth is that this book, for the richness of the work (and to the extent that it discusses the artistic work of a particular painter) sets (or, better, reiterates) standards which should be used whenever one needs presenting the public with a text in an historical context. Such a high standard is established also in terms of team work. While we are discussing a work of Litta, there is an amazing wealth of information exchanges with other art historians, working on similar issues; clearly, this was a particularly cohesive team. Until a few years ago, the Contributions by Passavant were preserved in Italy in a single copy. Today, you can read them on the Internet. I should like to repeat what Giovanni Previtali wrote in his introduction to the Lives of Bellori (at the time Previtali spoke of the difference between facsimile reprints and annotated editions) [7]: we need analytical comments, people who are willing to take risks and provide readers with interpretation of a writing (which might not always necessarily be the right one) and provide the elements to decode it. I firmly think that is exactly what Alfonso Litta delivered in his commentary of  Passavant's Contributions.

NOTES

[1] See in this blog the review to Paolo Vanoli's  Il 'libro di lettere' di Girolamo Borsieri: arte antica e moderna nella Lombardia di primo Seicento (The 'book of letters' by Giacomo Borsieri: ancient and modern art of the early seventeenth century in Lombardy), Milan, Ledizioni Ledi Publishing, 2015.

[2] Antonio Francesco Albuzzi, Memorie per servire alla storia de’ pittori, scultori e architetti milanesi (Memoirs to serve the history of painters, sculptors and architects from Milan) (edited by Stefano Bruzzese), Milan, Officina Libraria Publishers. Publication due in December 2015.

[3] For completeness, I am noting that ten years later (in 1846) Mary Philadelphia Merrifield consulted the manuscript Albuzzi, which was in the hands of Count Melzi, and cited it twice in her 'Original Treatises'. See in this blog: Giovanni Mazzaferro. Mary Philadelphia Merrifieldi n Italy. Part I: Piedmont and Lombardy, note 20.

[4] For the nineteenth century quotes, see pp. XIX and XX.

[5] At the time, it was not known that the manuscript known as Morellian Anonymous (since it was discovered by the abbot Morelli at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice) was the work of Marcantonio Michiel.

[6] Eastlake and his wife still did not know each other. Passavant often attended Eastlake’s house after their marriage. Lady Eastlake did not seem to have particular sympathy for him. See in this blog the review to Susanna Avery-Quash and Julie Sheldon, Art for the Nation.The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art World.

[7] See in this blog Giovanni Previtali, [For the critical study of the sources of art history] (1976).