Anatole Tchikine | Dumbarton Oaks (original) (raw)
Books by Anatole Tchikine
• A cultivated patrician, a prolific playwright, and a passionate student of local antiquity, Fra... more • A cultivated patrician, a prolific playwright, and a passionate student of local antiquity, Francesco Ignazio Lazzari (1634-1717) was a mainstay of the artistic and intellectual life of Città di Castello, an Umbrian city that maintained a remarkable degree of cultural autonomy during the early modern period. He was also the first author to identify the correct location of the lost villa "in Tuscis" owned by the Roman writer and statesman Pliny the Younger and known through his celebrated description. Lazzari's reconstruction of this ancient estate, in the form of a large-scale drawing and a textual commentary, adds a unique document to the history of Italian gardens while offering a fascinating perspective on the role of landscape in shaping his native region's identity. Published with an English translation for the first time since its creation, this manuscript is framed by the scholarly contributions of Anatole Tchikine and Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey. At the core of their discussion is the interplay of two distinct ideas of antiquity-one embedded in the regional landscape and garden culture of Umbria and the other conveyed by the international tradition of Plinian architectural reconstructions-that provide the essential context for understanding Lazzari's work. ex horto Dumbarton Oaks Texts in Garden and Landscape Studies isbn 978-0-88402-487-3 DUMBARTON OAKS Research Libr ary and Collection www.doaks.org/publications Discrizione della villa pliniana • Lazzari • Tchikine • Du Prey Cover illustration: Francesco Ignazio Lazzari, Reconstruction drawing of the "Tuscan" villa of Pliny the Younger, before 1704
Papers by Anatole Tchikine
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2024
If the study of garden history, as traditionally conceived, requires a justification, a pertinent... more If the study of garden history, as traditionally conceived, requires a justification, a pertinent line of inquiry lies in the explication of the diverse roles that gardens played in the context of the early modern city. This discussion, however, is hindered by the anachronistic opposition between utility and pleasure, in addition to pervasive paradisiacal and pastoral associations that perpetuate a distinctly elitist image of these amenities. This article, using the example of sixteenth- through eighteenth-century Florence, challenges such assumptions by interpreting the network of recreational and productive properties within the city as an informal green infrastructure, reintegrating their narratives into the broader history of public space. By revaluating the social and economic meanings of gardens through the dual lenses of their accessibility and their productive use, this analysis shows specific ways in which they defined the urban landscape of early modern Italy, while also suggesting how they may have been experienced by nonelite visitors.
Nigrone's manuscript includes an impressive portfolio of fountain drawings that he ostensibly pro... more Nigrone's manuscript includes an impressive portfolio of fountain drawings that he ostensibly produced for an array of influential patrons in Naples, Rome, and Florence. These projects create an impression of a well-connected individual with an established professional reputation, who was sought after both for his artistic services and technical expertise. The principal source of this information, however, is Nigrone himself, as his manuscript constitutes the only proof of most of these commissions. The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, on the basis of scant but revealing archival evidence, it scrutinizes Nigrone's annotations to his drawings and the information that they provide. In the light of this analysis, Nigrone emerges as an ambitious individual craving professional recognition and social prestige, who used his largely invented patronage network as a strategy of self-promotion. Second, this essay explains his method of artistic appropriation, which, in addition to adapting pictorial compositions generally derived from contemporary erotic prints, also drew inspiration from first-hand observation of garden sculpture. The result is a critical reappraisal of Nigrone's drawings in terms of their original audience and function, which is key to enabling a more accurate reading of his manuscript as a historical source that offers valuable insights into the late sixteenth-century practice of fountain design. My first encounter with Nigrone dates back to the late 1990s. It occurred in conjunction with work on my dissertation on the artistic patronage of Don Luis de Toledo, whose Neapolitan palace at Pizzofalcone has since become the subject anatole tchikine Giovanni Antonio Nigrone, his fountains, and his clients: facts and fabrications * * I am grateful to Peter Cherry, who was the first to spot the dependence of some of Nigrone's drawings on sixteenth-century prints; to the late Michael McCarthy for encouraging my interest in what he referred to as garden "pornography"; to Charles Avery for signaling Cesare D'Onofrio's knowledge of Nigrone's work; to Maria Gabriela Mansi, Maria Rosaria Grizzuti, Serena Lucianelli, and other staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli «Vittorio Emanuele III» for making the manuscript available for consultation and providing its digital photographs; and to David Gentilcore, Diego Carnevale, and especially Gaia Bruno for their valuable suggestions and generous assistance. This research had been in part supported by a Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Studies fellowship in 2010-11; some of the material was subsequently presented at the Society of Architectural Historians annual conference in April 2013, in a session organized by Tracy Ehrlich and Katherine Bentz.
Ernst Kris, The Rustic Style, 2023
... Having got off the train at Attigliano-Bomarzo (it was 6:20 am), we discovered that Bomarzo w... more ... Having got off the train at Attigliano-Bomarzo (it was 6:20 am), we discovered that Bomarzo was connected to the railway station in quite a primitive way. In fact, it was necessary first to use a ferry; one had to traverse an impassible marshy area to reach it and then to walk for 6 km on foot along a poorly maintained horse track. The town appeared to us clinging to the ridge of a rock dominated by the castle (one of the Orsini castles), which now houses the municipal offices. In a small valley below the town we found, rising on a plateau, the temple that we were looking for, from which point on one could discern some colossal statues that compelled us to make a quick reconnaissance of the area. The sight of the whole architectural ensemble, half-concealed by shrubbery, confounded our vision, astounded us, and made us forget the purpose of our journey. When, at 3 pm, we had to leave the area to avail of the ferry (which operated only until sunset), a decision had already matured among us. We no longer wanted to limit our research to the temple, but to include the whole architectural ensemble in an attempt to capture its overall design, which the villa’s ingenious creator (for, indeed, we were dealing with the remains of the former Villa Orsini at Bomarzo) had used as the basis for his project. Monsters, fountains, nymphaea, and the strange leaning house, which seemed as though it was trying to regain equilibrium, captivated our imagination and compelled us to master the language of these monuments, making them the object of our study. A realization of this desire turned out anything but easy. In fact, time and human actions cut the binding thread that had connected different pieces and imposed on us research tasks that ranged from excavations to interpreting shapeless ruins that emerged from the earth. (The greatest damage seems to have been caused by treasure-hunters attracted by the hoard that, according to legend, lay hidden in the area.) Besides, the distance from Rome imposed on us considerable material costs. A great difficulty we faced was that vast amount of work had to be carried out in the uneven terrain full of scrubs and rocky outcroppings, which time and again made our operations very hard. We managed all along; and, initially by using steps and then with the help of a tachymeter [a surveying instrument for measuring distances], produced the first plan of the villa. With accurate measurements, we captured the dimensions of the monsters and every part of the temple. (In the latter’s case, for the sake of precision, we even had to hoist ourselves precariously to the cupola.) And yet, all along, we still could not find the binding thread connecting various pieces, which, for this reason, appeared to us sadly isolated from each another in space. We decided to move in and live on site. The ‘leaning house’ offered us a hard and cold, almost hostile, dwelling, but hardly anything else in its state of abandonment. It could not even give us the comforts of being a shelter from the rain; the cold and the wind were given full rein. We were forced to prepare the same meals out in the open, making daily trips to the town to fetch food, water, or kerosene, on which we had to rely to refill the gasoline lamp that we had brought with us in the vain hope of obtaining the right kind of fuel onsite.
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes
Military Landscapes, 2021
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 2021
The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula, ed. Ana Duarte Rodrigues and Carmen Toribio, 2020
" 'The Immensity of the Universe' in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni," exh. cat., ed. Sheila Barker, 2020
The holdings of the State Archive in Pisa include a small sixteenth-century bound volume entitled... more The holdings of the State Archive in Pisa include a small sixteenth-century bound volume entitled "Spese occorse nel viaggio fatto da un' semplicista per ritrovare piante e minerali d'ordine di S[ua] A[ltezza] S[erenissima] e compre fatte di d[ett]e piante e minerali" -"Travel expenses of an herbalist sent on a trip in search of plants and minerals by order of His Most Serene Highness, and purchases made of these plants and minerals." 1 This manuscript, finished around 31 October 1600, is a comprehensive record of a two-month botanizing expedition to Liguria undertaken a year earlier, in July-September 1599, by Fra Francesco Malocchi (d. 1614) on the authority of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de' Medici (r. 1587-1609). Between 1595 and 1614, Malocchi -a Franciscan Minorite friar and practicing herbalist -was the superintendent of the Orto Botanico in Pisa, a university-affiliated botanical garden founded under the grand ducal patronage.
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 2016
• A cultivated patrician, a prolific playwright, and a passionate student of local antiquity, Fra... more • A cultivated patrician, a prolific playwright, and a passionate student of local antiquity, Francesco Ignazio Lazzari (1634-1717) was a mainstay of the artistic and intellectual life of Città di Castello, an Umbrian city that maintained a remarkable degree of cultural autonomy during the early modern period. He was also the first author to identify the correct location of the lost villa "in Tuscis" owned by the Roman writer and statesman Pliny the Younger and known through his celebrated description. Lazzari's reconstruction of this ancient estate, in the form of a large-scale drawing and a textual commentary, adds a unique document to the history of Italian gardens while offering a fascinating perspective on the role of landscape in shaping his native region's identity. Published with an English translation for the first time since its creation, this manuscript is framed by the scholarly contributions of Anatole Tchikine and Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey. At the core of their discussion is the interplay of two distinct ideas of antiquity-one embedded in the regional landscape and garden culture of Umbria and the other conveyed by the international tradition of Plinian architectural reconstructions-that provide the essential context for understanding Lazzari's work. ex horto Dumbarton Oaks Texts in Garden and Landscape Studies isbn 978-0-88402-487-3 DUMBARTON OAKS Research Libr ary and Collection www.doaks.org/publications Discrizione della villa pliniana • Lazzari • Tchikine • Du Prey Cover illustration: Francesco Ignazio Lazzari, Reconstruction drawing of the "Tuscan" villa of Pliny the Younger, before 1704
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2024
If the study of garden history, as traditionally conceived, requires a justification, a pertinent... more If the study of garden history, as traditionally conceived, requires a justification, a pertinent line of inquiry lies in the explication of the diverse roles that gardens played in the context of the early modern city. This discussion, however, is hindered by the anachronistic opposition between utility and pleasure, in addition to pervasive paradisiacal and pastoral associations that perpetuate a distinctly elitist image of these amenities. This article, using the example of sixteenth- through eighteenth-century Florence, challenges such assumptions by interpreting the network of recreational and productive properties within the city as an informal green infrastructure, reintegrating their narratives into the broader history of public space. By revaluating the social and economic meanings of gardens through the dual lenses of their accessibility and their productive use, this analysis shows specific ways in which they defined the urban landscape of early modern Italy, while also suggesting how they may have been experienced by nonelite visitors.
Nigrone's manuscript includes an impressive portfolio of fountain drawings that he ostensibly pro... more Nigrone's manuscript includes an impressive portfolio of fountain drawings that he ostensibly produced for an array of influential patrons in Naples, Rome, and Florence. These projects create an impression of a well-connected individual with an established professional reputation, who was sought after both for his artistic services and technical expertise. The principal source of this information, however, is Nigrone himself, as his manuscript constitutes the only proof of most of these commissions. The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, on the basis of scant but revealing archival evidence, it scrutinizes Nigrone's annotations to his drawings and the information that they provide. In the light of this analysis, Nigrone emerges as an ambitious individual craving professional recognition and social prestige, who used his largely invented patronage network as a strategy of self-promotion. Second, this essay explains his method of artistic appropriation, which, in addition to adapting pictorial compositions generally derived from contemporary erotic prints, also drew inspiration from first-hand observation of garden sculpture. The result is a critical reappraisal of Nigrone's drawings in terms of their original audience and function, which is key to enabling a more accurate reading of his manuscript as a historical source that offers valuable insights into the late sixteenth-century practice of fountain design. My first encounter with Nigrone dates back to the late 1990s. It occurred in conjunction with work on my dissertation on the artistic patronage of Don Luis de Toledo, whose Neapolitan palace at Pizzofalcone has since become the subject anatole tchikine Giovanni Antonio Nigrone, his fountains, and his clients: facts and fabrications * * I am grateful to Peter Cherry, who was the first to spot the dependence of some of Nigrone's drawings on sixteenth-century prints; to the late Michael McCarthy for encouraging my interest in what he referred to as garden "pornography"; to Charles Avery for signaling Cesare D'Onofrio's knowledge of Nigrone's work; to Maria Gabriela Mansi, Maria Rosaria Grizzuti, Serena Lucianelli, and other staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli «Vittorio Emanuele III» for making the manuscript available for consultation and providing its digital photographs; and to David Gentilcore, Diego Carnevale, and especially Gaia Bruno for their valuable suggestions and generous assistance. This research had been in part supported by a Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Studies fellowship in 2010-11; some of the material was subsequently presented at the Society of Architectural Historians annual conference in April 2013, in a session organized by Tracy Ehrlich and Katherine Bentz.
Ernst Kris, The Rustic Style, 2023
... Having got off the train at Attigliano-Bomarzo (it was 6:20 am), we discovered that Bomarzo w... more ... Having got off the train at Attigliano-Bomarzo (it was 6:20 am), we discovered that Bomarzo was connected to the railway station in quite a primitive way. In fact, it was necessary first to use a ferry; one had to traverse an impassible marshy area to reach it and then to walk for 6 km on foot along a poorly maintained horse track. The town appeared to us clinging to the ridge of a rock dominated by the castle (one of the Orsini castles), which now houses the municipal offices. In a small valley below the town we found, rising on a plateau, the temple that we were looking for, from which point on one could discern some colossal statues that compelled us to make a quick reconnaissance of the area. The sight of the whole architectural ensemble, half-concealed by shrubbery, confounded our vision, astounded us, and made us forget the purpose of our journey. When, at 3 pm, we had to leave the area to avail of the ferry (which operated only until sunset), a decision had already matured among us. We no longer wanted to limit our research to the temple, but to include the whole architectural ensemble in an attempt to capture its overall design, which the villa’s ingenious creator (for, indeed, we were dealing with the remains of the former Villa Orsini at Bomarzo) had used as the basis for his project. Monsters, fountains, nymphaea, and the strange leaning house, which seemed as though it was trying to regain equilibrium, captivated our imagination and compelled us to master the language of these monuments, making them the object of our study. A realization of this desire turned out anything but easy. In fact, time and human actions cut the binding thread that had connected different pieces and imposed on us research tasks that ranged from excavations to interpreting shapeless ruins that emerged from the earth. (The greatest damage seems to have been caused by treasure-hunters attracted by the hoard that, according to legend, lay hidden in the area.) Besides, the distance from Rome imposed on us considerable material costs. A great difficulty we faced was that vast amount of work had to be carried out in the uneven terrain full of scrubs and rocky outcroppings, which time and again made our operations very hard. We managed all along; and, initially by using steps and then with the help of a tachymeter [a surveying instrument for measuring distances], produced the first plan of the villa. With accurate measurements, we captured the dimensions of the monsters and every part of the temple. (In the latter’s case, for the sake of precision, we even had to hoist ourselves precariously to the cupola.) And yet, all along, we still could not find the binding thread connecting various pieces, which, for this reason, appeared to us sadly isolated from each another in space. We decided to move in and live on site. The ‘leaning house’ offered us a hard and cold, almost hostile, dwelling, but hardly anything else in its state of abandonment. It could not even give us the comforts of being a shelter from the rain; the cold and the wind were given full rein. We were forced to prepare the same meals out in the open, making daily trips to the town to fetch food, water, or kerosene, on which we had to rely to refill the gasoline lamp that we had brought with us in the vain hope of obtaining the right kind of fuel onsite.
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes
Military Landscapes, 2021
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 2021
The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula, ed. Ana Duarte Rodrigues and Carmen Toribio, 2020
" 'The Immensity of the Universe' in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni," exh. cat., ed. Sheila Barker, 2020
The holdings of the State Archive in Pisa include a small sixteenth-century bound volume entitled... more The holdings of the State Archive in Pisa include a small sixteenth-century bound volume entitled "Spese occorse nel viaggio fatto da un' semplicista per ritrovare piante e minerali d'ordine di S[ua] A[ltezza] S[erenissima] e compre fatte di d[ett]e piante e minerali" -"Travel expenses of an herbalist sent on a trip in search of plants and minerals by order of His Most Serene Highness, and purchases made of these plants and minerals." 1 This manuscript, finished around 31 October 1600, is a comprehensive record of a two-month botanizing expedition to Liguria undertaken a year earlier, in July-September 1599, by Fra Francesco Malocchi (d. 1614) on the authority of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de' Medici (r. 1587-1609). Between 1595 and 1614, Malocchi -a Franciscan Minorite friar and practicing herbalist -was the superintendent of the Orto Botanico in Pisa, a university-affiliated botanical garden founded under the grand ducal patronage.
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 2016
A study of artistic sources, iconography, and meaning of the Chafariz das Necessidades (1747–50) ... more A study of artistic sources, iconography, and meaning of the Chafariz das Necessidades (1747–50) in Lisbon, this article attempts to reconstruct the history of the obelisk fountain from its emergence in Rome in the work of Gianlorenzo Bernini and Filippo Barigioni to its arrival in Portugal in the mid eighteenth century. An important instance of cross-cultural exchange, the creation of the Chafariz das Necessidades is interpreted as an act of artistic appropriation of a distinct type of fountain associated with the papal capital, placing it in the context of urban renewal initiated by King João V (r. 1706–50) with the construction of the Águas Livres aqueduct.
