Zprávy památkové péče 2020, 80(3-4):271-281 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2020.3.04

Stucco artist Antonio Melana and artistic migration from Arogno

Jana Zapletalová

Katedra dějin umění, FF Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci

From at least the 1540s to the mid-18th century, there were a large number of masters of various professions in the construction and art industries who came to Bohemia and Moravia from the Lombardy-Ticino lakes, especially the area around Lake Lugano. In the past, their creative activity was often viewed without the necessary context and understanding of the more subtle relationships of individual builders, architects, masons, sculptors, stucco artists, painters, and masters of many other arts and crafts. The article deals with the artistic migration of these inhabitants; many of them were connected by a dense network of kinship and family ties, often coming from one municipality or a limited territory of what is today the Swiss Confederation. It focuses mainly on the hitherto little-known person of Antonio Melana who came from the village of Arogno from Val Mara. The article brings hitherto unknown information about this important stucco artist from the Swiss archives which made it possible to reconstruct the genealogical tree of Melana and identify links to other masters from the circle of architect Baldassare Maggi. It also revises the existing attributes and information about Melana's activities in southern Bohemia on the estates of the lords of Hradec and Rožmberk. It also encourages reflection on the long-term migration preferences of certain families or social communities of the destination parties; in our case, this is the company of Baldassare Maggi, who was surrounded in Bohemia almost exclusively by masters from his native village of Arogno. The article concludes with the question concerning the part of the clients and the role of the artistic network in the appearance of building exteriors and interiors as well as the spread of new trends in construction and artistic production, particularly from the Italian Peninsula and possibly other regions; given the current knowledge and certainly fragmentary state of preservation of sources, however, a general answer is not obtainable. Although there is no doubt about the importance of the role of the clients, a more intimate understanding of how the masters' artistic communities from the Lombardy-Ticino lakes functioned shows that it was not necessarily the specific taste of the builder or a direct assignment on behalf of the client that determined the appearance of buildings and their decorations in the Czech lands from the 1540s.

Keywords: Antonio Melana, Arogno, stucco artists of the 16th Century, Baldassare Maggi, artistic migration, Kratochvíle, artists from the Lombardy-Ticino lakes

Published: September 1, 2020  Show citation