The exposition is an opportunity to view thirty-nine prints from copper
etchings by Architect Andrea Palladio which were produced in 1575 by the
printing firm of Pietro De’Franceschi & Nipoti of
“I Commentari de C. Giulio Cesare con le
figure in rame de gli alloggiamenti, de’ fatti d’arme, delle circonvallazioni
delle città, e di molte altre cose notabili descritte in essi, fatte da Andrea
Palladio per facilitare a chi legge, la cognition dell’historia”. Dédicace
au Gouverneur Général de l’Église Giacomo Boncompagni.
In the Corpus Caesarianum,
comprising the Commentarii de Bello
Gallico and Comentarii de Bello
Civile (Commentaries on the Gallic War and Commentaries on the Civil War), the
former divided into seven books, Caesar narrates the systematic subjugation of
Gaul by the Romans starting from the expeditions against the Helvetii and
Ariovistus (58 BC) and continuing until the capture of Alesia and the defeat of
Vercingetorix (52 BC). Caesar, in response to opponents who accused him of
abuse of power, describes the war as having been a historical necessity
intended to prevent the Germans from coming dangerously close to the borders of
Rome once they had crossed the Rhine river. An eighth book was added by Aulus
Hirtius, one of his generals, which recounts the events connected with the
beginning of the civil war from 51 to 50 BC.
Palladio acquired an interest in ancient history from the humanist,
Giangiorgio Trissino, and aficionados of military art Valerio Chiericati and
Filippo Pigafetta. The architect completed the etchings of the forty-two copper
plates around 1573-4, which, upon publication, were received with enthusiasm by
contemporary academics such as the historian Marzari, who praises the work in
his Storia di Vicenza (History of
Vicenza. Venice 1591), and by Francesco Algarotti.
The Commentarii represent an important key to understanding
the personality of the architect who, in the course of his career, also
produced studies of Polybius. The study of the classical world through drawings
in chiaroscuro of ancient sources proved useful in the creation of one of his
most interesting works, I Quattro libri
dell’architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), which, apart from
analyzing classical buildings, contains an illustration of the bridge over the
Rhine which Caesar had his troops build. This illustration is part of the
collection on display. In addition to
works from etchings, recent academic studies (Il Cesare di Andrea Palladi. Vicenza 1980) provide greater depth to
the exhibition, showing that his creations were inspired by drawings made by
some of his contemporaries, such as Pirro Ligorio, Giuseppe Porta, Abraham Ortelius
and Georg Braun.
The
success of the Commentarii is
related in the work of academic Giacomo Zanella, who wrote La Vita di Andrea Palladio (The Life of Andrea Palladio, Milan
1880), which was published on the three hundredth anniversary of the death of
the "prince of architects" that the city of Vicenza wished to
commemorate.
The Rinaldi – Tonello collection has been on exhibition in
prestigious museums such as the Mimara Museum of Zagreb, Palazzo del Monte in
Vicenza and at the Grenoble Municipal Library.
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