DOI issue:
Nr. 126 (August 1907)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28252#0179
Studio-Talk
unbroken surfaces, which lend additional decorative
effect to the entrance, upon which he is wont to
bestow special care. He has a peculiar gift of
blending power and grace so as to produce
exceptional results, and there is often about his
ornamentation, which is generally ingenious and
happy in motif a certain clinging grace altogether
his own. I remember some time ago seeing a
strong archway, over and across which a beautiful,
ivy-like ampelopsis — not the ordinary Virginia
creeper—had flung its graceful garlands. Boberg!
I thought. His ornamentation in a somewhat similar
way seems to develop out of and become part
and parcel of what it is destined to embellish,
instead of, as is too often the case, looking as if it
were patched or stuck on. The three illustra-
tions given here are from the General Post Office,
Stockholm—a good type of Boberg’s strong work—
from a Stockholm bank and from Prince Eugen’s
delightful and commodious villa at Valdemaresudde,
just outside Stockholm, in every respect an ideal
home, both for a Prince and an artist. G. B.
FLORENCE.—It seems at first sight strange
that Ravenna should have taken no
active part in the artistic movement of
the Renaissance. Proud of her Oriental
art, and of the position which by it she had held
in earlier days, second only to Rome—this most
Byzantine of Italian cities seemed to take but little
interest in the wonderful awakening which was
taking place in other parts of the country. Here,
as elsewhere, there was a period of warfare and
strife; but the quarrels of the small city were
quickly engulfed in the more violent dissensions
between Rome and Venice, and it was to Venice,
with whom she was connected by sea, that Ravenna
turned. Close and continuous relations became
established between the two cities; inter-marriages
were so frequent that among the families of
Ravenna you will with difficulty find one that has
not Venetian blood in its veins. Thus it happens
that the artist of whom we are about to speak can
boast of ancestors from both places—his grand-
mother was a Tiepolo—and his father’s family, of
Lombard origin, lived for many generations in the
city by the sea.
Vittorio Guaccimanni was born at Ravenna in
1859. After studying painting under Arturo
Moradei, a Florentine, he spent four years at
Rome, but the fascination of his native city and
the immense plains amid which it is situated
forced him to return, and he once more worked
under Moradei, who was then teaching in the local
academy. Soon one of his pictures was bought
by the Ministry of Public Instruction for the Art
Gallery of Turin ; but in spite of such encourage-
ment financial difficulties forced him to abandon
oils for a time and work exclusively in water-
colours for a firm of Californian art dealers. He
felt, however, that work of this kind was all lost
unbroken surfaces, which lend additional decorative
effect to the entrance, upon which he is wont to
bestow special care. He has a peculiar gift of
blending power and grace so as to produce
exceptional results, and there is often about his
ornamentation, which is generally ingenious and
happy in motif a certain clinging grace altogether
his own. I remember some time ago seeing a
strong archway, over and across which a beautiful,
ivy-like ampelopsis — not the ordinary Virginia
creeper—had flung its graceful garlands. Boberg!
I thought. His ornamentation in a somewhat similar
way seems to develop out of and become part
and parcel of what it is destined to embellish,
instead of, as is too often the case, looking as if it
were patched or stuck on. The three illustra-
tions given here are from the General Post Office,
Stockholm—a good type of Boberg’s strong work—
from a Stockholm bank and from Prince Eugen’s
delightful and commodious villa at Valdemaresudde,
just outside Stockholm, in every respect an ideal
home, both for a Prince and an artist. G. B.
FLORENCE.—It seems at first sight strange
that Ravenna should have taken no
active part in the artistic movement of
the Renaissance. Proud of her Oriental
art, and of the position which by it she had held
in earlier days, second only to Rome—this most
Byzantine of Italian cities seemed to take but little
interest in the wonderful awakening which was
taking place in other parts of the country. Here,
as elsewhere, there was a period of warfare and
strife; but the quarrels of the small city were
quickly engulfed in the more violent dissensions
between Rome and Venice, and it was to Venice,
with whom she was connected by sea, that Ravenna
turned. Close and continuous relations became
established between the two cities; inter-marriages
were so frequent that among the families of
Ravenna you will with difficulty find one that has
not Venetian blood in its veins. Thus it happens
that the artist of whom we are about to speak can
boast of ancestors from both places—his grand-
mother was a Tiepolo—and his father’s family, of
Lombard origin, lived for many generations in the
city by the sea.
Vittorio Guaccimanni was born at Ravenna in
1859. After studying painting under Arturo
Moradei, a Florentine, he spent four years at
Rome, but the fascination of his native city and
the immense plains amid which it is situated
forced him to return, and he once more worked
under Moradei, who was then teaching in the local
academy. Soon one of his pictures was bought
by the Ministry of Public Instruction for the Art
Gallery of Turin ; but in spite of such encourage-
ment financial difficulties forced him to abandon
oils for a time and work exclusively in water-
colours for a firm of Californian art dealers. He
felt, however, that work of this kind was all lost