PRUEBA DE LA SIGNIFICANCIA DE LA HIPÓTESIS PRINCIPAL

Odoardo Fialetti’s influence in England did not rely solely on the relationships he built with Wotton, the Earl and Countess of Arundel and artists passing through their circle. Rather with these contacts as the foundation for his introduction into the English artistic vernacular, his printed works were brought back and circulated, finding audiences easily because of their appearance in a culture with a growing interest in both Italian art and

theoretical ideas of good disegno (especially those laid out in Haydocke’s 1598

translation of Lomazzo). His visual examples of the theory made popular by Central Italian authors, and the translation of those ideas into useful models for amateur draughtsmen ensured the success of Fialetti’s work, and copies thereafter throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of these copied examples, two are of

158_{The “Study of a Semi-Nude Male” is perhaps a St Jerome type, and is attributed by van Dyck to Titian.}

The figure is truncated at the waist with a suggestion of drapery, but it is not completed. The figure itself appears physiologically strange because of the errors made in the flexion of all the muscles of the shoulder, the inclusion of extra muscles in the upper chest wall, and an abnormally pronounced biceps brachii. These characteristics do not appear to be Mannerist in their depiction, that is, their distortion appears to be a mistake rather than a wilful change made to the fabric of the body for the sake of beauty.

particular significance in the history of the English drawing book: the works of Isaac Fuller and Alexander Browne. Both artists compiled their works after Fialetti’s death, and thus they, like a number of others, were relying on drawing books to supplement their studies, as an alternative to knowledge to be gained by copying details of Old Master paintings and classical sculpture on a Grand Tour.

Isaac Fuller (c. 1606 – 1672)159published his book,Un Libro da Designiarein London in

1654 and based many of his studies on the work of Fialetti.160 The book comprises

fourteen plates, including a title page161 and moves from studies of facial features to the proportions of the head, and studies of hands, feet, legs, and various facial types. It also contains etchings of putti and a sea god. Fuller’s drawing book was, until quite recently, thought to be lost,162and thus a careful comparison with the work of Fialetti has not been carried out prior to this thesis. Fuller himself did travel on the continent, having studied under François Perrier,163 thus it is uncertain whether he gained familiarity with Fialetti’s prints there or in England. It is of note that Fuller’s drawing book, like Fialetti’s, contains no text, and is purely visual in its instruction. This differs significantly from the textual

159_{D.H. Solkin argues that Fuller was probably born around 1620, rather than the traditionally accepted}

1606 based on a self-portrait in the Bodleian Library. D.H. Solkin, “Isaac Fuller’s Escape of Charles II: A Restoration Tragicomedy”,Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes62, 1999, 200.

160

I. Fuller,Vn libro da designiare, London (Printed & Sold by P. Stent at the White Horse in Guildspur Streete betwixt Newgate & PyCorner) 1654. [BM, 167*.b.40, 1973,0224.1-14] Each page measures 96x154mm, and of these four plates are signed with Fuller’s initials I.F. (followed by either “in.” for a drawing of his own invention, or “F.” for an etching after another artist). The paper upon which the drawing book is printed is watermarked, bearing a man in a hat oriented along the vertical axis of the page. There are no visible countermarks. The only potential evidence of previous ownership is an inscription in brown ink on the verso of page 12 which reads: “Thomas Bardwoll is q Ro. A man of nords and not of doods is like or grndor- full of moods and when the moods Co gin(?) so grow”.

161_{The title page depicts a reclining woman with two putti holding a drawing of themselves, placed against}

a rocky outcrop. It bears no resemblance to the title page of Fialetti’s drawing book, nor indeed any drawing book of which I am aware.

162

D.H. Solkin, “Isaac Fuller’s Escape of Charles II: A Restoration Tragicomedy”, 200.

163

Solkin also makes note of the fact that Fuller was probably familiar with Perrier’s etchings after antique sculpture.

tradition of his predecessors, such as Haydocke, and his contemporaries, including Alexander Browne, and thus his may be seen as the most pure interpretation after Fialetti’s work that we have in the tradition of English drawing books.

The first four prints, depicting Studies of Noses, Studies of Eyes, The Lower Face and

Studies of Ears164are very similar to studies by Fialetti. In particular, the plate of eyes is certainly copied after the artist, however Fuller has only chosen the most complete examples, rather than demonstrating the progression of their design as in Il vero modo. While in many cases the designs may be based on those of Fialetti, they are often not exact copies, and the printing in Fuller’s book often appears heavy and lacking the delicacy of the originals. Additionally, while he does replicate the cross-hatching, and dot-in-lozenge shading favoured by the Italian artist, it lacks the efficacy and accuracy to provide depth, and instead appears stubbly. From these cursory studies of the parts of the face, Fuller then diverges from the programme in Fialetti’s “small” drawing book165 to give a plate concerning the proportion of the head in several views.

While Fuller does take inspiration from Fialetti, a number of his studies are his own creations, including the subsequent two plates, Studies of Hands and FeetandStudies of

Arms. A number of these studies appear to have been completed quickly, with an

economy of line, as if he has simply etched the contents of his own notebook, rather than providing progressive examples for students to follow. While it is uncertain whether

164_{TheStudies of Earsis the first signed plate in the book, and contains the cursive I.F. monogram in the}

lower left corner next to the page number.

165

Fialetti includes a similar study in the “large” version of the drawing book. The demarcation of the head in the study of proportion is a traditional tool of the artist, and was used most notably in Albrecht Dürer’s book on proportion.

Fuller used any other Italian drawing books in the preparation of his own work, the plate depicting theStudies of Arms is distinctly reminiscent of Giacomo Franco’s Regole, and its tangled limbs. The final plates of the book contain a number of studies of the heads of different figures, and then full figures, including two plates of muscular putti and the so- called Sea God. It, like Palma’s etchings in Fialetti’s drawing book, is more highly finished than the previous plates, and is a fully-developed scene of the god leaning on a vase which is spilling water into the foreground. The scene is replete with perspectival errors, causing the figure to look as if he is missing both half his arm and the top of his head. Fuller’s interest in Fialetti’s work is evident here as he places great emphasis on the muscles of the chest wall and the ribcage. In addition to the drawing book, Fuller copied other works by Fialetti, including figures from the 1610Tritons and Nereidsseries, in his

Frieze with two sea men of c. 1650-60 [Fig. 5.10].166 This suggests that the artist was familiar with a wider corpus of Fialetti’s work, perhaps including other print series beyond these two. Thus Fialetti’s significance as an exemplar of both good disegno and good etching for English artists of the mid-seventeenth century is elucidated through the life of Isaac Fuller.

A second writer on art technique of this period was Alexander Browne.167 His treatise of 1660 entitled The whole art of drawing, painting, limning and etching168 contains text

166_{I. Fuller,Frieze with two sea men. Etching, 225x324mm, c.1650-60. [BM, British XVIIc Mounted Roy,}

D,7.31]

167

For more information on Alexander Browne, see: F. Hard, “Richard Haydocke and Alexander Browne: Two Half-Forgotten Writers on the Art of Painting”,PMLA55, 1940, 727-741. Browne died in 1706, and was a miniature painter and auctioneer.

168_{A. Browne,The whole art of drawing, painting, limning and etching. Collected out of the choicest}

Italian and German authors, London 1660. [BL, Rare Books, C.123.f.22] The page facing the title page depicts a crude adaptation of Fialetti’s title page which attributes authorship of some of the original plates to Fialetti under a crest: “of Drawing, Limning, & c. Invented by Odoardo Fialet and others”.