Winckelmann in Milan. Edited by Aldo Coletto and Pierluigi Panza

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Publications in honor of Johan Joachim Winckelmann

Winckelmann in Milan
Edited by Aldo Coletto and Pierluigi Panza

2017, Milan, Scalpendi Publishers, 176 pages

Review by Francesco Mazzaferro

Fig. 1) The catalogue of the Milan exhibition. On the cover page, Winckelmann’s portrait by Anton von Maron, 1768

After those of Florence and Chiasso-Napoli, in chronological order the third exhibition held in Italy to celebrate the 300th and 250th anniversaries of birth (2017) and death (2018) of Johann Joachim Winckelmann was Winckelmann a Milano (Winckelmann in Milan). It was hosted in the Maria Theresa Hall of the Braidense Library, from 2 October to 11 November 2017. The exhibition was entirely dedicated to the first Italian edition of the History of Art in Antiquity (Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums), originally published by Winckelmann in Dresden in 1764. The first Italian translation (in two volumes) was published precisely in Milan in 1779, with the title Storia Delle Arti Del Disegno Presso Gli Antichi (History of the Arts of Drawing by the Ancients), with a translation of the abbot Carlo Amoretti (1741-1816).

 

Fig. 2) The vernissage of the Milan Exhibition

The publisher of the two volumes was the Imperial Monistero di S. Ambrogio Maggiore  (Imperial Monastery of S. Ambrogio Maggiore), and already the Imperial adjective helps us to remind that we were in the Lombardy of the Hapsburg. The History was published in Milan on the initiative of the government of Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780), three years after the opening of the Brera Academy and just one after the inauguration of the Scala (New Royal Ducal Theatre at the Scala), both designed by the neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini (1734-1808). The main writing of the hero of the study of antique art was translated into Italian - on an Austrian initiative - in a city in full swing of culture, where neoclassicism had become a common language capable of marrying the Hapsburg world and the local sensibilities. It should be remembered here, only in passing, that the Habsburg government, in the same context, was a promoter in those years (starting from 1771), of a (not completed) project aimed at the publication of a history of Milan art through the biographies of local artifices (see the review to Antonio Francesco Albuzzi, Memorie per servire alla storia de' pittori, scultori e architetti milanesi (Memoirs for the History of Milan Painters, Sculptors and Archictects) curated by Stefano Bruzzese). For the Hapsburg court - moreover - the text of the German scholar had already assumed an iconic value, so much so that the authorities ordered the publication of the second German edition in Vienna in 1776. "The [Milan 1779] translation contributed to ... the Italian myth of the Hapsburg sovereign, considered by many Lombard intellectuals as the main supporter of the close collaboration between power and culture” [1].

Fig. 3) A Milanese scudo from 1779 with the image of Maria Teresa

"The importance of the Milanese edition of 1779 laid in the degree of completeness, never achieved by previous ones. It was an element reiterated by a handwritten note by [Carlo] Amoretti, [translator and editor of the edition], in which he emphasized that the print took place on initiative of the Government, and that the additions «could make the Italian edition superior to the German one». The intention, especially through the images, was also to expand the audience of the readers. The success of the edition was witnessed by the two gold medals that Maria Theresa transmitted to the editorial managers through Count Firmian” [2]. 

Fig. 4) Domenico Aspari (1746-1831), View of the Teatro alla Scala, 1790

The exhibition documents how, on the publication in 1779 of the History (which in reality was much more than a translation) an extraordinary consensus was gathered, which saw the local Austrian authorities, first of all Karl Joseph von Firmian (1716-1782), cooperate with the cream of the nobility and the upper class bourgeoisie. The catalogue takes us through the list of the 66 Milanese supporters of the work (or the underwriters who guaranteed their purchase before it was brought out) by highlighting that the whole of the enlightened Milan supported the project, with an enthusiasm that today would unfortunately look like an old-fashioned solidarity of spirit within a cohesive community. "The only partial list of surnames suggests the importance that the city gave to the publishing enterprise of the years 1778-1779, years in which the Milan of Enlightenment changed its face. Leaving out the families of Bergamo, Brescia, Como and Pavia, who also ordered the work, the Milanese subscribers had surnames like d'Adda, Beccaria, Bianconi, Biumi, Bossi, Carcano, Carli, Carpani, Dugnani, Franchi, Frisi, Litta Visconti, Secchi Comneno, Stampa, Trivulzio, Verri, Visconti, Wilczek ... To these must be added the subscriptions of the secular clergy and religious congregations. Basically, it was a mobilization of the entire elite. Some of these underwriters also taught at Brera (or at the Palatine or Ambrosiana Schools); of others we can still see the busts in the courtyard of Brera” [3]. Once published, the History - as we shall see - gathered much consent, but also severe criticism, both in Italy and in the German-speaking world.

Fig. 5) The first tome of the History of the arts of drawing by the ancients of 1779

Let us consider below the most interesting essays contained in the catalogue.

Pierluigi Panza

Milanese figures for the three hundred years of Winckelmann

Pierluigi Panza (1963-), professor of aesthetics at the Polytechnic of Milan, long-time collaborator of Corriere della Sera and author of numerous essays on Piranesi, on the history of architecture and on contemporary art, introduced in this essay the figures of the Milanese characters (not necessarily Milanese by birth, but nevertheless resident or gravitating around the city) who came into contact with Winckelmann. Some of these (Cardinal Alberigo Archinto, Carlo Bianconi, Count von Firmian) met him while he was alive; others, like Carlo Amoretti and Gaetano Cattaneo, had however to do with the translation of his History.

Fig. 6) Anton Raphael Mengs (1728 –1779), Portrait of Cardinal Alberto Archinto, 1756

Fig. 7) Giuseppe Franchi (1731-1806), Bas-relief with portrait of Count Carlo von Firmian, Detail of the funeral monument to Carlo von Firmian, Milan, Church of San Bartolomeo, 1783

Cardinal Alberto Archinto (1698-1758) met Winckelmann in Dresden, where he had moved from Milan (previously he had been Abbot of Santa Maria in Brera). Archinto encouraged Johann Joachim’s conversion to Catholicism (in the immediately preceding years, the house of Saxony had embraced Catholicism to legitimize their merger with that of Poland) and pushed him to make the trip to Rome. Carlo Bianconi (1732-1802), painter and, above all, perpetual secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, was the brother of that Giovanni Ludovico, a Bolognese doctor, who greatly supported the diffusion of Italian culture at the Court of August III in Dresden, and was a friend, correspondent and supporter of Winckelmann even when they both lived in Rome. Karl Joseph von Firmian (in Italian ‘di Firmian’), besides being himself a connoisseur and collector of antiquities (he had a collection that Panza calls "exterminated" [4], and whose auction catalogue was prepared by Carlo Bianconi himself) was ambassador of Austria to Naples, where he met Winckelmann; later on, he became plenipotentiary for the Lombardy of the royal house of Habsburg in Milan. It was Winckelmann who recommended Martin Knoller (1725-1804) to von Firmian, as a court painter first and then as a professor of drawing. Alike other friendships of the German scholar, also Winckelmann's personal relationship with von Firmian deteriorated over the years: the trigger, specifically, seems to have been Johann Joachim’s dedication of his Letter on discoveries of Herculaneum (1762) to von Brühl and not to Firmian. Nevertheless, when the translation project of Winckelmann's History was launched, von Firmian provided the curators of the Milanese edition with many materials from his collection, in order to offer new images to obtain new engravings for the two volumes of the first Italian version.

Fig. 8) Philipp Frey (1729 -1793), Portrait of Karl Joseph von Firmian, 1781, after a painting by Martin Knoller

Fig. 9) Martin Knoller (1725 –1804), Self-portrait, 1803

The abbot Carlo Amoretti (as already mentioned) translated the text of Winckelmann and edited its publication, entitling it "History of the Art of Design by the Ancients". Count Gaetano Cattaneo (1771-1841), cousin of Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869), was a great connoisseur of ancient coins and gems, who also much wrote about Winckelmann; of him we also know that he owned rare editions of several of his works.

Fig. 10) Girolamo Geniani (date of birth and death unknown), Portrait of Carlo Amoretti, 1816

Stefano Ferrari
The first translation of the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums: editorial affairs and critical reception

We have already met Stefano Ferrari (1958-) as curator of the catalogue of the Winckelmann exhibition held in Chiasso and Naples. Moreover, Ferrari authored numerous monographs and articles on the translations and on the cultural transfers of Winckelmann's writings [5] and was entrusted with the chapter dedicated to Winckelmann's writing style, in the recent manual on the German scholar, published in Stuttgart on the occasion of the anniversary [6].

Fig. 11) Johann David Schleuen the elder (1711 - 1771), Portrait of Joseph von Sonnenfels, 1770

The Viennese edition - Ferrari writes - was due to two illuminists: Joseph von Sonnenfels (1732-1817) and Friedrich Justus Riedel (1742-1785). Of the first, famous above all for a text on the abolition of torture, it should be noted the immediate cultural proximity with Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) (celebrated throughout the world for his "Dei delitti e delle pene", i.e. On Crimes and Punishments, of 1764) and with Pietro Verri (1728-1797) (also a subscriber of the Italian version of the History and author of the Observations on Torture of 1777). The latter was a professor of aesthetics.

Fig. 12) Georg Christoph Schmidt (1740-1811), Portrait of Friedrich Justus Riedel, 1773

Men of broad culture, von Sonnenfels and Riedel proved to be very bad editors of the Viennese edition of Winckelmann’s History, which was unanimously considered a critical failure. Shortly after the publication of the work - not surprisingly - an anonymous note began to circulate (Flüchtige Erinnerungen gegen die neue wienerische Auflage von Winkelmanns [sic] Geschichte der Kunst im J. 1776 - or Fleeting memoirs against the new Viennese edition of Winckelmann's History of  art) which listed all the mistakes of the Viennese edition. Not wanting to publicly admit the blow, but having to repair the failure, the imperial court then decided to resort to a translation printed by an imperial typography, however not in German but in another language, i.e. talian, that then was still well-known and therefore could serve the scholars of the empire in order to gain a correct view of the work: "The Lombard capital was chosen because it was the most important intellectual and typographic centre of the Austrian possessions in Italy. The new version had also to be printed within the borders of the Habsburg monarchy, so that the imperial crown could display it as a proof of its cultural policy” [7].

Fig. 13) Joseph von Sonnenfels, On the Eviction of Torture, Zurich, 1775

Fig. 14) Cesare Beccaria, On the crimes and the penalties, second reviewed edition published in Livorno (but with indication London) of 1774

Ferrari continues: "The translation was entrusted ... [to the abbot Carlo] Amoretti, who was in possession of not only excellent knowledge in the field of antiques and ancient art (...) but also of outstanding linguistic capabilities. The abbot of Ligurian origin had already become a valued translator from German for some years. (...) In 1776 he had printed in Milan, at the typographer Giuseppe Galeazzi, the translation of the brochure by Joseph von Sonnefels, On the abolishment of torture, taken from the original German brought out in Zurich the year before. The version had the full approval of the Austrian author himself, who not only appreciated the respect of the original text, avoiding to improve it «with French freedom», but also recognized to the Italian translator such mastery of the German language «that one day he will be able to make known to his compatriots our best writers»” [8]. In other words, in those years there was an impressive crossover of interests between art history and human rights which today would even be difficult to imagine: von Sonnefels in Vienna was Winckelmann's curator and an activist against torture, Amoretti translated in Milan into Italian both Winckelmann and von Sonnefels' essay against torture. Critically writing about art history was seen as an exercise in cultural independence that had its parallel in the rebellion against the arbitrary use of power. This does not mean, of course, a full identity of views in artistic matters: for instance, Pietro Verri - one of the greatest supporters of human rights in the face of justice in those years – subscribed to Winckelmann's History, but also harshly disputed his historiographical methods.

Fig. 15) Giuseppe Franchi (1731-1806), The neoclassical tympanum of the facade of the Theatre alla Scala in Milan, 1776

The Vienna authorities did not want to risk another fiasco and, for this reason, they provided Amoretti both with the already mentioned anonymous memory listing the errors of the Viennese edition and a handwritten (still unpublished) translation in French. In these circumstances of exceptional public support, Amoretti decided that the Italian edition of the History should be much more than just a translation. The main objective was to make Winckelmann's text clear, subjecting it to a consistency assessment and correcting it where necessary. "To give the new translation a solid critical and iconographic framework” [9] Amoretti made use of two assistants (two other abbots), Angelo Fumagalli (1728-1804) and Carlo Giovanni Venini (date of birth and death unknown). "The work of Amoretti and his helpers was not only limited... to prepare a large and renewed device of notes explaining to readers the errors in which Winckelmann had incurred, perhaps because of a bad philological interpretation by the Viennese curators. They also illustrated how one must approach correctly some of the most important theoretical junctions present in the Prussian art historian's masterpiece. It was with this in mind that, in the new Milan edition, the critical work of Christian Gottlob Heyne [1729 -1812] was called to provide explanations on the most controversial passages of the Geschichte der Kunst. The authors did not only summarised some judgments contained in the Sammlung antiquarischer Aufsätze [note of the editor: Collection of essays on antiquity, Heyne's most authoritative text], but they also included, above all, the entire Lobschrift auf Winckelmann [Writing in Winckelmann's praise] (Lipsia 1778) as premise to the text of the History. In this way, through Amoretti’s version, the Italian public was able to know much earlier, compared to other European countries, the writings of one of the most esteemed contemporary scholars of philology and antiquities in Germany” [10].

Fig. 16) Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), Portrait of Christian Gottlob Heyne, 1772

The Milan edition was a success. Angelo Fabroni, in his Giornale de' Letterati of Pisa, wrote: "It would not be wrong, if somebody judged, that with this book Winckelmann has done in favour of arts what Montesquieu did for the study of the laws, and Descartes for that of philosophy” [11]. However, dissonant voices were also not lacking; among these we must remember Pietro Verri and the Spanish diplomat and collector José Nicolás de Azara (1730-1804). For Nicolás de Azara, Winckelmann had largely copied and crippled Mengs; as for Pietro Verri "in two letters dated 22nd and 26th January 1780 to his brother Alessandro, he showed all his hostility towards the objectives of the good discipline created by the German scholar. For him not only the artistic judgment should depend exclusively on the "sensitivity of everybody", but it must above all be free from any philological or antiquarian concern. He did not understand at all the urging of Heyne to establish the authenticity of an ancient monument, the age to which it belonged and whether it had been «reinstated or restored.»” [12].

Fig. 17) Anonymous, Portrait of Pietro Verri, undated

As for the German world, one must remember the reaction of Christian Felix Weiße in 1781. The comment was absolutely negative (he denounced the delay of the Italian culture in the discovery of Winckelmann's merits, the small number of subscribers of the work, the bad choice of references in the German philological doctrine, the Italian translation, elegant but not faithful). Completely opposite was Heyne's review, also from 1781, according to which the work (in which he was abundantly present, as just seen) was entirely worthy of Winckelmann and had great practical advantages, especially as regards illustrations and notes, including the reporting of new findings of ancient artefacts.

Silvia Morgana 
Carlo Amoretti, a Milanese by adoption

Carlo Amoretti, moved to Milan in 1772 from Parma, where he had taught canon law, when Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma and daughter of Maria Theresa, decided to hastily conclude the enlightened government phase under Prime Minister Guillaume du Tillot (1711-1774) and dismissed all reformist professors. In Milan, the government of Maria Theresa was very far from her daughter's excesses and pursued instead a reformist policy. Once arrived in Milan the polyglot Amoretti decided to study German, soon becoming a required translator. He also got down to journalism of high scientific divulgation and in 1780 obtained "the office of perpetual secretary of the Patriotic Society (established in 1776 by Maria Theresa to promote agriculture, the good arts and manufacturing)” [13]. Thanks to his knowledge of languages, he became the counterpart of agronomists of all Europe and published many essays on agriculture. They were flanked by studies on the history of art (think of those dedicated to Leonardo).

Fig. 18) Carlo Amoretti: on the left hand-side, table from Cultivation of bees in the Kingdom of Italy, Milan, 1811; on the right hand-side, Historical memoirs on life, the studies and the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Milan, 1804

During the Napoleonic period, Amoretti lost his job (the Patriotic Society was closed) and dedicated himself in private to the drafting of various studies of dissemination. He then made a series of trips throughout Italy, which he continued until the end of his days and documented in a series of memoirs. In the last part of his life, he first managed to return to the favours of the French authorities and then to got an assignment as an official of the mines after the Austrian restoration. He died at the age of seventy-five in Milan, after having just returned from one of his travels to learn and test new agricultural techniques in Lombardy.

Pierluigi Panza 
Subscribers and collectors: Milan and the History of the Arts of Design by the Ancients

The very rich article by Pierluigi Panza explains how, despite being published by an imperial printing press, and therefore by a public institution, the History was financed through a credit system by the future buyers of the work, as they anticipated the funds to the publisher thanks to a prior subscription. In return, subscribers were entitled to a 25% discount on the work. There were 114 underwriters, 66 of whom coming from Milan.

Fig. 19) The New Guide of Milan, by Carlo Bianconi (1787)

This was a very common procedure in those times. In the case of the History, the underwriters were both individuals (in this case, they bought a copy for themselves) or firms (like booksellers, which could also buy more than ten copies and then resell them). Panza classified the underwriters in four groups: 

(i) Personalities related to Brera and the Patriotic Society;
(ii) Personalities related to the Ambrosian Library;
(iii) Exponents of large families;
(iv) The booksellers.

The essay by Panza, although very interesting for anyone who wants to understand the social substratum supporting the Milanese neoclassicism under the Habsburg government, goes beyond the scope of this blog. However, it testifies how the creme of the Milanese society mobilized to support the project of translation; it also offers a precise and detailed image of the network of relationships between most of the 66 subscribers. Among them, Panza dedicates attention especially to the aforementioned Carlo Bianconi, to the artists Domenico Aspari (engraver) and Giuseppe Franchi (sculptor), some of whose works are shown in this post, and to the rich collector Carlo Trivulzio (1715-1789), to whom belonged some artefacts whose reproduction was engraved in the History. They included the famous Diàtreta Trivulzio, a Roman glass cup - circled by a network of glass rings - with a green glass writing, today kept at the Archaeological Museum of Milan.

Fig. 20) The Diàtreta Trivulzio, 4th century AD. Original at the Archaeological Museum of Milan and engraving in the History of the Arts of Drawing by the Ancients of 1779

Elena Agazzi 
Luigi Bossi in dialogue with Winckelmann. Antique and natural science studies at the sunset of the eighteenth-century

Elena Agazzi dedicated a short essay to Luigi Bossi (1758-1835), a character that the author herself defined as mysterious for his contacts with the political world of the time, but of whom she considered in particular the activity of scholar and lover of antiquity classic. The main theme was the work "Explanation Of A Collection Of Gems: Engraved By The Ancients With Observations Relating to Religion, Costumes, And The History Of Art Of Ancient Peoples" of 1795. As already seen in connection with the catalogue of the exhibition dedicated to Winckelmann in Florence, that of the gems was a topic already studied by eminent scholars, since the years of Baron Philipp von Stosch (1691-1757). Bossi entered this field demonstrating "an ever-increasing focus on a constellation of symbols and allegories typical of the romantic taste, dealing particularly with chimerical and fantastic subjects” [14]. This was the passion of the Milanese scholar, who in 1791 published a study "On the basilisks, dragons and other animals believed to be fabulous".

Fig. 21) Luigi Bossi: on the left hand-side, the Explanation Of A Collection Of Gems: Engraved By The Ancients With Observations Relating Religion, Costumes, And The History Of The Art Of Ancient Folklings (1795) and, on the right hand-side, On the basilisks, dragons and other animals believed to be fabulous (1791)

But it would be wrong to believe that Bossi was simply a credulous victim of superstitions. He simply had different historiographic criteria from those of Winckelmann. If the German scholar derived the degree of progress of a civilization from the way it approached the description of beauty in the representation of bodies, for the Milanese scholar, instead, what mattered was the technical-scientific knowledge of a civilization, and, in particular, its knowledge of natural sciences. So if for Winckelmann the Persian civilization was primitive (because the folds of the clothes in the bas-reliefs were always represented in strictly perpendicular form), for Bossi it was to the contrary a highly civilized world (think of his appreciation for the notions of astronomy underpinning the Persian magic practices [15]). It was in this perspective that we can understand his bitter defence of the most ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptian one, and of pre-Roman Italic cultures. Bossi was not at all intimidated by the fame of Johann Joachim, and, indeed, did not hesitate to publish in his book a series of "warnings against Signor Winckelmann” [16], some of which were factually correct. 

Francesca Tasso 
Cattaneo vs Winckelmann, about the great cameo of Vienna

Fig. 22) Pelagio Pelagi (1775-1860), Portrait of Gaetano Cattaneo, after 1810

It has already been said that the relevant Cattaneo to understanding the fortune of the Italian edition of Winckelmann’s History was not the famous political philosopher Carlo, but his cousin Gaetano (born in 1771 and therefore thirty years older than him). A draftsman, artist and art historian, Gaetano earned a living as conservator in the numismatic cabinet in Brera, where he was first employed as a drawer and then went on to become the first director of the Milan Mint. In Milanese culture, he distinguished himself as a very close friend of Carlo Porta (1775-1821), Giuseppe Bossi (1777-1815) and above all Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873).

Fig. 23) Augustean cameo, about 12 AD about (on the occasion of Tiberius' triumph), Vienna

Cattaneo wrote in 1812 a Dialogue on the grand Cameo of the Imperial Museum of Vienna with a table of medals- The text remained manuscript. The two actors of the fictitious dialogue were a philosopher (scholar of Gianbattista Vico and Immanuel Kant) and a scholar of gems. Cattaneo made them discuss about the famous Augustan cameo in Vienna, taking the opportunity to affirm that the methods of study of the glyptic, refined by Winckelmann, should also apply to numismatics. However, he also violently challenged  the methodologies of Winckelmann, Mariette and D'Agincourt in the name however of fairly short-sighted stylistic considerations. All in all - writes the author - his was a proof of provincialism.

Finally, the catalogue contains two essays on the life and work of Winckelmann outside Milan:

Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, 
The first Winckelmann from Dresden to Florence: the birth of a structuralist iconologist

Paolo Mascilli Migliorini, 
Becoming Winckelmann, from Nöthnitz to Italy: the rise of a librarian

NOTES

[1] Winckelmann in Milan. Edited by Aldo Coletto and Pierluigi Panza, 2017, Milan, Scalpendi Publishers, 176 pages. Quotation at page 26.

[2] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 15

[3] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 15

[4] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 16

[5] Stefano Ferrari also published, among others: "The refugee and the antiquarian. Fortunato Bartolomeo De Felice and the Italian-Swiss transfer of Winckelmann in the second eighteenth century ", Rovereto, Osiride Publishers, 2008, 116 pages, and "The pleasure of translating. François-Vincent Toussaint and the unfinished version of Winckelmann's Histoire de l'art chez les Anciens ", Rovereto, Osiride Publishers, 2011, 276 pages.

[6] Winckelmann-Handbuch. Leben - Werk – Wirkung. Edited by Martin Disselkamp and Fausto Testa, Stuttgart, J.B. Metzler, 2017

[7] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 23

[8] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 24

[9] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 25

[10] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 24

[11] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 27

[12] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), pp. 26-27

[13] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 38

[14] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 63

[15] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), pp. 66-67

[16] Winckelmann in Milan… (quoted), p. 72