MYTH, HISTORY AND REALITY 1800 –
1885
Room 04 - Destinations for the
journey to Italy in the nineteenth century
Room dedicated to Italian countryside
paintings. They continued to be very popular in Europe in the nineteenth
century even after the decline of Grand Tour of Italy by the scions of the
European aristocracy, especially British
“The Cemetery in Pisa” 1864 by Giuseppe Abbati (1836/68)
“The
Great Cloister in S. Maria in Aracoeli” 1824 by the Danish Christoffer Wilhem Eckersberg (1873/53)
“Portrait of Prince Barjatinskij” 1837 by Émile Jean Horace Vernet (1789/1863)
one of the greatest French painters of the nineteenth century
“The party of moccolettis (Carnival in Rome)”
1852, “Genoa”
1853 and “View of Rome from Monte Mario” 1857 by Ippolito
Caffi (1809/66)
Moccolettis are short
candles that used to add light and festive atmosphere to celebrations at night.
The painting was successful so Caffi made several copies with a few changes
here and there
“He started his activity under the influence
of the Venetian painters, enriching the stringent scenes with flamboyant
lighting effects, often spectacular, gaining a very concise style, made of
strokes short and concise. His more mature achievements are represented by a
phantasmagoria of colors and atmosphere, often to artificial light and
picturesque lively reportages from popular festivals in which human figures are
drawn with short layers of color and immersed in a flowing atmosphere” (Carlo
Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Villa
Doria in Albano” 1839 and “The
Uphill of Ariccia” 1839 by G.B. Bassi (1784/1852)
“Aniene
River near Tivoli” 1798 and “Landscape” about 1798 by Marianna Dionigi (1757/1826). Roman painter and
writer
“Inside
the Basilica of St. Paul after the Fire” 1823, “The
Colosseum” 1835 e “The
Roman Forum” 1835 by the French Jean Faure aka Giovanni Faure who came to Rome at age 17 and remained
there, becoming one of the most celebrated painters by travelers of the Grand
Tour of Europe for its views of Rome
“St. Mark's Square” 1869 by Michele Cammarano (1835/1920)
“In the months he spent in Venice Cammarano
painted some landscapes and views of the lagoon, with firm structures of
lighting effects, and one of his masterpieces: Piazza S. Marco, an episode of
virtuosity for its brilliant display of night effects, but also for being an
authentic slice of life of bourgeois society of the time” (Osvaldo Ferrari -
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
Statue “At
the source” 1896 by Domenico Trentacoste
(1856/1933) from Palermo
“From
the marine hospice” 1891 by Francesco
Lojacono (1838-1915)
“Palazzo
Donn'Anna in Posillipo” 1893 by Gaetano
Esposito (1858/1911)
“Shipyards
in San Baseggio” 1886 and “Digging
in the Canal” about 1884 by Pietro
Fragiacomo (1856/1922)
Painter from Trieste active in Venice who
painted in a rich lyrical way with atmospheric layers and veiled colors, worthy
descendant of the great landscape painters of the Venetian past
“Marina”
1887 by Filippo Carcano (1840/1914)
“Castel
dell'Ovo in Naples” 1820/24 by Anton Sminck
Pitloo (1791/1837)
He was a Dutch painter who lived mainly in
Rome and Naples. He was a leading exponent of the so called School of
Posillipo and is considered a precursor of Impressionism
“Market
on the port of Castellammare” 1859 and “Marina
of Ischia” about 1825 by Giacinto Gigante
(1806/1876)
“Leader of the so-called School of
Posillipo, Gigante represented carefully the landscape with his description of
bright atmospheres enhanced by correct color intonations. The scenic setting of
many of his works were a consequence of an optical habit derived from his activity
as surveyor. While the preference for majestic or terrible aspects of nature is
a sign of the influence exerted on him by the northern landscape paintings
style absorbed through Pitloo” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio
Giuliano)
Bronze “Boy carrying water” 1880/81 by Vincenzo Gemito (1852/1929)
“Zinaida
Volkonskaja” 1850 by Pietro Tenerani
(1789/1869)
The Russian princess Volkonskaya was a leading
figure of Russian cultural and social life of the nineteenth century. She lived
for over thirty years in Rome where she died
“Portrait
of his wife” 1859 by the American Hiram
Powers (1805/73)
Born in Vermont, he spent the last
thirty-seven years of his life in Florence where he is buried. His sculptures
are housed in dozens of museums in the U.S.
Room 05 - Classicism and
Romanticism
“The debate that opposed the Romantic to the
Classical started in Italy in the literary field, but also had effects on the
visual arts. Even if the border is not always clear, we can say, simplifying,
that classicism is objective, rational, universal, timeless, while romanticism
is subjective, sentimental, national and historical; in the former one tends to
ideal beauty in the latter to moral beauty” (GNAM Website -
www.gnam.beniculturali.it)
“The young girl from Trastevere killed by a bomb”
1850 by Gerolamo Induno (1825/90)
Italian patriot, younger brother of
Domenico. He fought for the Roman Republic with Garibaldi in 1849 in Porta S. Pancrazio where he was wounded
“Ludovico
Martelli mortally wounded in a duel embraces Maria de' Ricci” about
1848 by Francesco Coghetti (1801/75)
“The Tempest” 1787/90 by the English George Romney (1734/1802)
“Homer
blind in the house of the shepherd Glaucus” 1810 and “Our
Lady of the Rosary” 1840 by Tommaso Minardi
(1787/1871)
“Intense testimony of the classical
variation of the romanticism from north of the Alps, which favors an emphasis
of the emotional and psychological values of the story, choosing subjects
according to their responsiveness to a modern feel, by now alien to rhetoric
and to David's staged triumphalist machines” (Giovanna Campitelli)
“Head of the Nazarene-inspired Italian Purism.
Very fine artist, theorist and careful teacher, he painted works in a rare
fifteenth-century noble style” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio
Giuliano)
“Sicilian Vespers (Ruggier Mastrangelo's Wife)”
1846 by Francesco Hayez (1791/1882)
“He quickly established himself as the
leader of Italian Romanticism, marked by intense activity in almost all works
of historical subjects, often drawn from contemporary novels and poems” (Carlo
Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Christ aged twelve in the temple” 1821 oil on
canvas by Joseph Anton Koch (1768/1839).
“Portrait
of Costanza Monti Perticari” (1819/21) by Filippo Agricola (1795/1857)
“Portrait of Vincenzo Monti” about 1808 by Andrea Appiani (1754/1817)
“Well educated artist who frequented circles
of intellectuals, he experimented in his youth with the fresco technique,
perfected by the study of Leonardo and Raphael. Approaching the neoclassical
trends, he conceived his images as sculptural friezes. In his most successful
works the principles of Neo-classical “good taste” blend with soft reminiscences
of the naturalistic tradition of Lombardy” (Michele Dantini)
“Death of Caesar” 1805 by Vincenzo Camuccini (1771/1844)
“Formerly disciple of Domenico Corvi, he
soon joined a Neo-classicism that was obviously inspired by David. The heroic
tones, enhanced by strong chiaroscuro derived from Michelangelo emphasize the
severe civil and moral admonition, in the complete identification between
austerities of style and seriousness of the ethical message” (Carlo Bertelli,
Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
Marble statue “Pellegrino
Rossi” 1869 by Pietro Tenerani
(1789/1869)
Bust of “Guelph Count Este Trotti Mosti” 1830/40 by Lorenzo Bartolini
“The attention to the softness of the
modeling, the naturalness of form is formally emphasized by the educated
reference to the Renaissance style, which is the vehicle through which the
moral contents are transmitted” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio
Giuliano)
“Model
in plaster for the funerary monument to Vittorio Alfieri” 1806 by Antonio Canova (1757/1822)
Room 06 - Far away in Time and
Space
The exotic and historical subjects,
especially Eastern, were very popular in Italy in the second half of the
nineteenth century. This room presents a well-chosen selection
“Feast of Mohammed in Tangiers” 1879, “Reception
at the Italian Embassy in Morocco” about 1879 and “Prayer in the Desert” 1876 by the Florentine Stefano Ussi (1822/1901)
“In 1854 he went from his Florence to Rome
where, in contact with Celentano, Faruffini and Morelli, he developed a model
of historical painting by fast drafting, almost sketchy, and with a strong
chiaroscuro” (Anna Villari)
“In
the desert” 1889 by Cesare Biseo (1843/1909)
“The Virgin of the Nile” 1865 masterpiece by
the sadly underrated Federico Faruffini
(1833/69)
“Faruffini was counted, as written by Carlo
Carrà, with Cherubino Cornienti and Daniele Ranzoni among the most
misunderstood artists throughout the nineteenth century in Lombardy, even
relegated to the margins of society, no awards and honors, while the painting
obtained widespread appreciation not so much for the subject (“a magnificent
example of his funeral imagination” also wrote Carra) as for its color and
lighting effects: for that water green and stagnant (...) that bottom corner
decorated with palm trees, that effect of sunlight on the granite of the
pedestal” (Anna Villari)
Three paintings of the great Neapolitan
painter Domenico Morelli (1823/1901)
Now, unfortunately, he is almost unknown to
the general public, but in the second half of the nineteenth century he was a
celebrity and the leader of a school of painting:
“The Count Lara” 1861
“The Byronic repertoire provides the artist,
here as in many other Morelli's paintings inspired to the poet, with romantic
subjects susceptible of intense theatricality and narrative realism” (Elena di
Majo)
“Virtuosic setting of internal court not
separated from the subtle psychology of the protagonists, responding to the
poetics of Morelli's historical reconstructions 'imagined and real at the same
time'“ (Elena di Majo)
“Together with the Tasso and Eleanor, it is
the most significant of the Morelli's paintings in the Gallery and also one of
the most complex of the whole production of the painter. (...) It was sent to
the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878 and it aroused mixed reactions for
the difficult mixture between symbolism and realism, mystical tension and
eroticism” (Elena di Majo)
“His debut works reveal already a distinct
difference from historical Romanticism. From the chorus of the action, he
switches to the absolute focus of the protagonists of the scenes. From the
network of historical references and educated allusions, he leans toward direct
rendering of events represented with strong intent of verisimilitude. The
cultured analogy of true romantic style was now transformed into likelihood to
the real” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Marco
Polo in front of the Great Khan of the Tartars” 1863 by Tranquillo Cremona (1837/78)
It is a composition that recalls a
production of an opera house where the exotic and the fantastic historical
narrative are skilfully and sapidly mixed
“The Council of Ten” 1861 and “Torquato
Tasso sick in Bisaccia” 1863 by Bernardo
Celentano (1835/63)
“Of his Council of Ten, enriched by a frame
ordered by Celentano himself to the architect Antonio Cipolla, (...) the
painter pointed out “the general feeling of the scene, which could also allude
to the present day, and give me many opportunities to study beautiful
characters, well-contrasted and felt” (Elena di Majo)
Terracotta statue “Brutus”
1871 and “Alexander
the Great” 1920/25 by the Neapolitan Vincenzo
Gemito (1852/1929)
Three statues “Cleopatra” about 1874, “Goethe's Margarete”
about 1860 and “Nello
Della Pietra e Pia de' Tolomei” 1868 by Alfonso
Balzico (1825/1901)
“The monumental marble of Cleopatra shows in
the details of the hairdo and of the decorative jewelry, as well as in the
complex architecture of the basement, a careful study of the sculptor on the
grounds of the Egyptian style, whose fortune, persisting since the early
decades of the century, had its apotheosis in the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi
performed in Cairo in 1871” (Elena di Majo)
Room 07 - The survival of the myth
from Neoclassicism to Symbolism
“During the nineteenth century the
Greek-Roman mythology returns with Neoclassicism, declines with Romanticism and
Realism, but eventually reappears with Symbolism. It is Antonio Canova that in
the Neoclassical age gives back to the Olympian Gods formal and moral meaning,
considering them as special manifestations of external beauty as well as
allegories of the inner world. After the mid-nineteenth century mythology
reappears in many artists who look to Italy: from Böcklin to Puvis de
Chavannes, Moreau to Burne-Jones. In Italy the classical myth was born again among
the dreamy atmospheres of the poetry of Gabriele D'Annunzio and of the
paintings by Giulio Aristide Sartorio” (GNAM Website -
www.gnam.beniculturali.it)
“Hercules and Lichas” by Antonio Canova (1757/1822)
“Even when Canova covers issues related to
agitate and dramatic action, in terms of strength and physical violence - as in
the statues of the two boxers Creugas and Damosseno or in the group of Hercules
and Lichas - the soul of his figures remain undisturbed inside. The actions and
passions seem to be shown rather than felt, as in a pantomime: gestures are
emphasized and summarized, they are a controlled language of the intellect”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
Twelve statues of the main gods of Olympus
sculpted by Canova's pupils:
“Neptune”
about 1844 by Rinaldo Rinaldi (1793/1873)
“Vesta”
and “Volcano” 1844 by Pietro Tenerani
(1789/1869)
“Juno”
about 1840 by Camillo Pistrucci (1811/54)
“Mars”
1845 by Cesare Benaglia
(d. 1884)
“Mercury”
and “Venus” 1844 by Luigi Bienaimé (1795/1878)
“Diana”
1845 by Ercole Dante
As a counterpart of Hercules and Lichas by
Canova there is the bronze statue “Hercules Archer” 1909 by Emile Antoine Bourdelle (1861/1929) paradigmatic work
of the great student of Rodin representing with stylized archaism the fifth
labor of Hercules, the killing of birds of the Lake Stymphalus
“The Gorgon and the Heroes” 1890/99 and “Diana of Ephesus and the Slaves” 1890/99
by Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1860/1932)
He loved great mural paintings and his work
was the most monumental frieze in the Hall of Parliament of the Montecitorio
Palace
“The diptych is a sort of manifesto of the
idealistic and aesthetic trends of the end of the century revolving around
D'Annunzio and the magazines of Adolfo De Bosis. The artist had wanted to
mythically express two aspects of the deep vanity of human existence. On the
one hand Gorgon, which has the bewitching form of Beauty and it is Life and
Death at the same time, because it raises and lowers the heroes. On the other
hand Diana of Ephesus, with a hundred breasts as nurse of the men and their
chimeras. Men, says the poet, are made of the same substance of their dreams
and they are represented here as dormant, holding in their hands the symbols of
their ambitions” (Stefania Frezzotti)
“It started as a single framework (...) and
it became a diptych when, unexpectedly, it was revived by the intervention of a
woman of unexpected beauty. She was an adventuress, a friend of a French
gentleman. From our first meetings we had no secrets, and, exalted by her
superb female nudity, I painted the 'Gorgon'“ (Giulio Aristide Sartorio)
“The
Shepherds of Arcadia” 1830 by the Neapolitan Filippo Marsigli (1790/1867)
Two shepherd of Miletus during a pilgrimage
to the temple of Apollo found the tomb of Damoetas, a shepherd who was a
benefactor. A girl who had also been helped by Damoetas passed by and saw them
The painting had belonged to Ferdinand of
Bourbon, King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
“Centaurs” 1895 by Enrico
Coleman (1846/1911)
“A late reflection of the Roman poetry,
expressed mainly by Böcklin and then championed by Nino Costa, which, since the
mid-nineteenth century privileged representations in elegiac and anti-modern
key of the country and the Tyrrhenian coast to express nostalgia and the charm
of a classical world to be recovered beyond the very origins of Rome, in the
regions of myth” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“Resurrection” about 1911 by Giulio Bargellini (1896/1936)
“Also known under the title of Light, the
triptych was conceived as an allegorical representation of Giordano Bruno -
shown here between Pegasus and Bellerophon on the left and the Pierides on the
right - highly regarded figure in those years in the Masonic circles of the
capital, to which the artist was not stranger” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“Orestes
and the Furies” 1905 by Franz von Stuck
(1863/1928)
“Both the mythological theme of Orestes
pursued by the three Furies after he killed his mother Clytemnestra and its
formal naturalistic-academic rendition in a dark and tactile range of colors
sign up the artist from Munich in the wake of profound Böcklinian influences” (Elena
di Majo)
Statue of “Sappho” 1861
by the Sienese Giovanni Duprè inspired by Michelangelo's “Giorno” in the Medici Chapel
in Florence
“During a trip to London he had received a
strong impression of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum. The Greek
charm is apparent not only in the choice of subject, but also in its grand and
lyrical representation, in line with the educated international Greek Revival”
(Anna Villari)
“Unconscious Psyche” 1869 (plaster
1823) by Pietro Tenerani (1789/1869)
“The chisel that has made this statue is the
instrument that one doesn't think about at all as one admires it. If it would
be possible to create statues caressing marble, rather than cutting and
blasting shrapnel harshly, I would say that this statue was made wearing out
the marble that surrounded it by dint of caresses and kisses” (Leopoldo
Cicognara)
Room 08 - The search for reality
Age of Realism expressed in a particular
manner in Tuscany between 1855 and 1870 with the so-called Macchiaioli, the
Italian equivalent of the French Impressionists
Paintings “The
game stopped” 1867/68 and “Interior
with figure” 1868 and statue “The Mother” 1884/86 by Adriano Cecioni (1836/86)
“His artistic conception was based on the
formula of art for art: he thought that the beauty of a work was not based on
the subject or the beauty of the model, but consisted in the goodness of
execution (...) because if the original is beautiful and the portrait, even
though similar, is poorly executed, the work is a bad one. So the work is
beautiful only when it is well executed, whatever the subject it represents.
Such a theory gave some aesthetic basis to the new realist and verist subjects”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“The
Italian camp after the battle of Magenta” 1860, “Portrait of the first wife” about
1865 and “Portrait
of a noble Sienese man” about 1868 by Giovanni
Fattori (1825/1908)
“Ill with tuberculosis (she died in 1867),
Settimia Vannucci was lovingly assisted by her husband and he often portrayed
her in various attitudes. (...) From this need, sentimental and artistical as
well, came this rare portrait of psychological subtlety, a description
significant and painful, an emblematic work that, as written by Ettore
Spalletti, 'testifies to the achievement of full autonomy over both legacy
romantic and the purist tradition'“ (Anna Villari)
“The
pumping machine” 1863 and “The Visit” 1868 by Silvestro Lega (1826/95)
“His realism of vision took place in a
series of works, executed between the mid-sixties and early seventies,
characterized by an overriding interest in stories with a highly intimate
intonation” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“The visit is one of the undisputed
masterpieces of the Macchiaioli movement, expressive and formal synthesis of
the happier and fuller period of Lega's artistic production. (...) It has
elements of form and content imbued with those values that were emerging from
the dissertations of the group of artists belonging to the Caffè Michelangelo,
values centered on a renewed analysis of the true according to the principles
of modern positivist thought. In agreement with these principles, Lega chose a
subject taken from the daily life of the urban petty bourgeoisie (...) offering
an interpretation of high concentration and pictorial narrative power. (...) He
achieved an analytical and paused measure also in the representation of
sentiment, rising here to a dimension solemn and almost sacred” (Matteo
Lafranconi)
“Portrait
of Nerina Badioli” 1865/66 by Antonio
Puccinelli (1822/97)
“Portrait
of the father of the Bass Marini” about 1843, “Portrait
of the mother of the Bass Marini” about 1843 and “Portrait of a man in the act of writing” 1873
by Giovanni Carnovali (detto il Piccio) (1804/73)
“Attentive
to the pictorial traditions of the past (from Veneto and Emilia painters to
Correggio, Rembrandt, and up to the French eighteen century), he took
inspiration from them to continuously deepen the central theme of his
paintings, the fusion of color and atmosphere. What makes this way of painting
unique is the heightened luminous sensitivity, which often comes close to the
dissolution of form with a focus on atmospheric vision, a quality that is
specifically romantic, but here in a continuous, original, perspectival
over-excitement” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Portrait
of a Young Man” 1867, “Luisa Sanfelice in prison” 1875 by Gioacchino Toma (1836/91)
“It is one of the best-known Italian works
of the whole nineteenth century and it is often cited in the critical
literature. It is mostly linked to the reputation of Toma as a “painter of
interiors” and “poet of gray” (Elena di Majo)
“Portrait
of a Lady” about 1860, “Oxen on the Beach” 1864 by Giuseppe Abbati
(1836/68)
In contemplating “Oxen on the Beach” one is
surprised with the monumentality that emanates from such a small oil painting
on cardboard
“Tuscan
Country Girl” 1875 by Cristiano Banti
(1824/1904)
“The
Lover of the Arts” 1866 by Giovanni Boldini (1842/1931)
“The Mugnone” about 1870, “Pannocchio’s
Houses in Castiglioncello” about 1862 and “The Bridge alle Grazie in Florence” about
1881 by Odoardo Borrani (1833/1905)
“The Mugnone is a successful joint of color
patches with the play of light on different greens and gloom, the sky a pale
blue andviolet shadows” (Anna Villari)
“In this small oil painting with the Bridge
alle Grazie in Florence, with the usual horizontal cut, Borrani in his mature
period engages with a gray wintry atmosphere in which the light melancholy of
the scene with the thin solitary figure in the rain, is emphasized by his
unusually pale palette, treated with great refinement in the delicate transitions
of colors” (Anna Villari)
“Houses in Lerici” 1863/65 and “Castiglion
Fiorentino” 1862 by Vincenzo Cabianca
(1827/1902)
“One can detect especially in the choice of
colors and in the serene and rigorous brightness of the blue the proximity of
ways and feel with Borrani and Sernesi, around the same time concentrated on
the blinding light and on the broad essential spaces, almost abstract, of the
Castiglioncello Farm” (Anna Villari)
“Women embarking wood in the port of Anzio” 1852
and “Dried
Oak” 1854 by Nino Costa (1826/1903)
“His paintings in the first period are
dominated by bright and tonal research conducted particularly to the example of
Corot's landscape painting. Ripa Grande is carefully studied in values of tone
and light. A little later Women who embark wood in the port of Anzio is an
ambitious painting for the monumental inclusion of solemn monumental figures,
although represented in humble acts, in a very wide view of a landscape devoid
of any picturesque connotation but described with an exact analysis of lights
and color” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Study
of costumes” 1860/61, “Grazing”
1861 and “Sun roofs” about 1860 by Raffaello Sernesi
“It shows the mainly optical artist's
interest, which focuses on the performance of chromatic and tonal relationships
of a fragment of reality, represented with a radical simplification of the
essential structures: it doesn't need drawing or chiaroscuro based on the
observation that in nature edges and contours don't exist” (Carlo Bertelli,
Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“The
arrival of the Bulletin of Villafranca's Peace” 1860/62
1860/62 by Domenico Induno (1815/78)
”Orange
trees and women (Sorrento)” 1860, “Landscape
at sunset (quarry)” 1854, “Women
doing laundry at the River Sarno (Sarno)” 1856 and “Landscape
- after the rain, a pool of murky water (quarry)” 1864 by Filippo Palizzi (1818/99)
He was among the first
artists to use the big novelty of photography as a technical means that would
provide models for paintings
“Fishmongers
in Lerici” 1874 and “Suburb of Adriana Gate in Ravenna” 1875 by Telemaco Signorini
(1835/1901)
“In the second half of the 80s the painter,
returned from international experiences, took part of a general climate of
change in the language of painting in the Impressionists' way, which he joined
with a critical mind precisely because of the experience he had had around 1860
thanks to the 'Macchiaioli' movement. The positive analysis of that period
allowed him the necessary perspective to understand the meaning of the free and
bright brushwork of the French and to draw his own conclusions in his moody
way, always sensitive to atmospheric variation, rarely joyful as the French
masters were” (Rossella Campana)
Room 09 - The social exclusion
Inspired by the literary realism of
Giovanni Verga, Luigi Capuana and Matilde Serao many southern artists after the
unification of Italy research into social exclusion issues with their art. At
the end of 1800s the artists belonging to the Milanese movement Scapigliatura
investigate further the same issues with extraordinary results
“The vow” 1883 by Francesco
Paolo Michetti (1851/1929)
It dominates the room
with its brutal picture of poverty, steeped in religious superstition
“Despite studies from life and the use of
photography for documentary use, as sketches for his work, the painting of
Michetti from Pescara, happily turns to issues of regional folklore, marks the
dissolution of realism with symbolism crossed by literary complacency: the
spectacular and sumptuous staging of the Vow explains the admiration of D'Annunzio
for his fellow artist, able to 'generate the steam in the soul of the dream'“
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Carminella”
1870, “The
seller of matches” about 1878 and “The Study” about 1875 by Antonio Mancini (1852/1930)
“Refugium Peccatorum” 1882 by the Venetian Luigi Nono (1850/18)
Chilling composition that leaves room for
interpretations, still managing to express the idea of a tragic ending for a
period of history that was full of promises for a better future
“The heir” 1880 dramatic masterpiece by Teofilo Patini (1840/1906)
“The line of verism had led to more accurate
results compared with the history and the stories of contemporary Italian
society, although the tendency toward sentimentalism continued to moderate the
attitudes of open social rebellion” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio
Giuliano)
“The Zurfegna water in St. Lucia” 1884
by Vincenzo Caprile (1856/1936)
“The painting depicts the sale of water with
sulfur by a street urchin in the popular district of St. Lucia. (...) The
monumentality of the representation and the careful study from life of the
young male body almost nude and the still life of the large jars of clay turn
the folklore of the genre into a kind of almost tangible image of the
Mediterranean myth” (Elena di Majo)
“The
Woodwoman” 1876 by Egisto Ferroni
(1835/1912)
“Although he was sensitive to the needs
expressed by the Macchiaioli movement in Florence, Ferroni did not join the
group, of which he did not share the technical innovations, but he abandoned
the academic paintings of historical subjects and devoted himself to the rural
genre portraying characters and episodes of the Tuscan countryside using an
incisive design with a strong plastic emphasis” (Alexandra Andresen -
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
“Ploughing”
1870 by Carlo Pittara (1836/90) from Turin
Statues
in the center of the room:
“El
Locch” 1881/82, bronze head “After
an escapade (Gavroche)” 1882, “The
sacristan (Se la fusse grappa!)” 1883, “Lovers
under the lamppost” 1882/83 e “The singer walking around” 1882 by Medardo Rosso (1858/1928)
El Locch in Milanese dialect means “underworld
figure” and this indeed appears to be the subject of this bold work very
expressive, for which it seems the sculptor Rescaldani had posed as a model
Medardo Rosso made three other versions of
which only one of them with a pipe, the first idea that accentuated the caricature
of the subject, now in Minneapolis
“The only great modern sculptor who has
tried to open a wider field to sculpture, to render plastically the influence
of the environment and the atmospheric ties that bind it to the subject”
(Umberto Boccioni)
“He was certainly influenced by Rodin. It is
also demonstrated by its commitment with the impressionistic light that plays
on the forms. But his work is more fluid, more ghostly and ethereal than that
of Rodin. Moreover, in contrast with Rodin and most modelers, he preferred a
single point of view and a central focus” (Rudolf Wittkower)
“What's most interesting to me in art is to
make forget about matter” (Medardo Rosso)
Bronze statue “Proximus
tuus” 1880 by Achille D'Orsi (1845/1929)
Bronze statue “The mother of the killed” 1907 by Francesco Ciusa (1883/1949) from Sardinia
“It was inspired by a dramatic episode of
Sardinian bandits seen by the artist in his childhood. The woman is depicted in
a restrained attitude typical of the Nuoro ritual of the wake. (...) Ciusa
reworks a theme of veristic impression, abandoning the social or humanitarian
aspects of denunciation which had characterized southern Italian sculpture
(...) and making rather symbolic that ancestral Sardinia environment and that
archetype described in the same years in the novels of Grazia Deledda”
(Stefania Frezzotti)
Room 10 - Reality and emotion
“The art of the nineteenth century is
pervaded by a vein of sentimentalism that survives even in these years of
Realism. Attention to this kind of mood connects the works of artists who
gravitate around the Scapigliatura Milanese movement, those seeking the
atmosphere in the landscape rather than optical fidelity and those who are
already sensitive to spiritualist ideas destined to lead to Symbolism. Compared
to romantic sentimentality, the intensity of emotions has changed: emotionalism
and melancholy on the one hand and contemplative dimension on the other take
over the strength of idealism and the violence of passion. The artist who best
represents the transition from Naturalism to Symbolism is Segantini, the future
star of Divisionism (Pointillism)” (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)
“An
October Morning” about 1862 e “At the Fountain” 1867/68 by Antonio Fontanesi (1818/82)
“In Switzerland he saw the views of
Alexandre Calame, rich of livid lights and terse atmospheres. From this moment
on his landscapes would be based on a careful analysis of the values of light,
supported over the years from the deeper understanding of the great European
landscape painters (Corot, Constable, Turner) whom he had known during frequent
trips abroad. The fundamental tone of his mature paintings is an overwhelming
feeling of nature, also seen in its more normal and less picturesque aspects,
expressed in views based on harmonious lighting effects” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano
Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Forest of Fontainebleau” 1874 by Giuseppe Palizzi (1812/88),
brother of the more famous Filippo Palizzi
“Winter
Sadness” 1884 by Marco Calderini (1850/1941)
“It is from The Lonely Statues that
Calderini's language can be defined as calmly descriptive and clear, natural
and rational, evoking a melancholy feeling of realistic character, far from the
lyrical and emotional bursts of his revered master Antonio Fontanesi” (Matteo
Lafranconi)
“Imminent
Moon” 1882 by Lorenzo Delleani
(1840/1908)
“The Shaft” 1886 by Giovanni Segantini (1858/99)
one of the leading exponents of Italian Divisionism (Pointillism)
“The first painting of monumental scale
created by the artist reveals a poetic fullness achieved in the representation
of landscape understood as a glorification of nature and the epic, grand and
melancholic at the same time, of the country life. The novelty of the cutting
perspective, the predominant horizontal vision suggesting a sense of infinity,
the study of the backlight, have effects that contribute to advance the values
of naturalism transfigured into a symbolic key that will prevail from then on
in his production in the Engadina Valley in Switzerland” (Matteo Lafranconi)
“Messidoro” (Golden Harvest) 1883 by Guglielmo Ciardi (1842/1917)
“Messidoro is the best known painting by
Guglielmo Ciardi, a work of the painter's maturity. (...) A sentimental and
emotional landscape: he found here accomplishment of his research for the
'real' in the subject and in the pictorial technique” (Maura Picciau)
“Salerno's
Countryside” 1885 by Achille Vertunni (1826/97)
“The
two cousins” 1870 and “Sick girl” about 1877 by Tranquillo
Cremona (1837/78)
“The way of painting of Piccio with its
evocative values obtained with chromatic material undone and allusive was an
earlier artistic precedent. Effects of transparencies, contours of
indefiniteness, taste - often tedious - for the gradient and its softness, for
the potentially subtle and impalpable are the salient characteristics of the
painting of Cremona, who, in his day, was very successful” (Carlo Bertelli,
Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“After the Bath” 1884
by Giacomo Favretto
(1849/87)
“The female nude is a topic rare in Venetian
painting of the nineteenth century and very rare in the Favretto's works. After
the bath (...) is thus a significant work, whose success with critics and
audiences has never failed. (...) The scene is an everyday one, colloquial.
Favretto chooses soft intonation, lit by the bright timbres: the red scarf of
the woman, the jacket with the color of lapis lazuli, the white cloths. (...) A
learned work that shows a reached balance between study of the true and courtly
ancestry of the image, derived from Titian” (Maura Picciau)
Bronze sculpture “It
rains (or the ducks)” 1887 by Leonardo
Bistolfi (1859/1933)
Statue “The Widow” 1888/89 by Ernesto Bazzaro (1859/1937)
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