Pittorecoli meaning (17th century)

Question

In the article Così Caravaggio uccise un uomo a Milano (Il Messaggero, 5 marzo 2017) there is the following quote by Riccardo Gandolfi:

[La biografia di Caravaggio di Gaspare Celio] Racconta che Orsi chiamò tanti "pittorecoli a lodarne l'opera"; e che vedendo quelle figure al naturale e quegli scuri, molti si stupirono.

Is it conceivable that the word pittorecoli meant small painter in the 17th century? I've seen it quoted from a 17th century source but can't find that word anywhere else. Or it's perhaps a contraction?

The French journalist quoting this article in the Journal des arts writes "pittorecoli [petits peintres]".

Are you absolutely sure of the spelling? Pittore, as you'll know, is “painter”. It is conceivable to form pittorucolo by using the suffix -ucolo to denote a painter of small value, and pittorucoli would be the plural form. — DaG, Dec 01 '17 at 17:02
Pittore Coli may refer to Giovanni Coli (1636-1681) an Italian painter. It’s just an attempt to decode your word... — abarisone, Dec 01 '17 at 17:04
I now see quite a number of pittorucoli, @DaG. As in "Pittori, pittorucoli, pittorelli erano ingaggiati per le decorazioni...". What's the nuance between those terms? — JeanB, Dec 01 '17 at 20:10
The link says “We couldn’t find the page you’re looking for. The link might be broken, or the page might have been removed.” — egreg, Dec 01 '17 at 22:16
It works for me when I click it: http://www.pressreader.com/italy/il-messaggero/20170305/281990377312857 — JeanB, Dec 01 '17 at 22:19
In case it helps the title of the Messaggero article is "Così Caravaggio uccise un uomo anche a Milano", March 5, 2017. — JeanB, Dec 02 '17 at 00:08
@egreg: Doing the search *"Così Caravaggio uccise un uomo anche a Milano" pittorecoli* with Google, can you find the article? — Charo, Dec 02 '17 at 08:30
@Charo No, always the same answer. I think the some contents in the site are blocked according to the country the query comes from. — egreg, Dec 02 '17 at 08:37
@egreg That is almost certainly true: if I use a proxy to pretend to be connecting from Italy I get your response, while if I connect directly I can see the article. I'll insert a more complete quote in the OP. — Denis Nardin, Dec 02 '17 at 09:08
I cannot find the referenced article on the site of “Il Messaggero”. My feeling is that this is just a typo for pittorucoli. — egreg, Dec 02 '17 at 09:20
I can confirm @DenisNardin's experiment, the other way around (connecting from Italy I can't access, but pretending being elsewhere I do). — DaG, Dec 02 '17 at 11:44
@Charo, thanks for contextualizing my post but Gandolfi is actually quoting the text I was mentioning (I have an image of the article; punctuation is lost in the Internet version). I've restored the quotes. — JeanB, Dec 02 '17 at 13:20
In fact, it's @DenisNardin who has done it. I've only corrected one word. — Charo, Dec 02 '17 at 15:14

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:30

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It can be simply a typo for pittorucoli or maybe how the word was spelled in Celio's biography, which was after all written much before Italian spelling was standardized. In Italian the suffix -ucolo can be attached to any noun with diminutive or derogatory effect:

-ùcolo [maybe from lat. -ūcŭlus; the popular outcome, very rare, is -ucchio]. – Noun altering suffix with diminutive or derogatory value (chiesucola, paesucolo, straducola).

(From the vocabolario Treccani)

In this context pittorucoli probably means something alike to small-time painters, painters that are not particularly famous.

@JeanB adds: I don't think it's a typo. In Catalogo delle pitture che si conservano nelle chiese di Pesaro, Giovanni Andrea Lazzarini, Pesaro, 1783, I read "fece venire all'improvviso da Fano un pittorecolo, ..."

edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:30

Community

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answered Dec 02 '17 at 09:25

Denis Nardin

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At this entry of the Vocabolario Treccani you can specifically find "pittorùcolo" as "spregiativo" of "pittore". – Charo Dec 02 '17 at 12:08
Thanks to all. I don't think it's a typo, however. By now, I've found pittorecolo in a number of 18th century texts. – JeanB Dec 02 '17 at 13:06
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@JeanB: It would be useful if you add those examples of pittorecolo, if you are sure that they are correct, to Denis's answer, or post an answer of your own. – DaG Dec 02 '17 at 13:25
I've added a pittorecolo reference to the answer. To my ear it sounds better than pittorùcolo and I'm going to use it as a 17th century italianism in the text I'm writing. – JeanB Dec 02 '17 at 14:16
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@JeanB It might sound better to your ears, but certainly not to mine, and I doubt to those of any other native speaker. That said, it's not too unlikely that the suffix -ecolo was indeed productive in the 18th century, as it is not today. – Denis Nardin Dec 02 '17 at 14:27
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@JeanB: I agree with Denis: as a native Italian speaker, pittorecolo sounds quite awkward. This is not to say that it has never been deliberately used, but be warned that an Italian speaker reading that might assume that it is a misspelling. (Compare this with the relative abundance of instances of scrittorucolo and attorucolo and the absence of the corresponding form in -ecolo.) – DaG Dec 02 '17 at 15:20

Pittorecoli meaning (17th century)

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