Della Testa in Profilo.
Italy: 17th Century. Item #1441 127 x 98 mm., [5 x 3 ¾ inches]. [16 p. including final blank]. Italy, 17th century. The content is divided into five brief sections, the first explaining how to draw a head in profile. Our scribe focuses on the triangle method, in which the profile is anchored by three primary points: the top of the forehead (cima della fronte), beneath the nostrils (sotto le narici), and the well of the chin and the beard (pozzetta del mento, ò barbuccio). The author then explains how to connect these points, how to form the nose, place the mouth and lips, draw the eye, etc. Our scribe closes this section with the kind of aspirational promise endemic to manuals of this time, namely that if you simple follow my instructions you’ll be able to do this easily., “without much confusion and effort” (senza tante confusion et fatiche). The second section explains how to draw the head “in majesty” (Della testa in scurcio), by which the author appears to mean ‘head-on’, in such a way to convey power and authority (he elsewhere refer to this position as prospetto, e.g. on p. [9]). Here the author likewise focuses on a simple method of drawing lines between different features of the face. The third section covers drawing the head in shadow (Della testa in scurcio), which the author admits is alquanto più difficle than the first two exercise, and so he won’t be sticking to such geometrical rules. But then he goes on to provide a single very simple rule (una regola facile assai), namely, to start with drawing rounded oval (l’ovato cirolare), and continues with guidelines that sound awfully geometric to us. The fourth section is on drawing a child’s head in profile (la testa del fanciullo in profilo), where he again starts with the triangle method, adding other geometric principles and referencing the point of a compass. The fifth and final section is on drawing a child’s head in maestà, wherein the author cites earlier discussion and further expounds on geometric advice. The author then closes with a general comment on the excellence and nobility of the art of drawing. The focus throughout is on lines and contours, and proportions, always guided by geometric rules for producing an accurate but relatively basic sketch. There is only brief, passing reference to elements like, “hair or other ornament, according to the need and what is most pleasing” (pelli, or altro ornamento, secondo che porfarà il bisogno, e che più in piacerà). Despite the brief section on drawing the head in shadow, there is nothing on rendering value, or otherwise on capturing the subtleties that give a drawing depth and feeling. Like its spine title, the Fairfax Murry catalogue calls this 17th-century, and we tend to agree based on the script. While we haven’t traced our particular “bird” watermark, Heathwood records a few similar marks used in the 17th century (and Briquet finds many in the 16th, especially in Italy. No less absorbing than the manuscript is a pair of 16th century Italian binding covers here preserved as doublures both heavily decorate in blind. The front doublure carries an arabesque motif and center Alexander the Great in profile. The rear appears to have been impressed with a single panel stamp, also arabesque, both doublures betraying the Islamic influence that characterized many Italian bindings of the period. Provenance: Lot 237 in the second Fairfax Murray sale (his label on the inside rear board), and perhaps then to Robert Tunstill (his bookplate on the front fly-leaf). To us from a fellow ABAA bookseller, who purchased it from a UK dealer in the 1990’s. Condition: Written in a cursive hand in dark brown ink on laid paper, watermarked with a bird within a circle. Rebound in the late 19th century or early 20th century, in cream pigskin tooled in black, preserving as doublures the decorated covers of a 16h-century Italian binding (described above), title in gilt on spine (Del disegno. Ms. Saec XVII.). Following the manuscript are four additional blank leaves (saved for scanning old pen trials), early but the paper is different than the manuscript proper. Additionally, six more modern fly leaves have been added at both front and back, presumably at the time of rebind. A little loss (since filled) to the upper outer corner of the manuscript leaves and the four earlier blank leaves, affecting just a word or two on each page; a few old pen trials over the text, though it remains legible. Binding extremities lightly worn.
A handwritten guide to the drawing of the human head, the most important element of any figure drawing, and frequently the starting point for early modern drawing manuals. The manuscript appears to be unpublished, and we have been unable to trace the text anywhere in the vast digitized corpus.
References: Catalogue of the Second Portion of the Library of C. Fairfax Murray (1918), p. 42, no. 237 (“Manuscript on paper, Italian hand, 16 pp. (repaired), white morocco extra, the cover of an old stamped vellum binding used as a double. 12mo. Saec. xvii”). Alexandra Arvilla Greist, Learning to Draw, Drawing to Learn: Theory and Practice in Italian Printed Drawing Books, 1600-1700 (PhD Dissertation UPenn, 2011) p. vii, “Italian printed drawing books (libri da disegnare) comprise an important body of evidence for our knowledge of artistic training in Italy during the early modern period. . . Intended for both professional and amateur audiences, these printed sources were soon copied throughout Europe where they influenced drawing education for the next 400 years”). C. M. Briquet. Les Filigranes, v. 3, # 12202- 12232 (similar watermarks, mostly 16th century). Edward Heawood, Watermarks Mainly of the 17th and 18th Centuries (1950), # 179, 183 (similar watermarks, 17th century). Anthony Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders (1989) p. 220-21 (recording a few 16th century Italian bindings with Alexander the Great plaquettes). Thanks to Patrick Olson for help with this description.
Price: $7,500.00