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Royal Gallery of the Uffizi at Florence Drawings

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Royal Gallery of the Uffizi at Florence Drawings LEO S. OLSCHKI, PUBLISHER - FLORENCE DRAWINGS IN THE ROYAL GALLERY OF THE UFFIZI AT FLORENCE HIS, the oldest collection of ancient drawings, is also the largest, counting upwards of 45,000 numbers. Not all, it need hardly be said, are the works of masters. These had ever a following, known as " the school anTd if, as we would believe, the merit of the work of art resides in that personal element which defies the imitator, we may conclude that for every master's drawings there were produced a great many others possessing no more than a documentary interest. The Florence collection covers this whole field of art that would be, and that is. Happily the works of the masters are here not lost in those of their schools, their imitators, and their later forgers. The great Italians will, in many instances, be found to be repre- sented in sets of drawings of unrivalled splendour. The collection is also rich in im- portant works of foreign artists. The student was taught, in the Renaissance, to copy the sketches and studies of his masters, as models on which to form his own style and technique. This practice prevailed especially in Florence. It led to the mutilation, often the total destruction, of many drawing in the studios; witness the loss of all Masolino's and Masaccio's, and the great rarity of Fra Angelico's and Fra Filippo's. Florence, which was the intellectual centre of Italy, contained, from the first, writers on art who made it their task to rescue and care for the drawings of the masters. The art-critic and the col- lector, were then happily one. Their divorce is a modem anomaly, which has come about with our way of approaching the work of art rather with the ear than with the eye; when to talk of art came to mean to speak of anything, other than one's own experience of art. It was otherwise with the older critic. The possession of drawings was to him a means of intimate access to the masters. He saw their work in its genesis, watching the upbringing of these child emanations of their heart and brain, their growth and change, till, upgrown, and passing out into the world, the finished picture had, but too often, lost a quality of beauty which it possessed at birth. Giorgio Vasari and Vincenzo Borghini are the names that must be writ first in the list of those scholars whose drawings went to form the Uffizi collection. Vasari is always mentioning his n book of drawings n in the n Lives Borghini, his con- temporary and counseller, was wont to inscribe the drawings that passed through his hands with the names of their putative authors. Many of his arbitrary attributions must be corrected. Lastly Filippo Baldinucci, at the order of his patron the Cardinal Leopoldo dei Medici (1617-1675), classified anew these older stores, and added to them the vast contribution of the cardinal's own purchases. These beautiful red morocco portfolios have in part escaped depletion at the call of our latter-day exhibitions. They make the foundation and bulwark of the Uffizi collection. In fine, it is this great prelate's benefaction which we may now use in the way he intended. He was a younger son of the Grand Duke Cosimo II whom he assisted in the prosperous government of the state. In the history of science he appears as the founder and learned head of the Accademia del Cimento, the earliest organized society in Europe for systematic research in the natural sciences by the experimental method. Science and art were, with him, one and the same pursuit; and in this he shared the attitude of mind of his whole line of illustrious townsmen, among whom we need cite only Leonardo da Vinci. Besides the Uffizi drawings, the Florence Museums are indebted to him for some of their master- pieces of painting; for the great increase of the collections of gems and of medals ; and for that unique collection of the painters' portraits by themselves, which was his idea and making. Later members of the granducal family purchased the Gaddi and the Michellozzi collections of drawing. The bequests of the english painter Hugford, and especially that of the florentine collector Santarelli, were further important additions. In our own time some notable drawings have come to the Uffizi by gift or bequest from the estates of the distinguished writers on art the late Giovanni Morelli, and Henri de Geymuller. We must also note the recent acquisition of the Malvezzi collection of Bolognese masters. Few know the wealth of this collection. Its difficulty of access; the hap-hazard sele- ction of the exhibited specimens in the past, with their misleading attributions,-these obsta- cles have deterred many a student. Nor were good reproductions to be had; or even any at all of many of the finest drawings. For the photographer's choice often favoured the copies and forgeries, and ignored the less obtrusive originals, the reproductions of which were unlikely to catch the vulgar eye. The recent reorganization of the Prints and Drawings in the Uffizi has given to this de- partment a new life of utility. There are to be no more permanent exhibitions; as it had always been found that the prolonged exposure of the drawings led to their deterioration. Instead there will be held at intervals, in a room set aside for this purpose, temporary exhi- bitions of the prints or drawings of single masters. ^ A beginning [was made with Bartolozzi. Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto are at present on view. A systematic publication of the Uffizi drawings, to serve as a memorial of these tran- sitory exhibitions, and to answer to many another demand, has now been planned under the direction of the following committee. P. N. FERRI, Curator of the Prints and Drawings at the Gallery of the Uffizi. CARLO GAMBA, Honorary Inspector of the Florence Museums. CHARLES LOESER, M. A. GIOVANNI POGGI, Chief Inspector of the Galleries and Museums of Tuscany. Four portfolios will be issued annually, at intervals of three months; and the total number of drawings for the year will not be under one hundred. Each portfolio will be re- stricted to the works of a single master, or of a group of affiliated masters. The names and standing of the editors offer an adequate guarantee of the scientific character and im- portance of this monumental publication. The choice of drawings will be determined not so much by their rarity and documentary importance, as by their merit as works of art. Each portfolio will contain an ample text (in Italian) by one of the committee or, in excep- tional cases, by some other writer specially qualified to treat a particular subject. While the plan is to produce a corpus of the masters in ordered series, which may serve the student's need of referrence, in the lecture hall and art schools, these plates should prove especially welcome to the artist (who should ever be the most diligent student of the art of the past), to the collector, and to the plain amateur. The reproductions will be the size of the originals, save in a few exceptional cases. The specimen herewith submitted shows that, in fidelity to the tone, colour and quality of the originals, these facsimiles, will equal, if not surpass, any reproductions that have hitherto been produced. The plates will be supplied by the I^tituto Micrografico Italiano. The four portfolios for 1912 will be 1. PONTORMO. 2. TITIAN AND TINTORET. 3. FLORENTINE MASTERS OF THE QUATTROCENTO: (PAOLO UCCELLO -1 POLLAIUOLO - ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO - SANDRO BOTTICELLI). 4. DRAWINGS OF ITALIAN LANDSCAPE BY NORTHERN MASTERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: (MATTEO BRILL - A. ELZHEIMER - PAOLO BRILL - CLAUDE LORRAIN - H. SWANEVELT - N. BERCHEM - G. SUSTERMAN - JACQUES CALLOT - C. POELEMBURG - GIOVANNI BOTH - GASPARE VANVITELLI). The subsequent series will include the works of the following masters: PIERO DI COSIMO - FILIPPINO LIPPI - LEONARDO DA VINCI - MICHELANGIOLO - RAFFAELLO - SODOMA - CARPACCIO - SAVOLDO - PORDENONE - DOSSO DOSSI - GAUDENZIO FERRARI - CORREGGIO - PARMIGIANINO - FRA BARTOLOMMEO - ANDREA DEL SARTO - CECCHINO SALVIATI - BAROCCIO - PRIMATICCIO - A. DURER - BREUGHEL IL VECCHIO - STEFANINO DELLA BELLA - CALLOT etc. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION 250 Lire ital. (£ 10. — * 50. -- Mk. 200); for the year of four portfolios, exclusive of postage. The first portfolio will be ready for distribution in May 1912; the others will follow at quarterly intervals. The publication will extend over five years; when I hope that your support will encourage me and my editors to issue a second series. Florence, April 1912. LEO S. OLSCHKL Publisher, FLORENCE »•V < J? f S'y ^ f lu7 .
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