Watercolour, copy after the Preaching of St John the Baptist, Andrea del Sarto, in the Cloister of the Scalzo (Florence), Cesare Mariannecci, Arundel Society watercolour, before 1889

Monochrome watercolour showing a male figure standing on a rock (St. John the Baptist) precching to a crownd of male a female figures sitting and standing. The scene takes place in a landscape.

Acquired in 1995 from the National Gallery of London.
Watercolour copy made for the Arundel Society and published as a heliogravure in 1889 by Lemercier et Cie.

This monochrome watercolour is a copy made before 1889 (probably during the 1860s) for the Arundel Society by Cesare Mariannecci (ca. 1919-1894) after the fresco painting by Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530) representing the Preaching of Saint John the Baptist. It was printed as an heliogravure and distributed by the Arundel Society in 1889.

Original Work
The Florentine painter Andrea Del Sarto (1486-1530) had a long-life relationship with the Compagnia dello Scalzo for whom he painted in the Scalzo cloister twelve monochrome fresco paintings depicting episodes of the Life of Saint John the Baptist as well as the four Virtues (Faith, Hope, Justice, Charity). He painted the first scene (Baptism of Saint John) around 1507-08 and continued to work on this cycle throughout his career, proceeding in an anticlockwise direction from the figure of Charity (c. 1513) and concluding the last one in 1526.

Arundel Society
The Arundel Society was founded in 1848 to promote knowledge of the art through the publication of reproductions of works of art. The Society was named after Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), important aristocratic patron and collector of the early Stuart period. The Society was intended to reach the largest possible audience through these reproductions. Subjects were chosen because of their instructive meaning rather than their popularity. In addition to copies of famous paintings, the Society published an English translation of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the most excellent painters, made in 1850 by Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi (1785-1789), one of the founding members of the Society.

The Arundel Society popularised Renaissance art, particularly that of the Italian Old Masters, echoing a growing interest for ‘primitives’ in the second half of the nineteenth century. The founding members of the Arundel Society were all acknowledge experts on Italian art. For instance, Sir Charles Eastlake (1793–1865; painter and art administrator), whose house was the meeting point of the Society, was Director of the National Gallery in London from 1855 until 1865 and during his tenure, he began one of the finest collections of Italian art in Britain.

Other preeminent members were John Ruskin (1819-1900, English writer, painter and collector), who supervised projects including the watercolours series of the Upper and Lower Church in Assisi, and Sir Austen H. Layard (1817-1894; English archaeologist, politician, diplomat, collector and writer). Layard lived and travelled in Italy for many years and his knowledge of the country’s art was extensive. It was thanks to Layard’s funding that the Society were able to publish copies of the watercolours made at their direction using chromolithography. Although photography was increasingly popular, as photographs could only be made in black and white, chromolithography was chosen as it was felt to be closer to the principals of the Arundel Society: they were coloured and had the aura of traditional prints. In this way, copies were more like the originals.

The Society reached the height of its popularity in the 1860s. However, by the end of the century, it faced mounting criticism with regards to the accuracy of its watercolour copies. The Society ceased its activities in 1897. At this time the availability of second hand prints had increased and the Society found it difficult to find market for its chromolithographs. Moreover, photographic reproductions were becoming increasingly popular thanks to technical advances. The last display of the Arundel Society’s watercolours took place at the National Gallery and when the Society was dissolved, some watercolours were given to that Institution, while others were acquired by the then South Kensington Museum (now V&A). The outstanding watercolours were transferred from the National Gallery to the V&A in the 1990s.

Andrea Del Sarto’s fortune in the Nineteenth century and the choices made by the Arundel Society
Andrea del Sarto was the leading painter in Florence in the early years of the sixteenth century. His art had a considerable influence on Florentine painting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The image of an exceptionally gifted artist but of a timid nature and a spoiled destiny was created by his first biographer, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). It was perpetuated along the centuries and found an strong echo in romantic nineteenth century fantasy, inspiring literature works such as a play by Alfred de Musset (Andrea del Sarto, 1833) or a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning (Andrea del Sarto, 1855).

Vasari had also called him the ‘faultless’ painter. Although this was considered with positive value in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries, in the Nineteenth century it was connoted as too academic. Moreover, at this time, the poor state of conservation of Del Sarto’s fresco and panel paintings did not help the valuation of his work and he was mainly considered, alongside Fra Bartolommeo, as a follower of the Florentine High Renaissance painters. It explains why only seven of his works were copied by the Arundel Society compared to the numerous copies after Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli or Giotto.

Only two of Andrea del Sarto’s fresco paintings in the Scalzo cloister cycle were copied for the Arundel Society: the Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Cesare Mariannecci (ca. 1919-1894), probably during the 1860s, and the Charity by Edward Kaiser (1820-1895) around 1882 (see Museum no. E.275-1995). They were both published as heliogravure in 1889.

In 1887, around the same period as the Arundel Society’s copies were made, the philologist Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) published an essay entitled La Carità of Andrea del Sarto in the Chiostro dello Scalzo at Florence. The text, accompanied with a engraving and a collotype of the fresco painting, as well as with a collotype of the original cartoon, is a important evidence as to how Andrea Del Sarto and his works were viewed during these years. The image of the accursed artist is certainly enduring but Müller deplores the lack of interest for Andrea Del Sarto’s frescoes and especially their slow and dramatic perishing, “in some places hopelessly destroyed” (p. 15). He adds: “They ought certainly to be copied carefully before it is too late, and if well engraved, they could indeed be a treasure. I only possess the engravings by [Benedetto] Eredi and [Giovanni Battista] Cecchi, Firenze 1794, and they certainly give one but a poor idea of the originals.”

When Max Müller published his text, he was probably not aware of Cesare Mariannecci and Edward Kaiser’s watercolour copies made for the Arundel Society a few years earlier. It is possible, however, that Max Müller’s essay had an influence of the decision to publish in 1889 the copies.

Copyist
Two of Andrea del Sarto’s frescoes were copied for the Arundel Society: the Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Cesare Mariannecci (c. 1919-1894), probably during the 1860s, and the Charity by Edward Kaiser (1820-1895) around 1882. They were both published as heliogravure in 1889.

Cesare Marianneci was one of the most prolific copyist employed by the Arundel Society. He made over eighty watercolour copies for the Society from 1856 to c. 1868. Born in Rome and trained with Tommaso Minardi (1787-1871), Mariannecci settled in Florence in 1859 when he was commissioned the copies of the Brancacci chapel. His copies were criticised, especially by the journal The Athenaeum, for their inaccuracy (the copyist did not show the damages and the cracks of the frescoes) and the standardisation of the different styles of artists. For this reason, Mariannecci was instructed in 1864 to “to avoid all restoration of parts injured or destroyed and to aim at rendering the existing rather than the supposed original one of colour”. Despite this recommendation, the two copies that Mariannecci made in 1866 after Andrea del Sarto’s frescoes in the Chiostro dei Voti (Museum nos. E.272-1995 and E.274-1995) or the present one after the Preaching of St. John the Baptist in the Chiostro dello Scalzo are idealised and do not show conservation issues.

This watercolour is a copy made by Cesare Mariannecci (c. 1919-1894), after Andrea del Sarto’s fresco painting of the Preaching of Saint John the Baptist. The copy was commissioned by the Arundel Society. Founded in 1848, the society commissioned and published reproductions like this one in order to promote knowledge of the art of European Old Masters. This copy was published as an heliogravure in 1889.

The original work by Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), located in the small Scalzo cloister in Florence, belongs to a cycle of frescoes painted between 1507-08 and 1523, depicting episodes of the Life of Saint John the Baptist and the four Virtues. The Preaching was painted around 1515.

E.276-1995