The World of Pasticcio Reflections on Pre-Existing T ext and Music
Thomas Betzwieser · transcript Verlag eBooks · 2021
In place of a proper introduction, I would like to refer to a painting in order to outline the topic with a 'cross-media' example.The illustration (p.28) shows a painting by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1764) entitled Roma Antica which displays a gallery of pictures of Ancient Rome.This painting, held at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1 from around 1755 is painted in the so-called "capriccio style", 2 or to be more precise, it belongs to the genre of architectural capriccio.3 Panini's painting could serve as an illustrative paradigm -in the truest sense -to what is significant for the pasticcio context, since it mirrors features and issues which will accompany our discussion.Firstly, Panini's canvas shows numerous individual paintings which make up an ensemble, i.e. the gallery.We see an assemblage of paintings which are assumed to be by different painters.Thus, authorship is an essential issue here, although we can assume that all these 'paintings in the painting' are by Panini.Panini himself gives at least the impression that there are other painters involved.Fiction or the fictitious character of this gallery seems therefore to be of certain relevance.Transformed into a narrative and told from Panini's point of view, it could be stated thus: I present in my gallery lots of paintings from Ancient Rome, supposed to be of different origins, but they are all by me.Secondly, the layout of the paintings in this gallery is of interest.Undoubtedly, anybody in the 18 th century would have accepted such a 'chaotic' arrangement of pictures.But this imaginary, non-naturalistic feature is typical for the capriccio style, mixing different layers of reality, in particular when buildings and monuments are relocated and coupled together into one panorama.In short: the architectural capriccio has substantially transformed the traditional veduta genre by presenting items in a new order.1 https://www.staatsgalerie.de/g/sammlung/sammlung-digital/einzelansicht/sgs/werk/einzel ansicht/20965FCD40524A159D03D9AC28841490.html,