Un Un episodio nella storia dei modelli plastici ausiliari – il Parere sopra la pittura di Bernardino Campi

Abstract

On the basis of accounts found in the artistic literature it is possible to assert that the auxiliary plastic models were largely used by Italian painters during the 15th and 16th centuries. The function of these little sculptures, made of clay or wax, was to aid the painter in an intermediary stage between the initial sketches and the painting execution. Therefore these elements substituted, because they were more comfortable to the painter, the natural models. It happens that during the last 25 years of the 16th century this practice was affected by a devaluation process that culminated in the contempt for the artists who used it. In 1584 the painter Bernardino Campi published his Parere sopra la pittura, a little text that talks about the making and the use of these models and which – because of a certain delay regarding to the Central Italy – can help us to better understand this practice. What we propose is an introduction to the text followed by his translation.