Friday, April 7, 2017

Natural History in the Paper Museum

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
White Stork (Leg and Feather)
attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi

ca. 1630-40
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
White Stork (Head)
attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi

ca. 1630-40
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

"Cassiano made a very great contribution to the study of archaeology and the natural sciences, as the present exhibition demonstrates; and it is unfortunate that his equally inspiring support of major artists cannot be indicated so directly.  But admiration for what he achieved should not lead to distorting the nature of that contribution.  He was a truly cultivated as well as a learned man, but he was a patron and not a creator.  The more that is discovered about him, the more it is clear how much information and material he supplied to the authors in his circle  so much indeed that he can, without exaggeration, be looked on as their collaborator.  But although he wrote a vast amount, he published nothing  at least under his own name.  This argues for a notable generosity of spirit  but also, perhaps, for a certain reticence, even timidity, that was characteristic of him in other respects also.  His approach to archaeology and the natural sciences was very far removed from that of most owners of those Wunderkammern that survived into his own day  but he naturally shared some of their preoccupations.  Although he paid unusual attention to the usual  the fruits and animals, for instance, that were to be found in his immediate vicinity  he too was particularly intrigued by the exotic, the bizarre, the deformed, the remote: and such interests were liable to interfere with the pursuit of scientific progress, as was to be more clearly understood by later generations.  He set much store by accuracy  but many of the copies of antiquities made for him underwent unrecorded "restoration" before they entered the Paper Museum.  His services to Cesi, to Galileo, to Poussin and to very many other major figures of the day were of real significance  but only the genius of Poussin was radically affected by his support.  Cassiano cannot be described as "typical" in any way, because his achievement was so superior  and was recognized at the time to be so superior  to that of his contemporaries.  But the books he promoted are beautiful and fascinating rather than outstandingly important, and because his own researches were not known outside the admittedly wide circle of his friends and visitors and correspondents (and are only now becoming accessible), his place in the intellectual development of Europe is difficult to assess."

 Francis Haskell, from his catalog introduction for the 1993 exhibition in the Prints and Drawings Gallery at the British Museum, The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657).  Other quotations from this catalog appear below.

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
UCCELLIERA (Title Page)
Treatise on Birds by Giovanni Pietro Olina
dedicated to Cassiano dal Pozzo

1622
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Treatise on Birds
by Giovanni Pietro Olina
dedicated to Cassiano dal Pozzo

1622
 Royal Collection, Windsor 

"When Cassiano was inducted into the Accademia dei Lincei in 1622, he submitted a book about birds, the Uccelliera, published the same year, as proof of his scientific expertise.  The author's name is given as Giovanni Pietro Olina (1585-1645), a lawyer friend of Cassiano's, but much of it is known to have been based on material written or assembled by Cassiano himself.  Furthermore, the etched illustrations of birds are taken from a series of beautiful watercolor drawings commissioned by Cassiano from Vincenzo Leonardi, one of the great masters of naturalistic illustration, whose name has emerged only with the recent resurgence of interest in Cassiano and his circle."

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Two Views of an Egg (with albumen)
early 17th century
watercolor
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
African Civet
ca. 1630
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Deformed Broccoli
ca. 1621-46
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Dryad's Saddle (seen from above)
ca. 1621-46
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Dryad's Saddle (seen from below)
ca. 1621-46
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Two Views of Pummelo
by Vincenzo Leonardi

ca. 1645
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Two Views of Deformed Orange
by Vincenzo Leonardi

ca. 1645
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

"Ferrari was much taken with the type of malformation illustrated by this specimen [above], which, he noted, was frequently to be found in the surroundings of Naples and on the slopes of Vesuvius.  It is in his discussion of malformed oranges like this one that he made the remark that "while we are generally horrified by monstrosities in the case of living beings, we love them in fruit."  Such specimens are not now, of course, regarded as a separate species, but rather as a chimera or bizzaria, as these forms were long called in Italy, resulting from a genetic aberration consequent on either deliberate or casual hybridization."  

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
Two Views of Deformed Melon
attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi

ca. 1630-40
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
European Pelican (Head)
 attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi

1635
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor

Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum
European Pelican
attributed to Vincenzo Leonardi

1635
watercolor and bodycolor over chalk
Royal Collection, Windsor