Lot Essay
This view of Pisa may have been intended by the artist as a stage design for one of two plays with a Pisan setting performed respectively in Siena in 1536 and in Florence in 1540.
The attribution to Beccafumi was first made in 1943 by John Pope-Hennessy, who dated the drawing to the years the artist worked for the Duomo in Pisa, between 1536 and 1540, J. Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., 1943. Sir John compared it with a view of Siena, now divided between the British Museum and the Louvre, A. De Marchi in Beccafumi e la sua maniera difficolta del disegno senese, exhib. cat., Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, Siena, 1990, p. 424, figs 15a-b. A few townscapes by the artist survive, one of a street in Siena in a private collection (Sanminiatelli, p. 137, no. 1) and a view of San Gimigniano in the British Museum (inv. 1895-9-15-584). Another view of Pisa is recorded in a sketchbook by a follower of Beccafumi sold at Christie's in 1959 and first published by Rinaldo de Liphart Rathshoff, Un Libro di Schizzi di Domenico Beccafumi, Florence, 1935, p. 66, fig. 55: this shows the apse of the Duomo at Pisa.
The present drawing is not an accurate topographical representation of Pisa. In it the city is viewed from the southern bank of the River Arno with the Ponte di Mezzo in the foreground. The Lungarno is lined with palazzi. Beyond the bridge the Borgo leads to the Piazza dei Miracoli with the Leaning Tower, the Duomo and the Baptistry. The Piazza dei Miracoli is in fact much farther from the Borgo and closer to the walls of the western part of the city. Another inaccuracy is the presence of the two bridges flanking the view which in fact should be inside the walls.
For these reasons Pope-Hennessy proposed in 1943 that this drawing was a design for the stage. Catherine Monbeig-Goguel concurred with this idea, and observed that the presence of the stairs in the foreground and the two balanced buildings framing the drawing on either side would be consistent with this view.
Executing stage designs was not an unusual task for artists of the Renaissance. Sir John noted that other Sienese masters were involved in such activities: Neroni designed the proscenium for the Hortenzio given by the Academici degli Intronati, while Pacchia was a member of the Congrega dei Rozzi.
The dating of Beccafumi's visits to Pisa is relevant to the possible identification of the play for which the drawing may have been intended. According to Vasari, who met Beccafumi in Pisa, the Sienese artist was not a very keen traveller, telling the writer that when 'he was away from the air of Siena and every comfort, [he] did not seem able to do anything', G. Vasari, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, New York, 1963, III, p. 148. Vasari mentions two visits in Pisa, the first on Beccafumi's return from Genoa in 1541 and the second when he executed commissions for the Duomo.
Vasari states that Beccafumi went in 1541 to Genoa to work for Prince Andrea Doria and met Perino del Vaga there: on Beccafumi's way back to Siena, he may have stopped in Pisa. There is no archival evidence of Beccafumi's presence in Genoa at the date advanced by Vasari, and Sanminiatelli proposed that the visit actually happened in 1533-4, noting the absence of any mention of the artist in Sienese archives of this period and that Perino left the city for Rome in 1537-8, op. cit., p. 177-8.
Beccafumi's other visit to Pisa mentioned by Vasari must have been between 1536 and 1540, when he was involved with comprehensively documented commissions for the Duomo. The first contract was awarded in 1536. At no point before October 1539 is any visit to Pisa explicitly mentioned in the archives. Beccafumi was then asked to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of San Lorenzo in the Duomo. By the terms of the contract he was obliged 'de' venire a dipingere fra du' mexi in Pisa' [to come and paint for two months in Pisa], op. cit., p. 59. The altarpiece did not meet with the patron's approval, as is mentioned in 1546, when the final payment was made: 'per una tavola dipintoci in Pisa fa per l'altare di S. Lorenzo e altri tituli...e non si fa altro perchè e lavoro non fu del paraghone chome si chonvenimo, e più volte si gl'è fatto intendere venghi a rasetarla, ne mai è vento' [for a panel painted in Pisa for the altar of Saint Lorenzo and others...and he won't do others because the work was not of the standards as agreed; he was asked on several occasions to come and retouch it, but he never came], op. cit., p. 62. This dissatifaction put a stop to the artist's association with the Duomo. It is therefore likely that Beccafumi's visits to Pisa took place after 1534, the date proposed by Maccherini, and before 1540, when he lost interest in the San Lorenzo altarpiece.
During the relevant period two plays were produced for which representations of Pisa would have been appropriate. The first was a comedy L'Amor Costante written by Alessandro Piccolomini and performed on the occasion of Emperor Charles V's entry into Siena in 1536. Little is known about the design for the play except that the prologue identified the location as Pisa. Beccafumi's involvement in Charles V's entry is described by Vasari in his Vite: 'Domenico made a horse of pasteboard, eight braccia high, supported by an iron framework, surmounted by a statue of the emperor in the antique style, holding his baton'. The horse was made to accompany the emperor through Siena, but Charles V's visit was postponed and the horse was kept for the next occasion. It is possible that Beccafumi's involvement went further than this large temporary sculpture and that he designed the setting for the play.
The second comedy set in the city of Pisa, Il Commodo, was written by Antonio Landi and performed in Florence in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio on the 27 June 1539 for the wedding of Duke Cosimo I and Eleanor of Toledo. The producer of Il Commodo was Aristotile da Sangallo (1481-1551) and the stage design was described by Vasari in his life of Sangallo: '[the scene] assembled a great variety of windows, doors, façades of palaces, streets and receeding distances, all in perspective. He also represented the leaning tower, the cupola and the round church of S. Giovanni with other things of the city', G. Vasari, op. cit, p. 297. The viewpoint of Aristotile de Sangallo's project was similar to that of the present drawing: a contemporary letter attests: 'tra gli spettatori et la scena, congiunto col palco di quella, uno assai spazioso canale, dipinto dentro et dintorno on tal modo che pareva l'Arno' [between the spectators and the scene, a large canal was painted inside and around in such a way that it looked like the Arno], P.F. Gambullari in L. Zorzi, Il teatro e la città. Saggi sulla scena italiana, Turin, 1977, pp. 194-5, note 99. Beccafumi is not mentioned in any account of Il Commodo, but it is possible that Sangallo was aware of the Pope-Hennessy drawing which is more likely to have been executed in connection with the earlier Sienese festivity.
Ferdinando Ghelli's reconstruction of the Sangallo project takes this drawing as its basis, the stage project is reproduced in E. Tolaini, Pisa: La città nella Storia d'Italia, Roma, 1992, p. 106, fig. 95.
The attribution to Beccafumi was first made in 1943 by John Pope-Hennessy, who dated the drawing to the years the artist worked for the Duomo in Pisa, between 1536 and 1540, J. Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., 1943. Sir John compared it with a view of Siena, now divided between the British Museum and the Louvre, A. De Marchi in Beccafumi e la sua maniera difficolta del disegno senese, exhib. cat., Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, Siena, 1990, p. 424, figs 15a-b. A few townscapes by the artist survive, one of a street in Siena in a private collection (Sanminiatelli, p. 137, no. 1) and a view of San Gimigniano in the British Museum (inv. 1895-9-15-584). Another view of Pisa is recorded in a sketchbook by a follower of Beccafumi sold at Christie's in 1959 and first published by Rinaldo de Liphart Rathshoff, Un Libro di Schizzi di Domenico Beccafumi, Florence, 1935, p. 66, fig. 55: this shows the apse of the Duomo at Pisa.
The present drawing is not an accurate topographical representation of Pisa. In it the city is viewed from the southern bank of the River Arno with the Ponte di Mezzo in the foreground. The Lungarno is lined with palazzi. Beyond the bridge the Borgo leads to the Piazza dei Miracoli with the Leaning Tower, the Duomo and the Baptistry. The Piazza dei Miracoli is in fact much farther from the Borgo and closer to the walls of the western part of the city. Another inaccuracy is the presence of the two bridges flanking the view which in fact should be inside the walls.
For these reasons Pope-Hennessy proposed in 1943 that this drawing was a design for the stage. Catherine Monbeig-Goguel concurred with this idea, and observed that the presence of the stairs in the foreground and the two balanced buildings framing the drawing on either side would be consistent with this view.
Executing stage designs was not an unusual task for artists of the Renaissance. Sir John noted that other Sienese masters were involved in such activities: Neroni designed the proscenium for the Hortenzio given by the Academici degli Intronati, while Pacchia was a member of the Congrega dei Rozzi.
The dating of Beccafumi's visits to Pisa is relevant to the possible identification of the play for which the drawing may have been intended. According to Vasari, who met Beccafumi in Pisa, the Sienese artist was not a very keen traveller, telling the writer that when 'he was away from the air of Siena and every comfort, [he] did not seem able to do anything', G. Vasari, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, New York, 1963, III, p. 148. Vasari mentions two visits in Pisa, the first on Beccafumi's return from Genoa in 1541 and the second when he executed commissions for the Duomo.
Vasari states that Beccafumi went in 1541 to Genoa to work for Prince Andrea Doria and met Perino del Vaga there: on Beccafumi's way back to Siena, he may have stopped in Pisa. There is no archival evidence of Beccafumi's presence in Genoa at the date advanced by Vasari, and Sanminiatelli proposed that the visit actually happened in 1533-4, noting the absence of any mention of the artist in Sienese archives of this period and that Perino left the city for Rome in 1537-8, op. cit., p. 177-8.
Beccafumi's other visit to Pisa mentioned by Vasari must have been between 1536 and 1540, when he was involved with comprehensively documented commissions for the Duomo. The first contract was awarded in 1536. At no point before October 1539 is any visit to Pisa explicitly mentioned in the archives. Beccafumi was then asked to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of San Lorenzo in the Duomo. By the terms of the contract he was obliged 'de' venire a dipingere fra du' mexi in Pisa' [to come and paint for two months in Pisa], op. cit., p. 59. The altarpiece did not meet with the patron's approval, as is mentioned in 1546, when the final payment was made: 'per una tavola dipintoci in Pisa fa per l'altare di S. Lorenzo e altri tituli...e non si fa altro perchè e lavoro non fu del paraghone chome si chonvenimo, e più volte si gl'è fatto intendere venghi a rasetarla, ne mai è vento' [for a panel painted in Pisa for the altar of Saint Lorenzo and others...and he won't do others because the work was not of the standards as agreed; he was asked on several occasions to come and retouch it, but he never came], op. cit., p. 62. This dissatifaction put a stop to the artist's association with the Duomo. It is therefore likely that Beccafumi's visits to Pisa took place after 1534, the date proposed by Maccherini, and before 1540, when he lost interest in the San Lorenzo altarpiece.
During the relevant period two plays were produced for which representations of Pisa would have been appropriate. The first was a comedy L'Amor Costante written by Alessandro Piccolomini and performed on the occasion of Emperor Charles V's entry into Siena in 1536. Little is known about the design for the play except that the prologue identified the location as Pisa. Beccafumi's involvement in Charles V's entry is described by Vasari in his Vite: 'Domenico made a horse of pasteboard, eight braccia high, supported by an iron framework, surmounted by a statue of the emperor in the antique style, holding his baton'. The horse was made to accompany the emperor through Siena, but Charles V's visit was postponed and the horse was kept for the next occasion. It is possible that Beccafumi's involvement went further than this large temporary sculpture and that he designed the setting for the play.
The second comedy set in the city of Pisa, Il Commodo, was written by Antonio Landi and performed in Florence in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio on the 27 June 1539 for the wedding of Duke Cosimo I and Eleanor of Toledo. The producer of Il Commodo was Aristotile da Sangallo (1481-1551) and the stage design was described by Vasari in his life of Sangallo: '[the scene] assembled a great variety of windows, doors, façades of palaces, streets and receeding distances, all in perspective. He also represented the leaning tower, the cupola and the round church of S. Giovanni with other things of the city', G. Vasari, op. cit, p. 297. The viewpoint of Aristotile de Sangallo's project was similar to that of the present drawing: a contemporary letter attests: 'tra gli spettatori et la scena, congiunto col palco di quella, uno assai spazioso canale, dipinto dentro et dintorno on tal modo che pareva l'Arno' [between the spectators and the scene, a large canal was painted inside and around in such a way that it looked like the Arno], P.F. Gambullari in L. Zorzi, Il teatro e la città. Saggi sulla scena italiana, Turin, 1977, pp. 194-5, note 99. Beccafumi is not mentioned in any account of Il Commodo, but it is possible that Sangallo was aware of the Pope-Hennessy drawing which is more likely to have been executed in connection with the earlier Sienese festivity.
Ferdinando Ghelli's reconstruction of the Sangallo project takes this drawing as its basis, the stage project is reproduced in E. Tolaini, Pisa: La città nella Storia d'Italia, Roma, 1992, p. 106, fig. 95.