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MORELLI, GIOVANNI (1816-1891)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 830 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MORELLI, GIOVANNI (1816-1891) , See also:Italian patriot and See also:art critic, was See also:born at See also:Verona on the 16th of See also:February 1816. He was educated first at See also:Bergamo, the See also:home of his See also:mother, who had removed thither on the See also:death of her See also:husband; and then at Aarau in See also:Switzerland. At the See also:age of eighteen he commenced his university career at See also:Munich, being debarred as a See also:Protestant from entering any Italian See also:college, and became the See also:pupil of See also:Ignatius Dellinger, the celebrated See also:professor' of See also:anatomy and See also:physiology. Natural See also:philosophy and See also:medicine were the studies to which he specially devoted himself, but he was also keenly interested in all scientific and See also:literary pursuits. At Munich, and later at See also:Erlangen, See also:Berlin and See also:Paris, his brilliant gifts and See also:independence of thought and See also:judgment attracted the See also:attention of the most distinguished men of the See also:day. In Paris he became intimate with See also:Otto Miindler, and his intercourse with that eminent art critic was not without its effect in deter-See also:mining the direction of his future studies; and, during a summer spent in Switzerland, he formed a friendship with See also:Louis See also:Agassiz; whose teaching made a deep and lasting impression upon him. On his return to See also:Italy in 184o he became associated in See also:Florence with that See also:band of patriots who were strenuously labouring for the deliverance of their See also:country from the oppressive See also:Austrian See also:rule. He took an active See also:part in the See also:war of 1848, and was subsequently chosen by the provisional Lombard See also:government to plead the cause of Italian unity before the See also:German See also:parliament assembled at See also:Frankfort. In 186o, in recognition of the See also:great services rendered to his country by Morelli, See also:Victor See also:Emmanuel named him a See also:citizen of the Sardinian See also:kingdom, and in the following See also:year he was elected See also:deputy for Bergamo to the first See also:free Italian parliament. He was a staunch supporter of See also:Cavour, and, though never a leading politician, exercised a considerable See also:influence over the most prominent statesmen of the Right, who valued his See also:sound judgment, integrity, moderation and foresight. One of his first acts after his See also:election was to draw the attention of parliament to the urgent need of reform in the See also:administration of matters See also:relating to the See also:fine arts. In See also:con-sequence of his representations, a See also:commission was appointed with the See also:object of bringing under government See also:control all See also:works of art which could be considered public See also:property.

The commission, of which Morelli was named See also:

president, began its See also:work in See also:Umbria and the See also:Marches, and he appointed as his secretary G. B. Cavalcaselle', who was then engaged in See also:collecting materials for a work on Italian art. According to one who knew Morelli well, much that Cavalcaselle then learned from his See also:chief was embodied in the well-known See also:History of See also:Painting, which was published in 1864 in See also:conjunction with See also:Sir See also:Joseph See also:Crowe. The immediate result of Morelli's first labours in the Marches was the passing of the See also:law, which bears his name, strictly prohibiting the See also:sale of works of art from public and religious institutions. In 1873 he was named a senator of the kingdom of Italy, having voluntarily resigned his seat in the See also:Lower See also:House owing' to the increasingly democratic tendencies of the Chamber. In See also:Rome, the seat of the government since 187o, he spent several months of each year; but his settled home was See also:Milan, whither he had removed from Bergamo in 1874. Here he published some of his researches into the history of Italian art. In See also:order to be free to speak his mind unreservedly, he determined to adopt 'a See also:pseudonym and to write in German. His first contributions, a See also:series of articles on the See also:Borghese See also:Gallery, were published in See also:Lutzow's Zeitschrilt See also:fur bildende Kunst between the years 1874 and 1876. Posing as an art-loving See also:Russian, who puts forth his opinions with the utmost diffidence, he adopted the pseudonym of See also:Ivan Lermolieff—an See also:anagram of his own name with a Russian termination—and described his essays as Fin kritischer Versuch, translated from the Russian by Johannes Schwarze, this See also:time a Germanized See also:form of Morelli. The originality of the method recommended by the author for studying art, the See also:general soundness of his See also:critical opinions, and the many new (and apparently correct) attributions suggested for pictures in the Borghese Gallery and elsewhere, attracted the attention of all students of art; but failure attended every See also:attempt to discover the identity of the Russian critic.

In 188o Morelli published a small See also:

book under the same pseudonym, entitled, See also:Die Werke italienischer Meister in den Galerien von Munchen, See also:Dresden and Berlin. The See also:appearance of this See also:volume, which was See also:cast in so See also:original a form that it was altogether unlike anything which had preceded it in the See also:realm of art scholarship, created an extraordinary sensation. The daring opinions expressed by the author struck at the roots of all existing art See also:criticism, and were often diametrically opposed to the views of the most renowned art historians of the day. The importance of the work could not be denied, and in spite of determined opposition and searching and See also:bitter attacks, it gained general recognition as a See also:standard work which no serious student of art could ignore. It inaugurated a new and more scientific method of criticism, and marks an See also:epoch in the art studies of the 19th See also:century. The book was translated into See also:English in 1883, with Morelli's own name upon the See also:title-See also:page, and a few years later into Italian. In the See also:decade between 188o and 1890 he contributed three articles to German See also:periodicals : See also:Perugino See also:oder Raffael, Raffaels Jugendentwickelung, Nock einmal das venezianische Skizzenbuch. Being addressed to critics who had challenged his opinions, they are somewhat polemical in See also:character, but contain a See also:mass of See also:information, more especially about drawings. He also wrote a skit on art connoisseurship in See also:Europe, intending to publish it in English as the reflections of an See also:American on the follies of art critics in the Old See also:World; but he never carried out his intention, though some portion of the MS. was embodied in the first part of his Critical Studies. This volume, the first of a series of three which, under the title of Kunstkritische Studien, was to contain all Morelli's contributions to art literature, was published in ago. The first part, cast in See also:dialogue form, contains a detailed exposition of his method. Then follow The Borghese Gallery, a reissue of his former articles with many important additions, and The See also:Doria Gallery, an entirely new contribution.

The second volume deals with the galleries of Munich and Dresden, and is a revised edition of the first two parts of the original book of i88o; but here again copious additions rendered it practically a new book. The third volume was to treat of the Berlin Gallery, and was also to contain an exhaustive See also:

account of the drawings of Italian masters, but it was destined never to be carried out. Morelli was taken seriously See also:ill towards the See also:middle of February 189r, and was found to be suffering from See also:heart disease and other complications; a fortnight later he died at Milan, on the 28th of February. His collection of drawings by the old masters he bequeathed to his pupil, Dr Frizzoni, and his pictures, over too in number, to the See also:city of Bergamo, where they are now exhibited as the Galleria Morelli in two rooms of the Accademia See also:Carrara. A striking See also:half-length portrait by See also:Lenbach, who presented it to his friend in 1886, forms part of the collection. In memory of Morelli a See also:bronze bust of him by a Milanese artist has been placed in the Brera; but his features are more worthily presented in a second portrait by Lenbach and in a See also:life-like See also:pastel See also:sketch executed by the Empress See also:Frederick in 1884, when he was her See also:guest at See also:Baveno. After the death of Morelli the first two volumes of his Critical Studies were published in English, Sir See also:Henry See also:Layard, one of his most intimate See also:friends, contributing to the first a See also:biographical sketch of the author; and the fragmentary MS. of the third volume was published in German by Dr Frizzoni, under whose editorship an Italian See also:translation of the first volume has also been issued. Morelli found art criticism uninspired, unscientific and practically worthless. To be of any real value he held that See also:historical, documentary and traditional knowledge respecting works of art was only of secondary importance as compared with the See also:evidence to be derived from the study of the pictures themselves. He contended that art criticism must be conductedon scientific principles and follow a strict course of inductive reasoning. A painting should be subjected to a searching See also:analysis, and its component parts and minutest details submitted to methodical and exact investigation. The study of the individual parts and forms was, in his estimation, of the highest importance, for they were not See also:mere incidents, but the outward and visible See also:seal of an artist's character stamped upon his work, and obvious to all who had eyes to see.

By diligent observation of the forms the rudiments of the See also:

language of art might be mastered, and the first step taken towards initiating a methodized See also:system of study. The See also:education of a critic consists chiefly in learning to compare, and Morelli soon recognized the value of systematic comparison in the study of art. By the combined methods of critical analysis and See also:comparative observation he found the See also:clue he had so See also:long been seeking. Studying one day in the Ufliizi, it suddenly struck him that in a picture by See also:Botticelli containing several figures the See also:drawing of the hands was remarkably similar in all; that the same characteristic but plebeian type, with bony fingers, broad square nails, and dark outlines, was repeated in every figure. Turning to the ears, he observed that they also were See also:drawn in an individual manner, and that in the numerous figures in which the See also:ear was visible the same typical form recurred. Having noted these fundamental forms, he proceeded to an examination of other works by this painter, and found that the same forms were exactly repeated, together with other individual traits which seemed distinctive of the See also:master: the characteristic type of See also:head and expression, the drawing of the nostrils, the vitality of See also:movement, the disposition of drapery, See also:harmony of See also:colour (where it had not been tampered with by the restorer), and quality of landscape. In all Botticelli's true works the presence of these and other characteristics proclaimed their genuineness. In paintings where the forms and types were those of the painter, but where vitality, movement, and all deeper qualities were absent, Morelli recognized works executed from the master's cartoons; while in pictures where neither types nor forms responded to the test, and where only a general See also:family likeness connected them with Botticelli, he discerned the productions of pupils and imitators. After applying his method to the works of Botticelli, he proceeded to examine those of other Florentine masters, and afterwards of painters of other Italian See also:schools, everywhere See also:meeting with results to him not less convincing. If the drawing of the See also:hand and ear were not always conspicuous, there were other peculiarities of this language of form to aid in the See also:identification of a master: the treatment of the See also:hair, as in See also:Piero dei See also:Franceschi; the indication of the sinews, as in See also:Foppa; the drawing of the See also:eye, as in Liberale da Verona; the modelling of the eyelid and upper See also:lip, as in Ambrogio de Predis; the form of the feet, as in See also:Luini. In See also:short, all apparently insignificant details were of importance in his See also:plan of study, for to him they were like the See also:signature of the master. (C.

J.

End of Article: MORELLI, GIOVANNI (1816-1891)

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