Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

BARTOLOMEO PINELLI (Rome 1781 - 1835) AENEAS AND THE CUMEAN SYBIL
Pen and brown ink, over traces in black chalk; inscribed 'Giran taciti e soli infra le fosche / tenebre avvolti per le vuote case / di Pluto. Virgilio'. 204 x 135 mm.
A preparatory drawing, in the same direction, for the the figure of Aeneas and the Sybil in the print depicting them entering a cave in Hades, one of the fifty prints illustrating the Aeneid created and etched by Pinelli in 1811. In this Pinelli's drawing the hatching in pen, full of energy, can fully compete with the best pen drawings by the Sabatelli family.

Pinelli was one of Ottocento Italy’s most popular draftsmen and illustrator. Living and working primarily in Rome, he studied at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Pinelli was strongly influenced by Felice Giani's free and abstract figural style, as well as the landscapes of the German painter Franz Kaiserman and the foreign 'veduta' painters of the monuments and ruins of Rome. He specialized in depictions of popular scenes, folklore and rustic tradition. A prolific etcher, Pinelli in his lifetime produced the volume of etchings, 'La Raccolta di Cinquanta Costumi Pittoreschi', and a visual popular history of the city, 'L’istoria Romana', based on Charles Rollin’s 'Histoire Romaine'. In addition, he also illustrated editions of several classic texts.