It is fun to see proto-modernity in the past and a talk by Anna Mariani of the Brera Academy did just that at the celebration last month of 100 years of the Pregliasco dealership; she linked the 17th-century Genoese Giambattista Bracelli and his book of prints, Bizzarie di varie figure of 1624, with Salvador Dalí. The book, since sold to an Italian collector, is part of the stock of illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, rare books and prints for which the Turinese firm is famous. The event was held in the Italian Academy in New York during the antiquarian book fair, and the speakers, Umberto Pregliasco himself on the history of the firm, David Freedberg of Columbia University on Galileo Galilei and Andrew Robison of Washington’s National Gallery on Canaletto, attracted a more than full house, a tribute to this understated and scholarly family firm.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Did Bracelli know about Dalí?'