Edizioni Carmelitane Editions published a new book by Ruggiero Doronzo—  Iconografia carmelitana al femminile nelle incisioni dell’Archivio Generale dell’Ordine dei Carmelitani di Roma fra Seicento e Settecento. To learn more about this work, we asked the author three questions:

We know that you are involved in the history of Apulian art and have taught a course on the subject at the University of Bari. You also published several essays and monographs on painting and sculpture in southern Italy in the modern period. How did the idea for this volume on Carmelite iconography come about?

 This book is the result of research commissioned by the General Archives of the Carmelites entitled: Engravers and Painters for the Virgin of Mount Carmel, Saints and Venerables of the Carmelite Order. These are from Sister Isabella Piccini, Sebastiano Conca, and other artists active between the second half of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century. While initially the study was to focus on the engravings by a few artistic personalities, as the research progressed, new discoveries continued to be made. Some were seemingly insignificant but others were extraordinarily important in order to broaden the iconographic and iconological analysis to all engravings depicting the female subjects of the Carmelite Order.

The book we have in our hands is a real catalog. How did you plan to set it up?

To make the work easier to consult, the criterion used in setting up the volume takes into account the subject and the chronology of the print. These are translations or d'aprés prints, made on a source model, which was almost always a painting. Then there are “reproduction” prints derived solely from the drawings. When signatures were to be placed at the bottom of the print, that of the author was placed on the left, according to a hierarchical order and in a better position, while the engraver's signature was on the right. The terms pinxit, invenit, and delineavit thus indicate the author of the original and the intellectual and creative person responsible. Facit and sculpsit refer to the engraver. For each engraving, in fact, the name of the draughtsman or painter, that of the engraver, the subject, the technique, the measurements, any inscriptions, the current inventory number and the bibliography of reference (if it is already published) are indicated. This is followed by an iconographic and iconological examination of the image. It was decided to draw up also a biographical profile of the draughtsman and the burinist, their field of reference, as well as to offer some indication of the commissioner where such is indicated.

The subjects represented include Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the great saints Teresa of Avila and Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, and twenty-three blessed and venerable women. Which authors and engravings have impressed you most?

On the basis of philological analysis, it appears that the prints were executed by engravers active in Italy, Flanders, Spain, Bavaria, and Poland. But there are some signed by authors who have escaped the major repertories or others who are anonymous. But they still pose interesting questions both about their identification and their place in the history of engraving. I was most impressed by those for which I was able to find the model they started with. This was the case with an engraving by Leonardo Germo depicting the Virgin of Mount Carmel appearing to Antonio Chiavassa. There is also one by Gaetano Bianchi reproducing a painting of the Virgin preserved in the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie at Colletto near Pinerolo. I also find great beauty in the engravings of Abraham van Diepenbeeck, a Flemish artist. He is capable of conveying theological and Marian messages through images drawn with meticulous graphic skill.