Emily Brontë, Ancona and Maddalena De Leo, a subtle
Fil Rouge
Maddalena
De Leo writes:
 |
| Emily Brontë's drawing |
In
September 2018 news was given in the Brontë
Society Gazette of the recent successful finding of a pencil drawing by Emily
Brontë in Dallas, reported by email. To announce the news Sarah Laycock, the
curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, who after the necessary checks to
ensure the authenticity of the object in question and with the opinion of
experts such as Ann Dinsdale and Jane Sellars, contributed with many
difficulties to the transport of the drawing from America to the UK and its
restoration. It was then displayed in the bicentennial year of the birth of
Emily in the museum to be admired by visitors from all over the world.
The
design in question is entitled 'Ancona' and is signed 'E.J.Brontë 1835', as
usual for the author and the sisters on the sidelines of all their figurative
and literary works. It represents the Arch of Trajan, an important monument of
Roman origin located in the Italian city of Ancona near the port and close to
the hill where the Duomo of S.Ciriaco stands.
One
wonders how and why Emily Brontë wanted to reproduce with her own pencil a
monument she had clearly never seen, located in a place that she could not even
imagine visiting. In fact, the four Brontës especially in their youth often
copied images from books and prints and delighted in building stories around
them with unparalleled imagination. Many of their artistic products, from the
hands of Charlotte, the sisters as well as Branwell, are very accurate copies
of illustrations taken from books they possessed or borrowed.
 |
| Print in the book |
Emily
copied her drawing entitled 'Ancona' from the print contained in the book Life and works of Lord Byron by John
Murray, a grandiose work articulated in several volumes and published in 1833.
The print was by a certain Edward Francis Finden and reproduced a drawing of
Samuel Prout (1783-1852), at the time one of the main masters of watercolors
depicting architectural monuments. Since he had the opportunity to stay in
various European countries including Italy, he painted various sketches of the
most important monuments he had admired in his travels.
The
Arch of Trajan in Ancona dates back to 114-115 AD, and it is named after the
Roman emperor who built it. It was an example of gratitude for the man who had given
the Doric city a port, thus allowing it an important commercial life on the
Adriatic and to the east. The English essayist Joseph Addison (1701) spoke of
the Triumphal Arch of Ancona, built in honor of Trajan, located near the sea in
white marble and exposed to winds and sea air.
Why
did Emily choose to reproduce the drawing from this print? Was she attracted by
the imposing arch or by the fact that it was a tangible proof of the greatness
of the ancient Romans? Would she have liked to see it in person?
 |
| The arch today |
Analyzing
at the same time the drawing of Emily and the print of Finden taken from Prout
I can immediately notice the almost complete elimination of the crowd of people
walking near the Roman monument. Emily thus emphasizes the Arch which, by
itself stands out in the centre of the image appearing closer to the observer
than it is in the drawing reproduced in print. For this purpose, the details of
the hill with the cathedral beyond the Arch, well outlined in the press, are
almost absent in Emily’s drawing. I even hypothesize that Emily's interest in
Ancona finds an echo in the name 'Alcona', one of the four provinces of the
fantastic kingdom of Gondal she created, whose queen is A.G.A., otherwise known
as Rosina from Alcona, as Fannie Ratchford stated.
Since
I was born just in Ancona and although I have not lived there except for the
first six years of my life, I am still very attached to my hometown of which I
have a vivid memory. Often as a child I found myself walking with my father
right under the Arch of Trajan, without even imagining that a few years later I
would have been fascinated by the English literary family to whom I have dedicated
myself for a lifetime. Learning today that my Emily reproduced with such
alacrity a very important monument of Ancona from a print found in nineteenth
century England produces in me great enthusiasm. And it naturally leads me to
meditate on the curious coincidence that binds me further to this unpredictable
author so dear to me.