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Domenico Campagnola

Domenico Campagnola
Born	c.1500 Venice, Italy
Died	c. 1564 Padua, Italy
Occupation	Italian Renaissance Artists

Domenico Campagnola (pronunciation [doˈmeːniko kampaɲɲo'la], c. 1500-1564) was a Renaissance-era italian painter,

adopted, raised, and nurtured by Giulio Campagnola (c. 1482-1515). The main subject of the artist's paintings and engravings were landscapes, usually in drawings and prints. Campagnola, being presumably Venetian, has likely left a major impact on the formation of a general idea of how the area of Veneto, especially Padua, looked like.

Life

Early Career

Head of a Man, 1500-1564, a supposed self-portrait by Domenico Campagnola

Domenico Campagnola was born in c. 1500 in Venice, Republic of Venice. He was adopted by Venetian painter Giulio Campagnola with whom he moved to the city of Padua where he lived and created his art in c. 1518. Besides a great influence from his father, Domenico also followed in the steps of famous Italian painter Titian. Campagnola aided Titian in several frescos being painted in Paduan basilicas.

Maturity

Attributed to be as one of the most detail landscape engravings by Domenico Campagnola, 1530-1535.

Even though Campagnola spent a quarter of his life living in Venice helping his father with various engraved works , Domenico's true genius awakened when he moved to Padua. While being Titian's apprentice, the main focus of Campagnola's work were frescos, however he also worked on landscape drawings, as well as engravings on various materials. Most of these engravings were produced in excess over a relatively short period of time, all signed with the same "Do.Camp." - Domenico Campagnola. His father assisted him with a lot of his work which can be visible from the difference between the early engraving such as Massacre of the Innocents which presumably dated to 1517, and Landscape with Shepherd Driving Away a Wolf which is dated to 1540. The majority of his early works immediately went for sale as they were the main income for him and his father.

The most famous works of Domenico Campagnola remain the landscape engravings, such as Landscape with Saint Jerome, Landscape with Family Walking Together and Saint Jerome in the Wilderness.

The majority of  representations of landscapes of the Veneto that have been preserved since the late fifteenth century comes from Domenico Campagnola's work. Even though Titian was the pioneer of such a technique in that area, and his style echoes in Campagnola's works, Domenico reinvented the naturalism in engravings. An origin of a painting that has truly raised arguments and controversy in the circles of art historians is Mary Magdalene Arriving to Marseilles. A lot thought that it was painted by Titian; Edith Hoffmann has attributed it to Annibale Carracci, and only in 1985 all have agreed that the masterpiece is executed by no other than Campagnola himself. Such a parallel was drawn by comparing it to another art piece which was known to be Domenico's - The Penitent Mary Magdalene. The homogenous theme and character were not critical factors that helped specialists to attribute the other art piece to Campagnola, but rather by taking a very close look at some signature details. Broad and limp brushstrokes as well as emphatic background mountains and up-front meddows, appeared to be almost identical in both paintings. These intrinsic features not only helped art historians to gain a deeper insight into the genius of the painter and engraver but also to identify and attribute some of his other works. Among those paintings are Landscape with a Dragon and Annunciation.

Giusto de Menabuoi, Descend of the Holy Spirit, Baptistery of Padua Cathedral

One of the greatest works by Domenico Campagnola are his twenty-two paintings (1500-ca.1552) that are used as illustrations to the passages in the Book of Revelation, published by Arthur E. Popham. The drawings represent some of the scenes from the Apocalypse cycle, and currently reside at The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. These drawings appear to be copies of the forty two Apocalypse frescos by Giusto de' Menabuoi(1349-ca.1390). Giusto's frescoes are painted on the walls of the Baptistery of Padua Cathedral. Here Campagnola made frequent visits to paint the scenes from the cycle himself, which he found to be the most prominent. Since the total number of fresco is forty two, and Campagnola supposedly copied all of them, some of the works might have been lost but have a high chance of still being discovered. Not only did Campagnola depict the scenes with exquisite miniature details, he also tied in the hemispherical perspective of the walls of the Cathedral where frescoes were initially painted in. Moreover, there are various woodcuts that also correlate with the scenes of Apocalipsis Iesu Christi executed by Albrecht Dürer, Zoan Andrea, Titian, Ugo da Carpi and Domenico Campagnola, based on the initials presented on the plates.

Landscape Drawings and Frescoes

Domenico Campagnola is best known for his landscape drawings, which were often executed in the form of woodcuts or engravings. There were certain conventions in which landscapes were depicted, both Campagnola and and Titian deviated from them which resulted in their unique naturalistic style; such conventions were singular trees in the foreground, small houses and ruins of ancient castles in the background, battered roads and grand mountain ranges. Despite these conventions, Domenico strived to depict the sights with thorough detail and his sophisticated touch.

The majority of Domenico's landscape art was recognized through several of his unique signatures: Domenicus Campagnola, Dc. Cap., Do Camp., Domenicus Patavinus. Here is a list of some of the recognized landscape drawings by Domenico Campagnola:

An example of landscapes engraved by Domenico Campagnola

• Landscape without Figures (Berlin State Museum)
• Landscape with Shepherd and Herd of Castle (Berlin State Museum)
• Landscape with Several Figures (Berlin State Museum)
• Landscape with a Flock of Sheep (Berlin State Museum)
• Study of a Landscape (Berlin State Museum)
• Landscape with Two Striding Figures (Berlin State Museum)
• Landscape with Two Shepherds (London British Museum)
• Large Landscape (Paris, Louvre)
• Landscape with Changing Aspects of Houses (Berlin State Museum)
• Landscape with a Fisherman (Museum Devonshire, Chatsworth)
• Landscape with a Large Castle (Berlin State Museum)
• Study (Paris, Louvre)
• Landscape with Horseman (London, British Museum)
• The Theft of the Europe, Drawing (Florence, Uffizi)

Art historians and critics had a hard time distinguishing a number of art-pieces presented above from Titian's work. Since Domenico was Titian's apprentice for some time, their styles mimic each other in certain aspects, such as exposition and contouring. Some of the works were also thought of to be commenced by the artists together but finished by only one of them. Such works would include Large Landscape, Two Youth in a Landscape and The Adoration of The Shepherds.

One engraving appears to have been begun by Giulio Campagnola and completed by Domenico, perhaps after his father died. He fell out seriously with Titian, 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 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.

An example of a painting by Domenico Campagnola, oil on canvas, c. 1520

Campagnola also has experience in working on frescoes. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that he has collaborated with Titian on frescoes in the Scuola del Santo, three of which are thought to be the majority of Domenico's work: The Embalming of St. Antonius, The Miracle of the Donkey and Opening the Coffin of St. Antonius. In spite of the acquired documentation of the fact that he was commissioned with these frescoes, there are still several inconsistencies with the years when Domenico started his artistic work and when the works were executed.

Aside from engravings and frescoes Campagnola has also left a great legacy as a painter. Such paintings by Domenico as Birth of Christ, St. Elizabeth and the Young Boy John and Two Groups of Playing Putti are know to be a pinnacle of the artist's works. His alterations of light and shading in combination with main figure prevalence, created a unique style in portraying the essence of the plot of his art or depth of the characters presented.

Final Years

A lot is unknown about the late years of Domenico Campagnola, in both his personal and professional life. However, we know that the artist spent his last years in the city where he was brought by his foster father Giulio Campagnola- Padua. There he continued making work in the form of woodcuts that art historians know were his creations, although there were several exceptions.

One of these exceptions is a woodcut Sacrifice of Abraham which is generally attributed to as a work of Titian and Giulio Campagnola. Royal Academy of Arts in London had opened one of the most prominent art exhibitions attributed to Venetian art called The Genius of Venice, from November 25, 1983 to March 11, 1984. The exhibit presented nearly three hundred art pieces by Titian, Jacopo de Barbari, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giulio and Domenico Campagnola, Giorgione and numerous others. Among those works was the Sacrifice which aroused doubts in the minds of art historians, since Giulio was known be working on it in his workshop, to which Domenico had free access. Even though this debate conitnued for the duration of the exhibit, a concrete conclusion was never reached since no empirical evidence was found that would confirm Domenico's input.