Marina Volonté (San Lorenzo Archaeological Museum), Marco Tanzi (Salento University) and Fabrizio Slavazzi (Milan University) present the book:

Girolamo da Carpi disegnatore (Giralomo da Carpi, a draftsman)

The Roman notebook of the Royal Library in Turin

by Anna Maria Riccomini and Claudia Magna

Dedicated and sensitive painter, architect and draftsman, Girolamo da Carpi (1501-1556), who was born in Ferrara, was an artist able to intrigue even the modern observer. In Rome, in the 16th century, he was appreciated as an expert of the classic statues and, especially, as a skilled architect of gardens with antiques: as it was said by Vasari, “he was so good at this activity that everyone appreciated him». When he started to work for the Pope Giulio III and the bishop Ippolito II d’Este, who employed him in his residences in Roma and in the construction site of the Tivoli Villa during his last stay in Rome (1549-1553), Girolamo seemed to forget a little bit the painting preferring the drawing. We have 180 sheets of his Roman notebook and they are today divided between the Royal Library in Turin (90), the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia (85) and the British Museum (5). These drawings reveal the soul of an artist who was fascinated by the ancient marbles but also paid a tribute to the artworks of the great masters: Raffaello and his followers, Michelangelo, Parmigianino. The recent studies studied the activity of Girolamo da Carpi but they did not focus specifically on the Notebook: this catalogue aims at updating (for the Turin section) the edition of the year 1976 by Norman W. Canedy, giving more space to the antiques’ drawings in which Girolamo, using the words of Frederick Antal, «made the stones come to life».

Anna Maria Riccomini teaches History of Classic Art at the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage of Pavia University. She graduated in Pisa which a graduation thesis about the Roman Notebook of Girolamo da Carpi and since that moment, the famous artist from Ferrara has accompanied her studies about the antiques’ drawings and the antiques’ collecting. She has recently participated to the Papers of the International Conference entitled “Disegnare l’antico, riproporre l’antico nel Cinquecento. Taccuino, copie e studi intorno a Girolamo da Carpi”, curated by A. Pattanaro e S. Ferrari”, with a study entitled “Alla ricerca dei modelli. Girolamo da Carpi “fedele” disegnatore dall’antico” (Padova University Press, 2019).

Claudia Magna graduated in History of Classic Art at the Musicology and Cultural Heritage Department of Pavia University with Anna Maria Riccomini presenting a thesis on the antiques’ drawings of the French sculpture Antoine - Léonard Dupasquier (1748–1832). For more than one year she has cooperated with the Royal Library in Turin where she has studied the drawings of the Italian School of the 16th century: she has catalogued the entire Turin part of the Roman Notebook and a part of the drawings’ collection which were bought by the King Carlo Alberto di Savoia (some of theme were unpublished).