Modello

A modello [moˈdɛllo] (plural modelli), from Italian,^[1] is a preparatory study or model, usually at a smaller scale, for a work of art or architecture, especially one produced for the approval of the commissioning patron.^[2] The term gained currency in art circles in Tuscany in the fourteenth century.^[3] Modern definitions in reference works vary somewhat. Alternative and overlapping terms are "oil sketch" (schizzo) and "cartoon" for paintings, tapestry, or stained glass; maquette, plastico or bozzetto^[4] for sculpture or architecture; and architectural model.^[5]

^ The term modello avoids the ambiguity in English of model, which may equally refer to the finished work of art that provided detailed inspiration for a variant or later copy.
^ Glossary, National Gallery, London; Irene Earls; Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, ISBN 0-313-24658-0.
^ The texts from five contracts and other documents 1376–1508 published by Michael Hirst (Hirst and Carmen Bambach Cappel, "A Note on the Word Modello', The Art Bulletin 74.1 (March 1992:172–173) are all Tuscan, as Hirst remarks, though the contemporaneous term extended as far as the Marche.
^ A bozzetto is a roughly-modelled preliminary sketch in clay for a sculpture; those that survive have mostly been kiln-fired to preserve them.
^ Fourteenth century uses of modello in connection with Santa Reparata, Florence, are noted in A. Grote, Studien zur Geschichte der Opera Santa Reparata zu Florenz in Vierzehnten Jahrhundert (Munich 1960:113ff).

[1] The term modello avoids the ambiguity in English of model, which may equally refer to the finished work of art that provided detailed inspiration for a variant or later copy.

[2] Glossary, National Gallery, London; Irene Earls; Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, ISBN 0-313-24658-0.

[3] The texts from five contracts and other documents 1376–1508 published by Michael Hirst (Hirst and Carmen Bambach Cappel, "A Note on the Word Modello', The Art Bulletin 74.1 (March 1992:172–173) are all Tuscan, as Hirst remarks, though the contemporaneous term extended as far as the Marche.

[4] A bozzetto is a roughly-modelled preliminary sketch in clay for a sculpture; those that survive have mostly been kiln-fired to preserve them.

[5] Fourteenth century uses of modello in connection with Santa Reparata, Florence, are noted in A. Grote, Studien zur Geschichte der Opera Santa Reparata zu Florenz in Vierzehnten Jahrhundert (Munich 1960:113ff).

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