The Forge of Vulcan






Today I thought I would post some more sketches that I did in Madrid, at the Prado. They are from The Forge of Vulcan by Jacopo Bassano, the painting that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. It was the first painting from which I started drawing on my 2016 trip to Europe.

Here is a link to a reproduction of the original painting:
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/vulcans-forge/ad0e619f-6fe5-4566-b9bc-95a11b63bde2

Yesterday when I was looking for that link I came across a different one for The Forge of Vulcan by Bassano. But this painting was not at the Prado, it was at the Louvre. It had all the figures I remembered, faithfully enacting their usual roles in their usual places. But it seemed a bit different. Perhaps it was in a slightly lighter value range. And it felt more gestural, less meditative, than I had remembered. Here is this other link:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Forge_of_Vulcan_-_Francesco_Bassano_the_Younger_-_Louvre_MNR_258#/media/File:Francesco_Bassano_the_Younger_-_The_Forge_of_Vulcan_-_WGA01423.jpg

It turns out that this is a different Forge of Vulcan, by a different Bassano, Francesco Bassano the Younger. Francesco was the eldest son of Jacopo Bassano, and worked in the family painting workshop with his brothers Giambattista, Girolamo, and Leandro.

I wondered if perhaps in the workshop they had a drawing, or set of drawings, of all the figures, and perhaps still life and landscape elements, that they could use to transfer the same images to multiple canvases, to make saleable versions of the painting for different clients. These drawings, called cartoons, would have holes punched in the paper along the outlines, through which chalk or another drawing material could be pounced, or tapped, onto a canvas to place the elements in the painting.

Perhaps Francesco used cartoons for his work, but they would not have been traced directly from his father’s painting. Francesco’s Forge of Vulcan is about 4 by 6 feet, whereas Jacopo’s is twice that, over 8 by 13 feet. That’s quite a large painting! But I do remember being surprised at its scale there at the Prado. Its size surely drew me in, and magnified the effect of the skillful composing and painting.

I was sad to discover that Francesco committed suicide, shortly after his father died in 1592, struggling with what sounds like depression and anxiety. His brother Leandro continued the family business.

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