[VENICE] NOVELLI, Francesco. Album of watercolours.
Oblong small quarto album, 185 x 275mm, containing forty-six watercolours of various sizes and shapes ranging from delicate circular vignettes to larger scenes of urban and theatrical life, elegantly bound in nineteenth-century ochre morocco with ornate gilt decoration.
Probably Venice, variously dated from 1795 to 1825. Fine Commedia dell’arte watercolours
A beautiful suite of watercolours, including a superb series of scenes of a contemporary Venetian commedia dell’arte troupe, by the Venetian painter and engraver Novelli. Featuring images from both the stage and street-performance, including acrobatics and conjuring, each of the 46 deftly drawn images is of considerable quality. Francesco Novelli (1767-1836) was best known for his vivid and imaginative book illustration, including for example Algarotti’s Opere (1791-94, assisting his father), Don Quixote (1819) and Gil Blas (1820). He is also known for illustrating works such as the Fasti Veneziani (1794), hinting at his abiding interest in the theatre and the performing arts.
One of Novelli’s most important teachers was the French artist Vivant Denon, who visited Venice in the 1790s. Denon seems to have had a formative influence on Novelli’s career, not least because he introduced his pupil to the engravings of Rembrandt. This rare and exceptional collection provides a wonderful insight into Italian theatre in its golden age. The album includes an incomparable collection of Novelli’s watercolours, with the greatest number being piquant images of a Venetian troupe of the commedia dell’arte, with especially fine depictions of Pierrot himself, as well as other key figures such as Columbine and Harlequin. It includes a remarkable series of scenes from a stage play, as well as studies of the individual performers. Indeed, many of these images are so precisely rendered that it is likely that Novelli depicts a well-known troupe, perhaps one with which he was personally connected. The remaining images cover all aspects of contemporary life, including several military vignettes (perhaps scenes from the diorama) as well as charming rural scenes. Several show Novelli’s work at its most sympathetic, especially in his animated
studies of street vendors and town squares. It is also likely that many of these scenes derive from a period when the troupe was on the road, especially as some of the liveliest show street performers, conjurors and Punch and Judy shows. These scenes reveal Novelli at the height of his powers, especially his skill in capturing the energy and fascination of the crowds that gathered to watch the impromptu performances.
Unpublished, although the compilation of the album suggests that publication might originally have been Novelli’s intention. This is a superb collection of images by one of the pre-eminent artists of his generation, providing an insight into Novelli’s involvement with the Venetian theatre, as well as giving a unique opportunity to study the daily life of a travelling group of European artists and musicians at the turn of the nineteenth century. US$33,300
G.B. Perini, Della vita e delle opera di Francesco Novelli (1888).
[4504048 at hordern.com]
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