The Invented World of Mariano Taccola
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Leonardo_36-2_099-178 3/14/03 12:20 PM Page 135 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The Invented World ABSTRACT The Sienese artist-engineer of Mariano Taccola: Mariano Taccola left behind five books of annotated drawings, presently in the collections of Revisiting a Once-Famous the state libraries of Florence and Munich. Taccola was well known in Siena, and his draw- Artist-Engineer of 15th-Century Italy ings were studied and copied by artists of the period, probably serving as models for Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. However, his work has received little Lawrence Fane attention from scholars and students in recent times. The author, a sculptor, has long been interested in Taccola’s drawings for his studio projects. Although Taccola lacked the fine drawing hand displayed by many of his contemporaries, his he name Mariano Taccola (1382–ca. 1453) as an engineer. His drawings, which inventive work may appeal T especially to viewers today. means little to most students of the Renaissance or to the gen- he carefully organized in bound Based on examination of the eral public, and yet he was a prominent figure in Siena in the notebooks, were studied by contem- original drawings, the author 15th century, leaving behind hundreds of extraordinary draw- porary artists, copied by followers discusses the qualities that ings of machines, war implements and other inventions, set in and distributed to military leaders make Taccola’s drawings unique fascinating environments with figures and animals. Taccola, who and statesmen throughout Europe. and considers what Taccola’s called himself “the Sienese Archimedes,” was primarily known These pages were probably known to intentions may have been in making them. Leonardo da Vinci, who was born Lawrence Fane (sculptor), 10 Beach Street, New York, NY 10013, U.S.A. E-mail: around the year of Taccola’s death, <[email protected]>. and possibly served as models for Fig. 1. (a) Taccola, CLM 28,800, folio 60v; (b) Taccola, CLM 28,800 folio 61r, black ink turned brown, on paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich) ab © 2003 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 135–143, 2003 135 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/36/2/135/1571550/002409403321554206.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 Leonardo_36-2_099-178 3/14/03 12:20 PM Page 136 Fig. 3. Francesco di Giorgio, water purifier, Ms. Ashburnham 361, folio 24r, ink on paper with color washes. (Biblioteca Medicea Lau- renziana, Florence; with permission of the Ministry of Culture.) and improvement of the great water- works system of Siena. Born in 1382, the son of a wine dealer, he was baptized Mar- iano Daniello. The name “Daniello” van- ished and he called himself Ser Mariani Fig. 2. Taccola, CLM 28,800, folio 76v, black ink turned brown, on Jacobi decti Taccola; the name usually paper. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich) considered correct now is Mariano di Ja- copo, detto Taccola [4]. Taccola is Italian for a small black bird, much like a crow. Leonardo’s own notebooks. But Taccola’s accomplishments. And yet these drawings This nickname goes back at least to his drawings vanished from sight and general appeal to our contemporary taste in a way grandfather, and a sketch of this small interest soon after his death, and it was not that they would not have some years ago. bird was even used by Taccola as a visual until 1972 that a major biography of him In addition to introducing Taccola’s draw- identification in one of his drawings. was published [1]. ings to those unfamiliar with them, one of Nothing is known of his apprenticeship I am a sculptor and for many years have my purposes here is to study how our read- or early training, but there is a record of been fascinated by Taccola’s drawings, ing of these works can reveal something his being paid for heads carved in wood sometimes copying them and often using about why we respond as we do to certain for the choir stall of the Chapel in the them as sources for my own projects. This kinds of imagery. These folios bring up Palazzo Publico in Siena early in his ca- essay is not a study of Mariano Taccola so questions about the function of drawings, reer. He must have had some legal train- much as an appreciation and is based on how they communicate their information, ing, because he was appointed a notary, my examination of his original drawings the place of Renaissance perspective in which seems to have been his “day job,” as well as facsimile reproductions. drawing, the “power of will” that can over- as we would say today. In 1424, he be- I am continually surprised at how few come an artist’s weakness in traditional came secretary to an organization called artists and art historians with whom I have drawing skills and the diverse readings of the Casa di Misericordia e Sapientia, or spoken are familiar with Taccola. Yet they artworks by people of different times and Domus Sapientiae, which served as the are invariably intrigued when they first see cultures. Also, since Taccola’s drawings university of Siena, and it is clear from reproductions of his drawings [2]. The were copied by his contemporaries and this rather important office that he was a only recent books I have found that in- near-contemporaries and have now been prominent humanist. His daughter’s clude reproductions of Taccola’s drawings reproduced by modern methods, we can godfather was Jacopo della Quercia, so deal primarily with better-known figures: gain some insight into what sets original he must have known the major Sienese The Writings and Drawings of Leonardo da drawings apart from later versions and re- artists and even such Florentines as Vinci by Robert Zwijnenberg, the exhibi- productions. Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello, who vis- tion catalog Mechanical Marvels: Inventions ited Siena often. His only recorded ac- in the Age of Leonardo, the catalog Prima di quaintanceship of note, however, is with Leonardo from an exhibition in Siena, a TACCOLA’S PERSONAL Filippo Brunelleschi. It is reasonable to book dealing with Giotto and geometry, AND PROFESSIONAL HISTORY surmise that, as an engineer, Taccola and a recent study of Brunelleschi’s Dome Mariano Taccola executed sculpture would have been interested in the great in Florence [3]. When discussed, Tac- commissions for the Cathedral in Siena builder of the Cupola of the Florence cola’s drawings are given historical im- but was primarily a civil and hydraulic en- Cathedral and, indeed, under circum- portance but are rarely viewed as artistic gineer who was active in the maintenance stances that are not known, he did inter- 136 Fane, The Invented World of Mariano Taccola Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/36/2/135/1571550/002409403321554206.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 Leonardo_36-2_099-178 3/14/03 12:20 PM Page 137 view the slightly older but much more fa- Leonardo, at the World Financial Center Villard de Honnecourt than to Leonardo mous Brunelleschi. This lengthy inter- in New York in 1997, the curators sought da Vinci. Perspective as we know it comes view, recorded by Taccola in one of his to reposition Leonardo as the successor and goes in his drawings, leading to what folios, is the only documented statement to a long tradition of artist-engineers, could be read as graphic inconsistency. by Brunelleschi. In the interview, rather than a genius without precedent But what earlier critics might have called Brunelleschi warned Taccola not to ex- [6]. Several of Taccola’s drawings were incompetence now reads as expressive plain his inventions to people who did included (though only in reproduction) power. It is not the charm of a folk artist not share his love of machines. In a rant and he was discussed at length as one of that strikes us, but a sophisticated system that has an amusingly contemporary ring Leonardo’s first and most influential pre- of marks and compositional gambits that to it, Brunelleschi says in part: decessors. Yet there was little considera- makes his drawings unique in the context If you disclose too much about your in- tion of Taccola’s artistic strength. of his times. An example is a pair of draw- ventions and achievements, you will give As a sculptor, I am interested in Tac- ings from De machinis (Fig. 1a, b). These away the fruit of your genius. Morons cola’s unique and inventive presentation drawings, which were drawn to face each and inexperienced men understand of visual material, the emotional appeal other, forming one unit, deal with sys- nothing, even when things are explained of the drawings themselves and why they tems of defense during war. The Latin to them. Ignorance promptly moves are so intensely moving. The first thing inscriptions below the images read: them to anger; they remain ignorant, al- that strikes me is the earnestness of Tac- (a) “Pirates have made a house on hol- though they want to show themselves in- cola’s records of physical events, despite lowed tree trunks. These must be over- telligent, which they are not [5]. their lack of a “fingertip” feeling for Re- turned, so they do not hold rainwater.... Taccola worked on his drawings, which naissance perspective. He remains es- Bandits use boats to move back and forth are now preserved in four volumes called sentially a medieval artist, closer to to the lake house”; and (b) “The lord of De ingeneis (Concerning Engines), for many years, finishing them in 1433, at about the time that Brunelleschi com- Fig. 4. Taccola, CLM 28,800, folio 83v, black ink turned brown, on paper.