International studio (44.1911)

International Art Exhibition, Rome

down to the sea near Terracina, indicates very
appropriately the network of great roads with which
Rome held together her vast empire ; and Mohs
Sacer on the left signifies—by its association with
that famous secession of the Roman plebs from
the Senate—the fact that a just and wise expansion
of the franchise can alone unite the peoples under
one empire.
Opposite to this important and dignified work
are Signor Camillo Innocenti’s brilliant impressionist
renderings of modern life. This artist has really spent
some time in Paris, and his work, brilliantly clever as
it is, has acquired quite a Parisian touch. In his
Night Scene in the Bois de Boulogne, in the clever
nude near this, and the fine portrait, he shows him-
self a painter of original talent who is searching out
for himself a new path.
Another Roman artist of individuality and interest
is Arturo Noci, who has only one painting here, of
two girls at their toilet: a work treated with touches
of pure colour, by what is often called the “ divi-
sionist” method. In the same room Lionne,
another Roman resident, uses the same method for
a scene of popular life, Outside Porta S. Giovanni ;
and to the same Roman school belong Parisiani
(Tiber at Ostea) and Raggio, this latter still paint-
ing at nearly eighty-four years.
The portrait of Baron
Nathan, Sindaco of Rome,
by Balia, though a good but
scarcely a flattering likeness,
is not a pleasing work of art;
but a clever painting by
Signorina Annie Nathan,
whom I understand to have
studied under Balia, shows
considerable promise. Gus¬
tavo Bacarisas, a native of
Gibraltar, has a brilliant
study of the Soho at Tangiers.
Near this, Ferretti’s portrait
is scarcely equal to his land¬
scape with the stone pines
bathed in golden sunlight,
and Pio Joris, Battaglia,
whose work I remember at
Venice with its fine loose
technique, and Grassi, with
his triptych of the Castel
S. Angelo (Ascensio?ie\ repre¬
sent the Roman school in
this large room, while Nomel-
lini has his Garibaldians
leaving Quarto.

But it is really Antonio Mancini, born at Naples,
but a Roman by many years of residence and art
creation, who redeems this whole Italian section
of the Belle Arti from the imminent risk of
mediocrity; his eight paintings lift him to the
first rank among modern painters of the portrait.
Above all he is a colourist of unrivalled greatness.
His portraits of women here are seated, while in the
male portraits standing erect he gains the full ad-
vantage of the height of the figure. But how
delightful are these seated portraits of women,
revealing all the grave tenderness and personal
charm of the Roman and North Italian women.
Loveliest of all and most brilliant in treatment is
the Geltrude, a portrait of extraordinary brilliancy,
in which great pieces of mother-of-pearl are actually
embedded within the colour-impaste of the rich
gown. One trembles to think what might be the
effect on unintelligent imitators of this technique,
and among my Roman friends, who have known his
work from the first, there are those who prefer to
find the Mancini of earlier days in the Female Nude
Figure of this exhibition, with its sobriety of colour
and refinement of drawing.
We pass from the Mancini portraits to the room
devoted to the work of Henry Coleman. I knew


“ GELTRUDE”

BY ANTONIO MANCINI

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