Giulio and Domenico Campagnola - Concert by a brook - Google Art Project

Domenico Campagnola (c. 1500–1564) was an Italian painter and printmaker in

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

and

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

of the Venetian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

, but whose most influential works were his drawings of landscapes.

Life and work

Born probably in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, he was the pupil of his father, the leading engraver and painter

Giulio Campagnola Giulio Campagnola (; c. 1482 – c. 1515) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his ...

. He appears to have been adopted by his father as a young boy.Jay A. Levinson (ed.) ''Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art'', pp 410-436 National Gallery of Art, Washington (Catalogue), 1973, LOC 7379624 His grandfather, Girolamo Campagnola was a famous humanist and painter in Padua (end of the 15th century). He was presumably trained initially by his father, and may also have been a pupil of

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

, with whose workshop he was clearly associated. Much of his early painting may be of landscape backgrounds in Titians. He is mainly remembered for his prints and his drawings, especially of landscapes. In his lifetime he was a successful painter, mostly in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

(Giulio's home town), where he was mainly based from the early 1520s onwards, until his death there in 1564. Mostly he painted on walls, including decorative schemes, but portraits and landscapes are also attributed to him. His works as a painter are not highly regarded by modern art historians though some landscapes are of high quality. His engravings, fourteen of which are known, were produced in a short burst in 1517-18, when he was still in his teens; most are dated 1517. On some his name appears in full, on others, abbreviated "Do.Cap" or "Do.Camp." (for "Domenico Campagnola"). He appears to have cut his own blocks for his woodcuts, using a very different style from the professional cutters most artists employed. Like his father he was a versatile and experimental artist. His landscape drawings were produced as finished products for sale; he was one of the first artists to do this. He may have included

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

on some plates, including the ''Old soldier and shepherd''. Domenico Campagnola - Massacre of the Innocents - WGA03807

His most successful prints include his ''Old soldier and shepherd'

his ''Battle of naked men'', and his ''Assumption''. One engraving appears to have been begun by his father and completed by Domenico, perhaps after his father died. He fell out seriously with

, perhaps as a result of the sharp practice which Peter Dreyer has discovered in recent years; it is thought to be Domenico who took very faint counter-proof impressions of some Titian woodcuts, which were then worked over in ink and passed off as Titian's preliminary drawings. This may well have played a part in bringing to an end Titian's first period of serious interest in making prints based on his work; it was to be some decades before he began collaborating with

Cornelius Cort Cornelis Cort (c. 1533 – c. 17 March 1578) was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Italy, where he was known as ''Cornelio Fiammingo''. Biography Born in Hoorn or Edam, Cort may have been a pupil of ...

in producing engravings. None of Campagnola's engravings are direct renderings of paintings by Titian, but many are similar in composition, though very different in handling, even allowing for the difference in medium. Many drawings long considered by

are now thought to be by Domenico, and attribution of many is still disputed, as some earlier drawings are disputed between his father Giulio, Titian, and

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quali ...

. Drawings have also been reattributed from Domenico to Giulio Campagnola. He began by closely following the style of his father and Titian in producing landscapes with figures, but produced larger numbers, and made them directly for sale, so that it is largely through him that this influential typology became widely known. According to James Byam Shaw:"In later drawings, Campagnola debased this style of landscape into a kind of facile mannerism; nevertheless he furnished inspiration for Italian draughtsmen for generations to come, including ... Agostino and Annibale Carracci, and Domenichino and Grimaldi later still."''The Genius of Venice'' op cit, p 243.

Surviving paintings

Most of his paintings have been destroyed. Fresco paintings are to be seen in the Scuola del Santo at

and in

, marked by fresh animated colour and easy brilliant technique. These are sometimes also attributed to his father. A fine panel picture by him representing Adam and Eve is in the

Pitti Palace The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

References

External links

Joconde - many attributed drawings from French museumsNGA washington; three drawings and a woodcutTwo drawings and a biography from the GettyNumerous drawings and engravings by Campagnola
*
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Domenico Campagnola (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Campaganola, Domenico 1500s births 1564 deaths 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Venice Renaissance painters Italian printmakers