Il magistero purista di Tommaso Minardi, 1800-1850. Il contributo dell’artista e della sua scuola al dibattito teorico sul primitivismo romantico, nella riforma della didattica accademica, per la diffusione in Europa dei fenomeni di Revival
Author(s)
Ricci, Saverio
Date Issued
March 3, 2009
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
After over 20 years from the first critical revision of the work made by the painter Tommaso
Minardi (Faenza, 1787 – Rome, 1871) , undertaken by Stefano Susinno, this research offers a
close examination on this artist, unanimously acclaimed as one of the most eminent artistic
members of the Italian Purist Movement. The investigation aims at bringing the Roman
Purism to light, starting from its top representative: an objective that still lacking in the
current studies, as indicated in the Introduzione. The project is the result of fundamental
notion on the lack of a wider research on the subject, especially referring not to the
chronological arch but to the movement’s artistic geography, i.e. the ray of influence and the
European relevance of Minardi’s purist teachings. The didactic activity carried out by the
artist at the Academy of San Luca in Rome and in his much visited private studio, as well as
the parallel theoretical teaching, in fact etched his fame in a very determinant manner in
various European countries that welcomed the same theories of revival brought forward by
Minardi and by his followers, based mainly on the studies of Medieval and Renaissance
Italian paintings. Throughout the investigation some groups of artists of various nationalities
have been found that may now be correctly listed under the label of “International Purism”.
Within which an extremely complex prospective research brings to the fore an experience of
cataloguing applied by the School of Art at Aberystwyth of the University of Wales, where
about 200 drawings of the purist painter are kept, and whose scientific records are an integral
part of the thesis, flowing into the fourth chapter dedicated to Un caso d’indagine: l’album
degli “Studi di figure” di Tommaso Minardi, that in the introduction also demonstrates the
popularity of the Italian artist’s works in Great Britain throughout the XIX Century.
Moreover, other traits of research, other than those that had already been made, still needed to
followed on the subject. In fact it has been possible to intercede the numerous hypotheses
brought forward thanks to the documentation acquired from an intense research, gathered
both from archives (with particular attention to MInardi’s private archives, kept at the
Archives of the State of Rome), and through museum collections (The National Academy of
San Luca, The Museum of Rome, The Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of the
Comune of Rome, The Academy of Fine Arts of Perugia and many more, as well as galleries
and auctions), whilst investigations have been carried out abroad, even if in a limited fashion,
in the collections at the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Musuem in London, and of
drawings and prints in the Cabinet of the Museum of Prado in Madrid. The research also had
access to private collections: the completely inedited drawings of Minardi found in the
collection of Carla Milano in San Paolo are exceptional; these and many more are enriched by
the three conversational chapters of the theses.
The first chapter verges on the analysis of various factors that led to the genesis of the
minardian style for primitives, including the painters of the third, fourth and early fifth
century: these were determinant for the ancestors of Northern European artists bearing a preromantic
tendency, the influence of the erudite illuminist tradition of the 7th century (lAnzi,
Séroux d’Agincourt, Cicognara and others) and the meeting with the members of the
Nazarene group and other foreign artists in the lively Roman artistic mileu at the beginning of
the 8th century. However, reading Minardi’s letters, some precocious statement s have
emerged on his interest for “ancient masters” leading to the supposition that the salient points
of the purist theories have matured autonomously. The suppositions can also be gathered
from the debate that in the dawning of the century involved other artists of the environment of
Romagna and Bologna (Giuseppe Zauli, Felice GIani, Pelagio Palagi, etc.) where Minardi
came from and where he had his artistic education before being transferred to Rome.
Shedding light on these unknown premises, the “autoctone” origin of minardian purism is
clearly defined, thus for the first time being redeemed from the German group of the
Nazarenes. With the support of further documentation and comparing other works, both
famous and unknown, a consequent evidence of “false analogy” and “ambiguous affinity”
comes to the fore, between the two movements that both belong to Romantic Primitivism.
In the second chapter, the stages of Tommaso Minardi’ formation are recovered, that
developed his sensitivity towards the theme of academic studies, later experimented with his
role in the management of the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, in 1819. During this period a
prior experience was more deeply analysed, and was considered fundamental for the
minardian artistic itinerary, or rather his participation to courses in the Academy of Italy at
Palazzo Venezia, founded in 1881 by the Napoleonic Consol Giuseppe Tambroni with the
collaboration of Antonio Canova: a very important precedent that was also connected to the
Academy of Thoughts, an artistic gathering of Italian and foreign artists in Felice Giani’s
house in Rome towards 1790, where the same needs of artistic renewal had already been
discussed in meetings and later perceived by Tambroni, Canova and the young Minardi.
Consequently, the activation of Minardi’s didactic projects Rome were examined, made
possible by his being nominated as the professor of design in the prestigious Academy of San
Luca in 1821. It can be demonstrated that some artists (Michele Ridolfi, Giambattista Bassi,
Luigi Cochetti etc.) of his age group or slightly younger, practised under his supervision
starting from about 1814-15; the young artist’s atelier was visited very frequently after 1830,
when a new branch of his school of design was allocated to him by Palazzo Colonna.
The third chapter is centered on the local and International reactions of the rise of minardian
purism, a theme that had never been systematically investigated up to now : the echo of
success of the purist current, widely witnessed by the array of criticisms upon publication of
the poster drawn by Antonio Bianchini (del Purismo nelle arti, 1842) is anticipated by about
ten years. In fact the crucial moment is indicated as being the reading of the discourse Delle
qaualità essenziali della pittura italiana uttered by Minardi in 1834, a text that created a great
deal of repercussions nationally, evidenced by the writings of intellectuals closely adhering to
the faentino (Carlo d’Arco, Pietro Selvatico, etc) whilst further emphasis is placed on the
recognition of the theoretical status of the artist in a foreign environments (for example by
Montalembert and Rio in France). The studies and interests imposed by Minardi in Rome –
and through his followers and admirers in other important artistic centres in Umbria, Tuscany,
Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Liguria – gradually led to an unconditional adhesion by numerous
artists to the poetics of neo-4th century Revival, widely drawn from renaissance traditions of
Central Italy but also gathering references to 5th century mannerisms and to classicistic and
naturalistic paintings of the early 6th century. On the whole, three phases were found that
outlined the progressive affirmation of Purism, with a ramification in other pre-unity Italian
states and the radiation in some European countries, especially in Spain, in the purist circles
of the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid (Federico Milà, Pelegrin Clavé etc) and in
England (the works of artists such as Charles Eastlake, Wiliam Dyce, Joseph Severn),
absolutely novel facts that constituted a relevant discovery of studies on the subject.
The conclusive part contains a series of open reflections and aspects of research on the
Duttilità e continuità della lezione minardiana: first of all the value attributed by Minardi to
design are examined, to be also extended to his pupils, (regarding studies of anatomy,
drapery, expression etc). Finally the particularity of the artist’s approach to the study of
primitive models is focused: like those with an interest in “ancient masters”, in fact, Minardi
differed greatly from his 7th century predecessors and at the same time outdistanced from
contemporary figures (for example the main representatives of the German Nazarenism, Pforr
and Overbeck). The works of the purists, especially in easel painting destined for the circuits
of art trade, a production that is not as well known as the decorations for ecclesiastic
commission, are shown to belong to a much wider and varied repertoire than has ever been
seen before and give comfort to the basic idea of an originality of minardian Purism, that
encouraged a large sharing and spreading in Europe between 1840 and 1850.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Memoria e materia delle opere d'arte attraverso i processi di produzione, storicizzazione, conservazione, musealizzazione
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