AFAT 32

The author publishes a painting by Augusto Tominz with Leonardo painting the Gioconda, exhibited in Triest in 1846. This important artwork, property of a family from Trieste, has been nowhere to be found until now. A similar drawing by the same artist is in Civici Musei di Storia ed Arte of Trieste. This drawing was appreciated as a preparatory work of the painting, but the discovery of this artwork has allowed us to confirm some differences beetwen the drawing and the painting. The author considers the possibility of the existence of two different paintings, and only one is known or, in an alternative perspective, the drawing in the Museum was another version of this lucky composition that the artist never painted. Furthermore, archive research better showed the period of his training in the Venetian Academy from 1841 to 1842.

An exhibition by Jannis Kounellis was organized in Trieste (September, 7th 2013 – February, 2nd 2014) in a building designed and constructed by the architect Giorgio Polli (Trieste, 1862-1942). The building was opened as a Fish-market in 1913, beside the sea and in front of the Neoclassical buildings of the town, but now it is used solely for exhibition purposes. An example of industrial archaeology, the interior has become in Kounellis’s installation an integral part of a sacred epic of the Sea. The artist shows that the value of the building can increase through its technological aspects, the specific relation between its interior and exterior, and also its quality of space and light, and become a sort of “eco-museum”, an expression of the history of Trieste and of that relationship with the sea that determines its cultural identity.

A Punishment of Midas decorates the staircase of the palace Vranyczany-Dobrinovic´ in Zagreb, the croatian National Gallery of Modern Art. The large painting is a new work of Bartolomeo Litterini, an 18th artist mainly known as a religious painter. The Triumph of Diana in venetian palazzo Zen ai Frari is now attributed to Gaetano Zompini and Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna: the ceiling is connected to decoration of the cupola in Tolentini’s church. Four new tempera paintings, with the History of Cleopatra, are presented: they were made by Domenico Fossati and Giovanni Scajario in 1776 for palace Gidoni-Bembo, Venice.

Using unpublished documents of the Venetian State Archive, the author tries to reconstruct the history of the former Tiepolo palace in the ward of San Felice as well as a precise chronology of the restoration works conducted by Jacopo Sansovino in 1560 for Alvise Tiepolo, Procurator of Saint Mark’s. It appears that the architect not only consolidated the foundations, but also divided the palace in two independent houses using a doubleramp interior staircase according to a typical 16th century and remade the windows of the lower piano nobile.

A profile of the Venetian patrician Alessandro Marcello as a painter and engraver is outlined here for the first time. Alessandro, brother of the more famous Benedetto, was also a musician and a poet (he joined the Academy of Arcadia), as well as a scientist and mathematician: an emblem of the typical Eighteenth-century amateur, open to the most varied experiences. Antonio Maria Zanetti drawed an amusing caricature of him. Alessandro was friend with Rosalba Carriera, who painted his portrait; he executed some frescoes in the church of the Magdalene and in his palace (here illustrated), a series of paintings with Putti engaging in playful scenes, documented by archival findings also published here. A medal with his portrait is indicative of the fame he had achieved in the early Eighteenth century: most interestingly, it presents, on the reverse, a tree with different flowers and fruits, a sign of its interests in various fields.

This paper presents a new painting by Pietro Vecchia (1602 c.-1678), probably dating to the sixth decade of the Seventeenth century and representative of his most classical style, formerly deposited in the Museum of Arad (Romania) with an attribution to Carlo Caliari. The work displays an interesting iconography, Saturn who kidnaps Cupid from Venus: a depiction of the purest Baroque spirit, aimed to represent that Time takes away Love. We do not know the original location of the canvas, or who commissioned it, but it is of great interest that we can recognize it – albeit with some variations – within a painting by Oreste Da Molin recently rediscovered, dated 1880, depicting an antique shop. Among the paintings on display in this shop there is also a David and Goliath, which can be recognized with another work – by an anonymous author – presented here with a discussion of its possible paternity.

The author studies the little known frescoes of XIV century in Bertoli house in Aquileia. They are two religious subjects: the first (Virgin in throne with Child) is influenced by Giotto. Also the second (Imago pietatis) is present on the first floor, in a room that shows painted curtains all round the walls. In the upper part, we can find some emblems, which are not well kept nor easy to be interpreted. The front has another decoration with lozenges. We draw attention to decoration with hangings textiles, offering stylistic and iconographic comparisons with some frescoes of the Gothic period present in North East Italy, that dates about the middle of the XIV century.

The article enriches the cataloque of the works of Matteo Ponzone (Venezia, 1583-after 1663) in Dalmatia. In the parish church in Nerežišc´a on the island Bracˇ is preserved Ponzone’s altarpiece depicting Our Lady of Carmel with St John the Baptist and St Peter painted in the fourth decade of the 17th century when the artist lived in Split. From that period dated two altarpieces newly discovered in the church of St Nicola (Virgin with Child and St Nicola) and in Monastery of St Claire (Immaculata with St Andrea and John the Evangelist) in Split, and St Michele with St John the Baptist and st Benedict from the benedictine church of St Michele in nearby Trogir. Acording to the inscription on the tomb in front of altar it is possible to suppose that pala portante St Joseph, St Dominic and donor in the church of St Lazar in Trogir was ordered around 1653 by naval captain Jerolim Dragozetovic´.

The text examines the relationship of Carlo Cardazzo (collector, refined publisher and director of the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice and of the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan) with cultural and artistic environment of Trieste. In particular it takes into account the professional relationship between Cardazzo and the Galleria dello Scorpione (directed by Frida de Tuoni), the Sezione Arti Figurative del Circolo di Cultura e delle Arti (directed by Marcello Mascherini) and the Galleria Casanuova (directed by Piero Florit).

The article presents an unpublished painting by Giambattista Lampi senior (Romeno 1751 - Vienna 1830) preserved in an American private collection. It is the portrait of Josefa Würt née Lang as Juno, painted in Vienna in 1807. The portrait was exhibited at the Museum für Kunst und Industrie in Vienna in 1906 and since then it had been untraceable.

Giuseppe Salviati, the painter Tuscan by birth but active in Venice between 1540 and 1575, is known for his remarkable achievements in the mathematics and astrology, and for his close connection with notable men of letters, humanists and literati. This article outlines his relationship with Francesco Zannio, a little-known but highly prolific poet and the author of an ecfrasis of Salviati’s paintings in Palazzo Ducale published in 1567. His corpus of poems is now increased by a newly rediscovered latin eulogy dedicated to Salviati, which praises his virtuosity and commends his mastery as a painter.

Papiers peints (wallpapers) produced in the wake of the French Revolution and the formation of the Napoleonic Empire include representations of contemporary events. For the first time, historic events known to the general public are pasted over interior walls and those who buy them reveal, at least implicitly, their cultural and political leanings. The article focuses on four papiers peints from the 19th-century Parisian firm Dufour & Leroy. They are found in the villa Gradenigo at Carbonera (near Treviso) and depict crucial episodes in the history of the Armée d’Italie: the Passage of the Alps, the Entrance into Milan and two scenes from the Entrance into Rome. It is a unique and hitherto unparalleled find within a private interior, not only in Italy. It speaks to the taste of a particular patron, connected to the Gradenigo family. They are not the ancient patrician family from Rio Marin, but another Venetian family with the same name, who were awarded a title of nobility in the 19th century.

A recently discovered portrait by Umberto Veruda, depicting the colleague Rafael Senet y Perez, open to an unknown chapter about Seville painters in Venice at the end of XIX Century and their influence. Veruda, one of the most important painter in the Trieste area at the time, is always linked to Munich or Paris, but his talent tooks from different visual and mental sources, especially Velázquez. A certain number of painters from Seville (birthplace of Velázquez) stayed in Venice hosted at Senet’ home in Campo San Vio when Veruda also was there.

The survey started from three nowadays still missing portraits of the entourage of the Emperor Carl 6. painted by Rosalba Carriera in 1728 in Gorizia, depicting: Karl Maximilian 5. Fürst von Dietrichstein; Adam Franz 3. Fürst zu Schwarzenberg; Johann Leopold Graf Paar. Therefore the article faces the remarkable patronage in pastel painting of Count Livio Lantieri, who commissioned several portraits of his family to Rosalba Carriera and an impressive set of Saints to Francesco Pavona. The research had been mainly carried out at Lantieri Levetzow Historic Archieve, by recovering two furniture’s inventories, dating at the first half of the XVIII Century, an unexpected art collection witness.

Ascended the papal throne in 1758, Clemente XIII Rezzonico sent many munificent presents to the Serenissima. This paper presents details and news about the Ciborium, donated to the church of San Felice in Venice, here attributed to the roman goldsmith Michelangelo Tucci, and about the Monstrance, sent to Padua’s Cathedral. This piece, that no longer exists, can be known thanks to an unpublished engraving.