Andrea Appiani’s Drawings

The Prints and Drawings Cabinet of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera preserves approximately five hundred drawings by Andrea Appiani (1754–1817). This extensive corpus includes groups of graphic works executed in a variety of techniques, on papers of differing quality and colour. The drawings document the various phases of Appiani’s artistic career, enabling scholars to trace the evolution of his visual language and to study the methods of his creative process.

More than three hundred drawings are contained in an album compiled in 1820 by the publisher, patron, and collector Giuseppe Vallardi (1784–1861). Acquired by the Brera Academy in 1875, the album is now preserved in the Prints and Drawings Cabinet. In addition, approximately 150 drawings are held in albums assembled around 1884, following the donation by Count Borromeo (1815–1885), as well as in a folder gathering studies related to the frescoes in the dome of Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan.

The Vallardi Album and its drawings have recently undergone conservation treatment aimed at restoring the original binding structure, which had been severely compromised. The intervention, currently nearing completion, was carried out by the “Camillo Boito” School of Restoration at the Brera Academy, under the supervision of Maria Chiara Palandri. All the drawings contained in the album - 336 in total - have been catalogued and are available on the SIRBeC platform of the Lombardy Region.

The project foresees the digitisation of all Appiani drawings held within the Historical Collections of the Brera Academy, through the production of high-resolution images to ensure their accessibility and enhancement on the IartNET digital portal.

All works belonging to the artist’s graphic corpus will also be analysed using transmitted and raking light, as well as microscopy, in order to study materials and techniques, with specific attention to the characteristics of the papers and the presence of watermarks. For drawings formerly mounted in albums, new images will also be produced of the verso of the sheets which were previously inaccessible prior to the conservation treatment.

The project further involves the revision of the catalogue entries (updating inventory numbers, bibliographic references, locations, and restoration records) and the creation of new records for drawings discovered on the reverse of the sheets. Data currently available on SIRBeCWeb will be migrated to the SIGeCWeb platform, the national database for state heritage cataloguing.