Review by Giovanni Mazzaferro
Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSIONTranslation by Francesco Mazzaferro
Nicole Dacos
Viaggio a Roma
I pittori europei nel ‘500
[Journey to Rome. The European Painters in the Sixteenth Century]
Milan, Jaca Book. 2012
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| Maarten van Heemskerck, Self-Portrait with the Colosseum, 1553, Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Looking for accents
The Journey to Rome is defined since the
presentation of the book and has been reviewed on several occasions as Nicole
Dacos’s work of a life. There is no doubt about it. Showing a much higher degree
of knowledge and sensitivity on art than the norm, Ms Dacos wrote a book that
is crucial to identify the presence of foreign artists in Rome during the
sixteenth century, and opened new avenues for the study of matter.
We are
before the Grand Tour. And yet we are
in a century marked by the presence of foreign artists descending from the
Netherlands, Flanders, Germany, Spain and Portugal to make an Italian
experience, to study the ruins and the ancient world, but also the "modern
way" of Raphael, Michelangelo and their followers. In the second half of
the sixteenth century this phenomenon was witnessed only superficially by
various sources, which signalled the presence of foreign artists working in the
ateliers of Perin del Vaga, the Zuccari brothers, Vasari and many other Italian
artists. In order to make use of cheap labour forces for the rapid execution of
fresco cycles in the palaces of their powerful patrons, painters often limited
themselves to the design of drawings and entrusted to a third party (even
"foreign artists") the realization of the works. The intent of the
author is stated in the first lines of the prologue:
"In Rome, those who are visiting the great
cycles of frescoes of the sixteenth century often remain amazed by the variety
of hands that can be identified there. The master in charge of the work did not
attend their execution regularly, and sometimes limited himself to provide the
projects, while relying on assistants for execution. While some of them implemented
the projects faithfully, others did not, as if they could not do so because of
their training; in this case, they were often like foreigners who tried to «speak Italian» in their painting,
i.e. to move to another «language», but were betrayed by their «accents».
To identify their origin, it is necessary to
proceed as Italians still do today when they hear their fellow countrymen
speaking. They are accustomed to the many inflections of their language in
different regions of the country, and therefore – in order to identify the
place of origin – they capture the vernacular terms, scrutinize the
pronunciation and the rhythm of the sentence and examine the expression. They
do the same with foreigners, who are more easily identifiable because of the
vocabulary and syntax errors they incur. The same are doing art historians with
the painters of the Renaissance."
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| Pedro Machuca, Deposition, Madrid, Prado Museum Source: Wikimedia Commons |
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| 'Roviale spagnolo' (Pedro de Rubiales), The Battle of Zama, about 1580-1582, Roma. Musei Capitolini Source: Google Art Project |
Sources and attributions
This is a
huge endeavour, to which Ms Dacos has really devoted decades of his life,
starting with Raphael's Lodges. A work that is made up, in equal measure, of at
least two elements: on the one hand the knowledge of the sources. It is obvious
that, in this case, besides the usual quotes by Vasari, a special value
(especially for the Flemish painters) is assigned to the texts such as the Lives of van Mander or other less
well-known ones; but documentary confirmations are sought everywhere; in the
archives that bear witness to the construction sites and commission payments,
in those of the rich Roman noble families, and even on the walls of the Domus Aurea, where visitors were used
to engrave their names in future (and blessed) memory of their visit.
On the
other hand, we should not deny it: attributions take on a very considerable
weight. What counts is the ability to find connections, accents, inspirations,
fatherhood starting from the most diverse works: paintings, oil paintings,
cartoons, drawings, tapestries and what other. On this aspect, it should be
said though that the authoress reveals herself capable of arousing enthusiasm.
Her reading of painting fresco cycles such as those of the Capodiferro-Spada
palace, where she can distinguish different Spanish, Flemish and French accents
must be singled out as an example to anyone interested in the history of art.
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| Juan Fernandez de Navarrete called El Mudo, Baptism of Christ, Madrid, Prado Museum Source: Wikimedia Commons |
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| El Greco, Christ driving the Traders from the Temple, 1570, Minneapolis Institute of Art Source: Wikimedia Commons |
The Romanists
In fact,
this book could have been easily titled "The Romanists of the Sixteenth Century" and nothing would have been found outrageous. However, the choice
of talking about “Journey to Rome”, and in particular the "European
painters of the Sixteenth Century", expresses a problem of method which is
the fundamental thesis of the work, beyond the analysis of the individual
figures. The term "Romanist" was used in a negative sense as from the
nineteenth century. It did not happen by chance: the century that saw the birth
of art history as a scientific discipline was also the century in which national
states like Italy and Germany were formed and it was the era preluding to the
tragic triumph of nationalism. The "Romanists" were therefore the
traitors: those, for example, who moved from Flanders to Italy in the wake of
the effect caused by the arrival of Raphael's cartoons on the Acts of the Apostles, to be translated
into tapestries. They were, in short, the artists who betrayed the specific
character of the genuine art of the North and returned imbued with classical
and Renaissance culture, giving rise to a hybrid painting, neither fish nor fowl,
whose ultimate outcome has become an object of indifference if not contempt.
These are
prejudices that still struggle to be abandoned; and, symmetrically, they also
materialise in the attitude with which the Italians looked to these crowds of
(often fledgling) artists who left their homeland to make their training abroad.
It's Francisco de Hollanda himself to report the words of Michelangelo
Buonarroti on this:
"Take a great man from another country and
tell him to paint what he wants or what he does best; then take a mediocre
Italian student and ask him to make a sketch or paint what you like; and
imagine that both do so. If you are competent, you will see that, as for art,
there is more substance in the apprentice's sketch that in the one of the master
painter and that what the former intended to do is worth more than all that the
latter has done" (p. 11).
In sum:
those who (centuries later) have been considered "traitors" where instead
considered inadequate when arrived in Italy.
And here is
the fundamental thesis of the book: there were no betrayals or inadequacies.
There was an exchange and mutual cultural enrichment; it was a new Hellenism,
in short (to define the late phase of the sixteenth century, the term “international
mannerism” will be used, but also here with reductive intents). The task of the
art historian is therefore to stop thinking in purely national perspective and to
judge taking in mind the specifics, the mutual influences and enrichments.
This
approach applies with regard to the reality of the biographies, but also when one
looks at techniques. The exasperated specialization of the sector prevents
grasping the influence (often the real "translation") of a design or
a fresco on a tapestry or an etching. These are all items that must be considered
holistically when one tries to reconstruct the careers of these figures, who
are otherwise difficult to decipher.
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| Paul Brill, Fantastic Landscape, 1598, Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery Source: Wikimedia Commons |
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| Adam Elsheimer, Flight to Egypt, 1609, Munich, Alte Pinakothek Source: Wikimedia Commons |
The author made the choice of a linear method: she divided the text into five chapters,
trying to decode (on a purely indicative way) five waves of foreign artists who
came to Rome: the first arrivals corresponded to the presence of Raphael and
Michelangelo in the city, until the death of the first (1520); a second stream was
fed with the models from the ancient world and Raphael until such time as
Michelangelo unveiled the Last Judgment (1541); third, the twenty years of
Michelangelo's triumph to death in 1564; fourth, the recovery of the style of
Parmigianino thanks to the decisive role of Raffaellino del Colle, and finally the
return to "natural" at the end of the century. In any case, the
analysis is centred on the works and is always supported by an iconographic
apparatus of great quality (I would have liked it even more complete, but it is
clear that the costs would have been unsustainable). All documentary elements
related to literary sources, archives etc. are contained in the notes, so that they
do not affect the smoothness of the reading; the notes, however, are a real mine
of often unpublished information, which offer dozens of ideas for future new research
in the field.
A stage
Of course, Ms
Dacos knows that the journey to Rome was only a moment of the career of the European
artists of the sixteenth century. The stage in the city was often accompanied
with periods in other cities, such as Florence, Venice (consider the case of El Greco) or, in the Kingdom of Naples regarding many Spanish artists. There are
rare (but not extremely rare) cases in which the foreign artist got commissions
in his own name: it often happened from the representatives of their nation's
churches who were in Rome. The approach with the ancient and the modern led at
times to the total renewal of style (again it is appropriate to cite El Greco),
to permanent changes, which often lasted a lifetime (the case of Lambert Lombard,
witnessed by Lampsonius, is one of them) or just to the declination of their
art making in ways that turned out to be temporary and which were then
re-absorbed at the time of return. The patience with which Ms Dacos tracks each
case and the skill with which she outlines art fortunes, by intertwining the
most disparate works, is the element that enchants the reader, and makes this
book as a text that cannot be missing in the library of any lover of art of the
European sixteenth century.
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