Gaetano Zompini and the trades of Venice

Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - cover

Gaetano Zompini (1700–1778) was a well-known painter and engraver in Venice in the 1700s. His works appear in many churches and museums, not just in Venice, but around Italy and Europe.

Today, however, he is better known for the Le Arti che vanno per via nella Città di Venezia — The trades on the streets of the city of Venice — first published in 1753, and later reprinted and republished in several editions.

The book contains a series of sixty engravings, made in the 1740s and 1750s, which show the craftsmen, workers and street vendors habitually seen in the campi and calli of Venice.

Gaetano Zompini

Gaetano Zompini was born in 1700 in Nervesa, a small town at the foothills of the Alps, north of Treviso.

His talent for drawing got him to Venice aged 17, where he became an apprentice of Niccolò Bambini, also known as the Cavalier Bambini. Another important influence was Sebastiano Ricci.

Places like the Tolentini church, Palazzo Zinelli, and the Scuola Grande dei Carmini boasted works by Zompini, as do many churches around the Venetian dominions.

Zompini married in 1730. His wife, Lucrezia Alberghetti from Nauplia in Greece, gave him eleven children, some of whom helped in the workshop later. Otherwise, little is known about his family.

The large family was an economic burden, and Zompini relied on the patronage of the artist and art-critic Anton-Maria Zanetti (the elder, most likely) for work. When Zanetti died in 1767, that patronage mostly died up.

Zompini furthermore lost his eyesight later in life, and died poor and destitute in 1778.

The Arti che vanno per via nella Città di Venezia

The inspiration for the Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia no doubt came from an earlier work, the Arti di Bologna (1585–1590) by Annibale Carracci (1560–1609).

In November 1746, Zompini applied for the privilege (a licence) to print such a work, which was granted in January 1747.

To finance the work, Zompini published a flyer, where the project was described as consisting of one hundred plates, depicting “all the commonly exercised trades in Venice by persons who circulate all day in practise of the same.”

The first forty plates were published in 1753, with the following twenty plates probably the next year.

We have no sources as to why the project wasn’t finished. No more than sixty plates were ever published.

The tone of the engravings is sombre and realistic, without any kind of sentimentalism. People are shown doing their trade, visibly tired and dirty. The depictions are respectful of their subjects, without any attempting at ridicule, or just making light of their hardship.

Accompanying each engraving is a short poem in Venetian, written by Don Questini, parish priest of Santa Maria Mater Domini, and a friend of Zompini.

All the poems are translated into English on the pages for the individual plates, linked below.

Editions of the Arti che vanno

The Arti che vanno per via nella Città di Venezia were published in several editions.

The first edition from 1753, with only forty plates, is extremely rare. It might only have been printed in a few copies. The follow-up, probably from the year after, with the next twenty plates, is equally rare.

There’s an edition from 1770, with two indices. The first covers the original forty plates, and the second the last twenty. At least some examples of this edition had the plates coloured by hand, individually and uniquely. See, for some examples, plate #6 and plate #7.

The most successful edition of the Arti che vanno per via nella Città di Venezia was published in 1785, after Zompini’s death. Besides the sixty plates, now with a single index, it also contains a short Memoria to commemorate Zompini.

Other editions appeared until the mid-1800s, when the original copper plates were very worn.

Some English editions exist, with the verses translated rather freely from the Venetian to English, if not entirely rewritten.

Digitised editions

I haven’t found any digitised versions of the 1753/1754 editions online.

An example of the edition from 1770 is available from Google Books, with coloured plates, but with mostly black and white images of appalling quality in the downloadable files.

The 1785 edition is available from the French National Library (complete, but low-quality images) and from the Internet Archive (missing the Memoria and plates 6, 41, 44 and 56, but higher quality images).

List of the depicted trades

  1. Scoa Camin — chimney sweep
  2. Erbariol — seller of vegetables
  3. Conza Zocoli — clog mender
  4. Scoazer — rubbish collector
  5. Conza Careghe — chair maker
  6. Zaletto — seller of sweet maize cakes with butter (zeleto)
  7. Codega — lantern bearer
  8. Carboneri — transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal
  9. Marmotina — street entertainer with a trained marmot
  10. Semena l’Orto — gardener
  11. Osei, che canta — vendor of caged songbirds
  12. Dai Vovi — seller of eggs
  13. Taggia Legne — wood-cutter, chops firewood
  14. Pignate — vendor of pots and pans
  15. Cappe — Mussel seller
  16. Dalla Latte — Milk seller
  17. Scaleter — seller of bussolai and ciambelle
  18. Dai Foli — Bellows seller
  19. Cavà Rii — Canal dredgers
  20. Conza Lavezzi — tinker of copper utensil
  21. Gua — knife grinder
  22. Forcae, Elera ec. — peddlers of brooms and brushers
  23. Foleghe , e Mazzorini — coots and ducks
  24. Porta Bigolo con acqua — water bearer
  25. Caraguoi — snail seller
  26. Sabion — seller of fine sand for cleaning
  27. Fitta Palchi — keeper of theatre boxes
  28. Marcer — door to door salesman of cloth and sewing utensils
  29. Fruttariol — fruit seller
  30. Strazze Ferrut — collector of used iron objects
  31. Frittole — street seller of fritters
  32. Pescaor — street vendor of fish
  33. Aseo — vinegar seller
  34. Scarperut — reseller of used footwear
  35. Dolce de Vedeletto — street vendor of blood pudding
  36. Fassi per battello — vendor of bundles of wicker by boat
  37. Polentina — street vendor of polenta
  38. Cura gattoli — street cleaner
  39. Revendigola — collector and reseller of used clothing
  40. Cazze , e Sculieri — seller of wooden kitchen utensils
  41. Impizza Ferali — lamplighter
  42. Metti Massere — agent of servants and maids
  43. Astrologa — fortune-teller
  44. Coro d’Orbi — choir of blind
  45. Sponze , Naranze , ec. — sponges, brooms and citrus fruit sellers
  46. Inchiostro — vendor of ink and rat poison
  47. Contadin con Polame — farmer selling poultry
  48. Dalle Puine — vendor of ricotta and cheese
  49. Dalla Semola — collector of bran to make bread
  50. Fenestrer — window maker and mender
  51. Veri rotti — street vendor of glassware and collector of broken glass
  52. L’Esca , e Solferini — street seller of tinder, matches and flint
  53. Terrazzer — makers of terrazzo floors
  54. Fa ballar i Cani — street entertainer with dancing dogs
  55. Mondo Novo — peep box operator
  56. Fiorer — street vendor of fresh flowers
  57. Botter — cooper, barrel-maker
  58. Strazzariol — merchant of used clothes and household items
  59. Zaratan — charlatan, snake-oil salesman
  60. Vin in quarta — wine sellers

All the images below are also reproduced on the pages for the individual plates, linked above.

Monochrome prints

These monochrome prints are copied from the 1785 edition.

Coloured prints

These coloured prints are copied from a 1770 edition, with the double index.

Preparatory drawings

Ninety-five studies for the engravings are in the archives of the Museo Correr in Venice. The compositions are easy to recognise, but they’re often mirrored, as the process of printing from the copper plates mirrors the final image.

For some of the plates, there are several studies, where Zompini has tried various compositions, or variations of individual figures. The gallery below therefore contains more than sixty images.

These images are also displayed on the pages for the individual trades.

The resolution of these images is not very high.

Other sources

Zompini’s prints are often used in books and catalogues, so it is not unusual to find them reproduced here and there.

These four images are from Martineau et.al. (1994). The coloured plates were painted manually, and it is noteworthy how different the colours are on these two coloured prints compared to the ones above.

The images are linked to the pages for each plate.

Related articles

External links

Bibliography

Martineau, Jane and Royal Academy of Arts (eds.). La gloria di Venezia: l’arte nel diciottesimo secolo ; Royal Academy of Arts, Londra, 1994, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995. Milano: Electa, 1994.

Zompini, Gaetano. Le arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia inventate ed incise da Gaetano Zompini, Aggiuntavi una memoria di detto autore. Venezia, 1785.

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