In 'The Renaissance Print', David Landau and Peter Parshall emphasized the necessity of a direct approach to the object and its materiality, attention to printmaking techniques, and the print’s relationship with other arts. Keeping these... more
In 'The Renaissance Print', David Landau and Peter Parshall emphasized the necessity of a direct approach to the object and its materiality, attention to printmaking techniques, and the print’s relationship with other arts. Keeping these aspects in mind, I will focus on early printmaking in Lombardy, a region often overlooked in the history of Renaissance printmaking. In Milan in 1481, the goldsmith Bernardo Prevedari produced a large architectural engraving that became a “record breaker” in many ways. Building upon the documentary evidence relating to its making, I will address the role goldsmiths played in prints’ production in this period, and focus especially on the issue of nielli. Furthermore, the London impression of the engraving is pricked, providing important evidence of its use as a model sheet. The study of Prevedari’s print will therefore act as a case study, from which a vivid portrayal of early printmaking in Lombardy will emerge.
2 schede su l’Incisione Prevedari e le Antiquarie Prospetiche romane, in "Bramantino. L’arte nuova del Rinascimento lombardo", catalogo della mostra (Lugano, Museo Cantonale, 28 settembre 2014 – 11 gennaio 2015), a cura di M. NATALE, con... more
2 schede su l’Incisione Prevedari e le Antiquarie Prospetiche romane, in "Bramantino. L’arte nuova del Rinascimento lombardo", catalogo della mostra (Lugano, Museo Cantonale, 28 settembre 2014 – 11 gennaio 2015), a cura di M. NATALE, con la collaborazione di E. ROSSETTI, Milano 2014, pp. 82-85 n. 1, 168-171 n. 21
The research originates from a deep interest for Lombard Renaissance engraving, which occupies a position of clear – also historical – inferiority to the results obtained in other cities such as Florence, Venice and Bologna. Nonetheless,... more
The research originates from a deep interest for Lombard Renaissance engraving, which occupies a position of clear – also historical – inferiority to the results obtained in other cities such as Florence, Venice and Bologna. Nonetheless, it was this particular context that produced a masterpiece such as the Prevedari Print (1481), our considerations on which link its technical and iconographic singularity to its remarkable fortune as a figural source in Italy and in Europe. On the basis of Vasari's theory, and with the intention of clarifying the cultural and artistic milieu within which the author of the Prevedari, as well as the other engravers, worked, we engaged a territory never previously attempted: the production of niello-plates in Lombardy. We studied and classified pieces of goldsmiths’ work still in their original location, and then the severed niello-plates preserved in museums. We also attempted a reconstruction of the cultural milieu where such an interest developed, addressing both specific literature and collections. The most important finding were the niello-plates from the Trivulzio collection which constitutes one of the foremost group of such works in the world.
