“Per quella ammistà ch'ebbero fra di lor sempre le penne e i pennelli”. About the paintings of Camillo Gavassetti inspired by subjects from Torquato Tasso

Domiziana Pelati
In her important article on Camillo Gavassetti (Modena 1596 – Reggio Emilia ? 1630) published in 'Prospettiva' in 1990, Paola Ceschi Lavagetto lamented the loss of a number of works based on subjects by Torquato Tasso mentioned in the sources, an absence that made it difficult to imagine in what terms the painter approached the figurative representation of the latter's famous epic poem, the Jerusalem Delivered. The Horatian principle of ut pictura poësis was evoked in continuity with the literary 'vocation' of Gavassetti who, in the introduction to Gabriel Corvi's Lambrusche di Pindo (Piacenza, 1626), a collection of poems he himself edited and commented on, was keen to emphasise the close “ammistà ch'ebbero fra di lor sempre le penne e i pennelli” (the close friendship that had always existed between the pen and the brush). The recent appearance on the antique market of two canvases depicting episodes from Canto VII of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered now allows us to recommence from where we left off. In the first part, starting with an analysis of the paintings and comparison with the works of artists like Guercino and Alessandro Tiarini, the article attempts to answer two fundamental questions: what was Gavassetti's relationship with Tasso's poem and in what terms and to what extent did it condition his formal choices? In the second part, in the light of the literary trends in vogue in Emilian literary circles in the early decades of the 17th century, the article explores the dynamic relations between painting and poetry that emerge from a reading of the little-studied Lambrusche di Pindo.

Index

Ireneu Visa Guerrero The retablo of Saint Eulalia by the 'Master of Privileges' and 'Italianate' painting in Majorca in the early 14th century
read abstract » pp. 3-51
Luca Quattrocchi Guttuso between Sartre and De Sica: Drawings for the Film Adaptation of The Condamned of Altona
read abstract » pp. 52-70
Jacopo Tabolli A Fragment for the Repertoire of Figurative Decorations on Incised Impasto: a Ship from Montalcino
read abstract » pp. 71-73
Gabriella Cirucci The So-called 'Stele del Palestrita' in the Vatican Museums. Fragments of an Historical Itinerary
read abstract » pp. 74-83
Roberto Bartalini “A place seen in a dream”. The restoration, a recent book and some annotations on the reliquary of San Galgano, known as the Frosini reliquary
read abstract » pp. 84-97
Gigliola Gorio An ante quem for the death of Jacopino da Tradate and an insight into his workshop
read abstract » pp. 98-106
Francesco Caglioti A Donatellian 'Madonna' deserving restoration in Terranuova Bracciolini
read abstract » pp. 107-113
Gianmarco Russo Lazzaro Bastiani and his Connoisseurs
read abstract » pp. 114-133
Rosanna De Gennaro On the Terracotta of Bonarcado and its Author: Alonso Berruguete?
read abstract » pp. 134-143
Tommaso Tovaglieri “Longhi Series”. The case of Tanzio da Varallo.
read abstract » pp. 144-153
Domiziana Pelati “Per quella ammistà ch'ebbero fra di lor sempre le penne e i pennelli”. About the paintings of Camillo Gavassetti inspired by subjects from Torquato Tasso
read abstract » pp. 154-166
Felice Mastrangelo Agostino Cornacchini: an unpublished autobiography and various clarifications on his early activity in Rome
read abstract » pp. 167-180
Giovanni Agosti Pier Luigi Pizzi, on the side of Art History
read abstract » pp. 181-196