Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bologna and Rome: Francesco Albani’s Correspondence and his Reflections on Art (1637–59)
- 3 Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna: The Fantuzzi’s Acquisition and Display of Drawings and Paintings by Local Masters
- 4 Collecting Women’s Art in Early Modern Bologna: Myth and Reality
- 5 Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers Period
- 6 Bolognese Painters in the Private Collections of Romagna: The Albicini Marchis Collection in Forlì
- 7 Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75)
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bologna and Rome: Francesco Albani’s Correspondence and his Reflections on Art (1637–59)
- 3 Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna: The Fantuzzi’s Acquisition and Display of Drawings and Paintings by Local Masters
- 4 Collecting Women’s Art in Early Modern Bologna: Myth and Reality
- 5 Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers Period
- 6 Bolognese Painters in the Private Collections of Romagna: The Albicini Marchis Collection in Forlì
- 7 Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the important archival research that scholars have done in studying Bolognese art of the seventeenth century. Beginning with Malvasia and Masini during the Seicento, the essay traces key developments in archival research to the present day. Touching on the discoveries and uses of such varied documents as letters, birth and death records, wills, contracts, inventories, and biographies that remained in manuscript, the essay elucidates the central role that archival discoveries have played in the evolution of scholarly studies devoted to Bolognese art of the seventeenth century.
Keywords: Masini, Malvasia, Oretti, Crespi, Gualandi, Giordani
This book of essays had its inception in 2016, when we organized a series of three panels at the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America. Devoted to ‘Bolognese Art in the Archives’, our three RSA panels investigated various types of archival research that were devoted to the study of Bolognese art, beginning in the late sixteenth century with the Carracci but primarily focusing on the art of the Seicento. This is a rich subject in Bolognese art historiography that has flourished conspicuously during the past two decades, particularly in light of the extensive work on Bolognese inventories that has emerged since 1997. In addition, modern scholars who work on Bolognese art have dealt productively with other types of archival materials, such as artistic contracts, baptismal records, dowries, wills, letters, and many others. But the reliance on various types of documents and primary sources for the study of Bolognese art history is not new. This methodology has a long history, one that reaches back long before the twenty-first century. Probably due in large part to Bologna's academic character, as the site of the oldest university in Europe, many Bolognese writers who were concerned with the art and the history of their native city were characterized by a scrupulous attention to archival resources from at least the seventeenth century. In this short introduction, we will consider some of the principal exponents of this rich tradition, concluding with an overview of the chapters in this volume and some comments about how the research presented here contributes to this singularly Bolognese tradition.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese ArtArchival Discoveries, pp. 13 - 28Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019