Bartolomeo Pinelli

Italian, 1781 - 1835

BiographyBorn Rome, 20 Nov 1781; Died Rome, 1 April 1835.

Italian printmaker, painter, sculptor and draughtsman. He learnt the rudiments of sculpture from his father, a maker of cheap religious statuettes. This early training encouraged Pinelli to emphasize plasticity and expression over the Neo-classical values prevalent in Rome. Only a few of his terracotta figures survive (e.g. Man Playing Morra, Rome, Pal. Venezia); however, he did produce a volume of etchings, Gruppi pittoreschi (Rome, 1834), depicting rustic groups. Its emphasis on naturalism and everyday subject-matter is also characteristic of his sculptures. Although he studied both at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna, helped financially by Conte Lambertini, Pope Benedict XIV’s nephew, Pinelli was not interested in pursuing the traditional path to artistic success via religious or history painting. On returning to Rome in the late 1790s he chose to peddle his works at the cafés frequented by tourists.

Pinelli associated with the vedutisti who were painting Roman views, largely for the foreign market, among them Franz Kaisermann, for whose landscapes Pinelli painted staffage. His own finely observed landscapes are best represented in I sette colli di Roma e vedute di Roma (Rome, 1827). The only noticeable influence on Pinelli was Felice Giani, whom he assisted on the frescoes for the Palazzo di Spagna in Rome between 1806 and 1807. Giani’s decorative style, enlivened by a dramatic expressivity reminiscent of Henry Fuseli, appealed to Pinelli, who was developing his own distinctive style of etching. His first volume of etchings, La raccolta di cinquanta costumi pittoreschi (Rome, 1809), captured contemporary Roman life, from street performers to street brawls, in 52 plates. The figures, modelled with strong, bold strokes, tend towards an idealized Roman type; although not elegant, they have dignity.

Pinelli’s L’istoria romana (Rome, 1816), a volume of 100 plates based on subjects drawn from Charles Rollin’s Histoire romaine (Paris, 1738), was intended as a popular history: however, his works of this kind lack the immediacy and inventiveness of the etchings in Cinquanta costumi or of his many drawings. Although Pinelli illustrated several literary classics, the only one that really appealed to his flamboyant personality was Don Quixote (Rome, 1834), for which he did 65 vigorous and freely etched plates; in a memorable tailpiece he portrays himself seated with Sancho Panza at the tomb of Cervantes’s hero. Fascinated by brigands, he devoted two albums to them (Briganti, Rome, 1818–19; Fatti li più interessanti del capo brigante, Massaroni, Rome, 1823). He was also intrigued by the popular hero of Giuseppe Berneri’s poem in Roman dialect, Il Meo Patacca. His 52 etchings (Rome, 1823) for this burlesque tale are his most inventive and humorous.

Pinelli’s work was extremely popular, chiefly as a result of his outstandingly innovative depictions of the people and landscape of his own city, Rome. He freely adapted the language of Neo-classicism, creating his own style to depict an ennobled image of the lives of ordinary Romans. He had no obvious followers or imitators.

"Pinelli, Bartolomeo." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T067713 (accessed April 11, 2012).

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