Le Ricche Minere Della Pittura Veneziana. Compendiosa informazione Di Marco Boschini Non solo delle Pitture publiche di Venezia: ma dell'Isole ancora circonvicine. Al Serenissimo Prencipe E Regal Collegio Di Venezia.
The texts relating to each sestier of Venice have each their own pagination. Each is preceded by a plate, which is counted as pages 1-2 of the pagination (apart from the plate preceding the first section, on Sestier di S. Marco).
Contents
[Half-title, frontis., t.p., dedic.] - Al Genio Pittoresco - Breve Instruzione Per intender in qualche modo le maniere de gli Autori Veneziani - Tavola Universale Per Ordine D'Alfabeto - [Text, with pl.].
Responsibility Note
Frontispiece and plates are unsigned.
This second edition of the work is dedicated by Marco Boschini 'ancora' to the 'Serenissimo Prencipe' of Venice (from 1659 to 1674 this was Domenico Contarini).
References
P. Sohm, Pittoresco: Marco Boschini, his critics and their critiques of painterly brushwork in seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century Italy (1992).
Summary Note
The half-title reads, 'Le Ricche Minere Della Pittura Veneziana. Seconda Impressione Con Nove Aggiunte.' The work had first been published in 1664.
The text describes the paintings to be seen in each Sestier of Venice: S. Marco, Castello, S. Polo, Dorsoduro, Canareggio, Della Croce. Each of the six sections has its own index or 'Tavola'. Boschini was a strong defender of the colour and free brushwork associated with Venetian painting in contrast with the emphasis on composition and design which Vasari attributes to Florentine and Roman traditions. He had earlier published a passionate exposition of his views in his polemic poem in Venetian dialect, La Carta Del Navegar Pitoresco (1660).
The frontispiece shows a figure of a gagged female painter, seated upon a smiling lion, seated upon a cloud. Each of the six plates shows an image symbolising the Venetian sestier to which it relates: St. Mark with his lion, St. Peter with his keys, St. Paul preaching, [missing plate for Dorsoduro], St. Jeremiah reading, the Cross supported by angels.
Provenance
The half-title is inscribed in ink, 'Bequest of Sr. A.W. Callcott'.
Copy Note
The Royal Academy's copy has no plate for the section on the Sestier di Dorsoduro (although the text for this section begins with the page-number '3').
Binding Note
Contemporary white vellum; rebacked in 20th century, retaining earlier spine-piece faintly lettered in ink.
Subject
Paintings - Italy - Venice - History
Guidebooks - Art history - Italy - Venice - 17th century - 18th century