Collaborative Painting Between Minds and Hands: Art Criticism, Connoisseurship, and Artistic Sodality in Early Modern Italy by Colin Alexander Murray A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art University of Toronto © Copyright by Colin Murray 2016 Collaborative Painting Between Minds and Hands: Art Criticism, Connoisseurship, and Artistic Sodality in Early Modern Italy Colin Alexander Murray Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art University of Toronto 2016 Abstract The intention of this dissertation is to open up collaborative pictures to meaningful analysis by accessing the perspectives of early modern viewers. The Italian primary sources from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries yield a surprising amount of material indicating both common and changing habits of thought when viewers looked at multiple authorial hands working on an artistic project. It will be argued in the course of this dissertation that critics of the seventeenth century were particularly attentive to the practical conditions of collaboration as the embodiment of theory. At the heart of this broad discourse was a trope extolling painters for working with what appeared to be one hand, a figurative and adaptable expression combining the notion of the united corpo and the manifold meanings of the artist’s mano. Hardly insistent on uniformity or anonymity, writers generally believed that collaboration actualized the ideals of a range of social, cultural, theoretical, and cosmological models in which variously formed types of unity were thought to be fostered by the mutual support of the artists’ minds or souls. Further theories arose in response to Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo’s hypothesis in 1590 that the greatest painting would combine the most highly regarded old masters, each contributing their particular talents towards the whole. Presented with this ideal involving inimitable hands and minds, Francesco Scannelli, Carlo Cesare Malvasia, and Marco Boschini each reflected on the practical conditions and possibilities of ii such a scenario. Collectors and connoisseurs, meanwhile, often discerned multiple hands in a single picture, leading to dubious attributions of collaborative authorship, particularly when the social circumstances supporting the collaboration were thought to be projected in the subject matter. The connoisseur’s fanciful tendency could even be exploited by the art market, a phenomenon that is especially observable in a group of half-length figures that was purportedly made by Giorgione, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Titian. Finally, a case study of the Venetian painters Palma Giovane and Aliense, whose families were bonded in marriage on the eve of a series of joint projects, tests the implications of those values in criticism, theory, and connoisseurship when collaboration was put into social practice. iii Acknowledgements The presence of various individuals is very much alive in the pages that follow. First, I owe a great debt to my supervisor, Philip Sohm, who opened my eyes as an undergraduate to the endless potential of primary sources. I have since been privileged to have such an enthusiastic mentor willing me to explore my own interests while also providing me with invaluable direction and encouragement. His scholarship, writing, and inquisitive attitude will serve as ongoing models to follow throughout my career. From discussions with my other two advisors, I could always expect to come away thinking differently about my approach. To Evonne Levy, that voice of methodological rigor always in the back of my mind, I am grateful for her challenging and probing questions, for her important professional advice, and for her encouragement, all of which have made me a stronger and more articulate scholar. To Christy Anderson, I am thankful for several opportunities to learn as a scholar and as a teacher. Her focus on making both research and teaching fun, without sacrificing the solemnity of the material, is infectious and I can only hope to have captured some of that here. I have also had the benefit of incisive comments from three external readers. Going forward, this project will be improved immeasurably because of the feedback from Giancarla Periti, Nicholas Terpstra, and Nicola Suthor. Research and travel would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of various institutions, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto, and the Department of Art, which always seemed to find funding for me when I was most in need. I sincerely appreciate the generosity of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for funding my research in the Venetian archives in 2012. iv Most of all, I am blessed to have the support system of close relatives and an extended family. Special appreciation is fondly reserved for my wife Sheena, who is never far from my side. She champions my endeavors unflinchingly and without question, unaffected by the isolating effects of a scholar working until late hours, the vacant stares of a researcher lost in thought, the rambling musings of a student working through a problem, and the unfinished chores left for another day by an absentminded partner. Such a patient and forgiving collaborator can only be found in a best friend. Lastly, the role my parents have played in my achievements is unquantifiable after a lifetime of positive influence and unwavering support in every way imaginable. Though they are not the type to expect recognition, it is to them that I justly dedicate this text. v Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Figures ix INTRODUCTION The Concept of Collaboration: Contexts, Distinctions, and a Historiography 1 ‘Collaboration’: Defining our Terms 3 Collaboration Between Theory and Practice – Thinking and Making 5 Collaboration and Workshop Spaces 9 Early Modern Terms for Rivalry and Collaboration 12 Collaborative Authorship in the Scholarship of the Twentieth Century 18 Recent Scholarship on Collaboration 24 The Structure of the Study 31 CHAPTER 1 “One Hand Alone”: Cognitive Style and Typologies of Unity From the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century 33 1.1 w Antique Origins of a Collaborative Discourse: The Unapportionable Glory of Pliny’s Laocoön 39 1.2 w The Single Hand in the Fifteenth Century: Consistency of Talent and Continuity of Invention 43 Epilogue to Fifteenth-Century Collaborative Unity 51 1.3 w The Single Hand in the Early Sixteenth Century: Similarities of Styles and Spiritual Compatibility 52 1.3.1 Compatible ‘Airs’: Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo 55 1.3.2 Collaborative Amity and the Single Hand of Mariotto Albertinelli and Fra Bartolomeo 65 1.3.3 One Soul in How Many Hands? 68 1.4 w Thinking and Making on the Margins of the Workshop: Diverse Minds and the Single Hand in Vasari’s Day 72 1.4.1 Managerial Art and the Contested Dualism between Mind and Hand 75 1.4.2 Accommodating Diverse Minds and Styles in Conversation 83 Epilogue to Sixteenth-Century Collaborative Unity 87 1.5 w Baroque Collaboration: The vicendevolezza de’ pennelli from the Carracci to Mitelli and Colonna 90 1.5.1 Rubens and Brueghel: Representing Intertwining Hands 97 1.5.2 The Interlayered Hands of Cerano, Morazzone, and Procaccini in the Quadro delle tre mani 100 1.5.3 The Single Hand of Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli 103 Conclusion to Chapter 1 106 CHAPTER 2 Collaboration as an Ideal: Pondering the Potentialities and Realities of Collaboration 110 2.1 w Antique Origins of the Collaborative Discourse: From Eclectic Imitation to Ideal Collaboration 112 vi 2.2 w Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo’s Ideal Paintings of Adam and Eve: Self-Awareness and Adaptation in Imitation and in Collaboration 117 2.2.1 The Ideal Painting in the General Context of the Idea del tempio della pittura 118 2.2.2 Self-Awareness and the Adaptive Faculty of Discrezione 120 2.2.3 Artistic Ancestry and Self-Knowledge 125 2.3 w From Chimeras to Indissoluble Friends: Francesco Scannelli’s Practical Conditions for Collaboration 127 2.3.1 Scannelli’s First Condition of Collaboration: Equal Intelligence 130 2.3.2 Scannelli’s Second Condition of Collaboration: Shared Study and Mutual Benefit 131 2.3.3 Scannelli’s Third Condition of Collaboration: Equal Skill and Same Tastes 133 2.3.4 Scannelli’s Solution for the Subjective and Aesthetic Unity of Collaboration 135 2.4 w Historicizing the Ideal from False Starts to Actualized Practice: Carlo Cesare Malvasia on the Carracci 138 2.4.1 The Ideal Painting Left Unfulfilled by Orazio Samacchini 140 2.4.2 The Manifestation of the Ideal Painting in the Carracci Collaboration 143 2.5 w Marco Boschini’s Experience of a United Marvel: Both as a Whole and in Parts 150 2.5.1 Organizing Diversity and the Epistemological Context of Collecting 154 2.5.2 Collaboration as a Discordia Concors 164 2.5.3 Open Artifice and Venetian Liberty 169 Conclusion to Chapter 2 171 CHAPTER 3 Collaboration and Connoisseurship in the Seventeenth Century: The Hands of Sebastiano del Piombo, Giorgione, and Titian Re-Imagined in the Triple Portrait 174 3.1 w The Challenge of Indistinguishability in Early Modern Collecting and Criticism 177 3.2 w The Pasting Process of a pasticcio c. 1600 180 3.3 w Vasari’s Giorgione, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Titian Reified in the Triple Portrait 185 3.4 w Looking for Hands, Looking for Disunity in the Sociable Gallery Space 190 3.5 w A Sudden Niche for Allegedly Collaborative Triple Portraits 197 3.6 w The Reputation and Exploitation of the Giorgione Group in Collecting and Criticism 201 3.7 w Excursus: An Exploration of the Iconography in the Triple Portrait as an Allegory of Collaboration 207 3.7.1 Comparative Allegories of Marriage and Marriage Portraits 209 3.7.2 The Intertwined Initials as an Emblem of Collaborative Oaths 214 3.7.3 A Marriage Allegory Conflated with a Triple Portrait 217 Conclusion to Chapter 3 219 CHAPTER 4 Palma Giovane and Aliense Drawn Together: Marital Bonds, Artistic Patrimonies, and Stylistic Affinities in Late Renaissance Venice 221 4.1 w The Network Beyond the Partnership and the ‘Monotony’ of Venetian Art 225 4.1.1.