The Procaccini and the Business of Painting in Early Modern Milan

Abstract

The novelty of Angelo Lo Conte’s book lies in its approach to the study of the Procaccini brothers’ careers which are analysed for the very first time through a socio-economic framework, interconnecting Camillo (1551-1629), Carlo Antonio (1555-1630) and Giulio Cesare’s (1574-1625) individual stories and understanding their success as the combination of family strategy, workshop practice and business organisation. The book investigates the practical reasons that prompted the Procaccini to leave Bologna between the end of 1587 and beginning of 1588 and relocate to Milan as well as the strategies enacted by the family members to settle in the new city. In doing so, the volume moves away from a focus on the individual brothers (especially Giulio Cesare, the most talented and widely collected artist of the three brothers) that appear in previous studies on the Procaccini and encloses Camillo, Carlo Antonio, and Giulio Cesare’s careers in a narrative that emphasises their achievements as painters and entrepreneurs. Such an approach allows for an investigation of the choices made by the Procaccini brothers at different times in their careers, the commissions they received, as well as the structure and the geographic focus they assigned to their family workshop. While art historical studies informed by a socio-economic approach have been devoted to cities such as Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, Bologna, this has never been done for Milan. This fact alone reveals the ambitious, bold and innovative approach chosen by the author. The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter One “Old and New Approaches to the Procaccini” gives full credit to Carlo Cesare Malvasia who provides in his Felsina Pittrice (1678) the most complete source on the lives of the Procaccini brothers. Malvasia visited Milan in 1667 where he learned about the Procaccini from Ercole the Younger, Carlo Antonio’s son and the only remaining member of this dynasty of painters. Malvasia’s account on the Procaccini, as pointed out by Lo Conte, is an essay on a family story (p. 15). Before focusing on their individual achievements, Malvasia speaks about the connections between the brothers and states that the family members mutually agreed to leave Bologna. Malvasia also includes several excerpts from treatises written by seventeenth-century authors, such as Francesco Scanelli, Raffaello Soprani, Marco Boschini and Giambattista Marino, that document the fame and status the artists had gained during their lifetimes. Lo Conte draws attention to Girolamo Borsieri’s comments about Giulio Cesare’s excellence in sculpture and his stylistic closeness to Parmigianino as well Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 2022, vol. 22, no. 2, 234–236 https://doi.org/10.1080/14434318.2022.2143766