DOI Artikel:
Grze̢da, Mateusz: "Fantasia" i "ritrarre": o początkach portretu w Lombardii około roku 1400$nElektronische Ressource
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27279#0124
particular attention on two important centres of court art and culture, namely those of
Pavia and Milan, which throve for the most part thanks to the patronage of the Visconti
family. Thus the importance of Lombardy has been emphasised, as a place that had played
a significant role in the birth of portraiture in Italy at the turn of he fifteenth century.
Written accounts found, among others, in the works of north-Italian humanists and art
collectors (e.g. Bartolomeo Fazio and Marcantonio Michiel) directly or indirectly testify
to the crucial role played by the artists associated with the court of the Viscontis in the
dissemination of the new art genre, that is, of portraiture. In this regard, the names of three
artists: Giovannino de Grassi, Gentile da Fabriano and Michelino da Besozzo come to the
fore, as of painters who enjoyed famę both in their lifetime and posthumously.
Particular attention has been focused, however, on a text that originated outside the
main humanist discourse, namely, on Cennino Cenninis treatise II Libro delTArte. It was
written around 1400 by a Tuscan painter who, nonetheless, was well acąuainted with the
reality of north-Italian courtly circles. The author of the treatise underscored that avere
fantasia e hoperazione di mano’ were two ąualities indispensable for practising the art
of painting. The term fantasia seems to have here a similar meaning to that of the Latin
ingenium (mentioned, for example, by Theophilus Presbyter) or the Italian ingegno (which
later occurred in the works of Vasari). Fantasia appears to be the artists main asset which
allows him to bring together the things observed in naturę according to his own liking.
What is, however, equally important is the fact that nonę of the transformations done by
means of the fantasia would have been possible without a preceding observation of naturę.
It is in this very context that the word ritrarre, used by Cennini, should be interpreted. For
Cennini this word meant not that much a simple copying of a thing perceived, but, rather,
a process taking place in the artists memory. A painter who follows the ‘triumphal gate of
naturę does not act automatically, but uses his intellect: first he assimilates, or, to put it in
other words, memorises, a given thing, and only later does he re-create it on paper.
Finally, the author goes on to demonstrate, on the basis of the analyses of selected
works of art and written tradition, that the success of Giovannino de Grassi, Gentile da
Fabriano and Michelino da Besozzo in the courtly circles of Pavia and Milan, and later
also in other parts of Italy, was due to a large degree to their skills in exhibiting the qual-
ity that Cennini had called fantasia, and to their ability to produce portraits, that is to
immortalise in the visual medium things observed in naturę. •
Translated by Joanna Wolańska
122
ARTYKUŁY
Mateusz Grzęda
Pavia and Milan, which throve for the most part thanks to the patronage of the Visconti
family. Thus the importance of Lombardy has been emphasised, as a place that had played
a significant role in the birth of portraiture in Italy at the turn of he fifteenth century.
Written accounts found, among others, in the works of north-Italian humanists and art
collectors (e.g. Bartolomeo Fazio and Marcantonio Michiel) directly or indirectly testify
to the crucial role played by the artists associated with the court of the Viscontis in the
dissemination of the new art genre, that is, of portraiture. In this regard, the names of three
artists: Giovannino de Grassi, Gentile da Fabriano and Michelino da Besozzo come to the
fore, as of painters who enjoyed famę both in their lifetime and posthumously.
Particular attention has been focused, however, on a text that originated outside the
main humanist discourse, namely, on Cennino Cenninis treatise II Libro delTArte. It was
written around 1400 by a Tuscan painter who, nonetheless, was well acąuainted with the
reality of north-Italian courtly circles. The author of the treatise underscored that avere
fantasia e hoperazione di mano’ were two ąualities indispensable for practising the art
of painting. The term fantasia seems to have here a similar meaning to that of the Latin
ingenium (mentioned, for example, by Theophilus Presbyter) or the Italian ingegno (which
later occurred in the works of Vasari). Fantasia appears to be the artists main asset which
allows him to bring together the things observed in naturę according to his own liking.
What is, however, equally important is the fact that nonę of the transformations done by
means of the fantasia would have been possible without a preceding observation of naturę.
It is in this very context that the word ritrarre, used by Cennini, should be interpreted. For
Cennini this word meant not that much a simple copying of a thing perceived, but, rather,
a process taking place in the artists memory. A painter who follows the ‘triumphal gate of
naturę does not act automatically, but uses his intellect: first he assimilates, or, to put it in
other words, memorises, a given thing, and only later does he re-create it on paper.
Finally, the author goes on to demonstrate, on the basis of the analyses of selected
works of art and written tradition, that the success of Giovannino de Grassi, Gentile da
Fabriano and Michelino da Besozzo in the courtly circles of Pavia and Milan, and later
also in other parts of Italy, was due to a large degree to their skills in exhibiting the qual-
ity that Cennini had called fantasia, and to their ability to produce portraits, that is to
immortalise in the visual medium things observed in naturę. •
Translated by Joanna Wolańska
122
ARTYKUŁY
Mateusz Grzęda