DOI Heft:
Nr. 115 (October 1902)
DOI Artikel:Melani, Alfredo: An italian painter: Gaetano Previati
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0062
Gaetano Previati
very strong master, who, like all true artists, was an window, and he then and there made up his mind
earnest champion of orginality. to go to Milan, with a view to following the foot-
I do not know for what reason Previati addressed steps of the painter of The Wave. He declared
himself to Cassioli, but it is evident that when the that the picture seemed to him so full of poetry
young Ferrarese artist went to Florence he had that he could not be content till he had made the
as yet no very definite plans of his own, and he personal acquaintance of the painter of the original
had certainly not yet made up his mind to Arrived then at Milan, Previati went straight to
rebel against old traditions. Moreover, when I the studio of Bertini; and although he had no
have related a fact which I heard from the mouth letter of introduction, no school certificates, for
of the artist himself, I feel sure that those who though he was now twenty-four years old, having
know Previati and his work will be very much been born in 1852, he had gone through no regular
surprised. course, he asked the painter of The Wave to
Gaetano assured me that what led to his leaving receive him into the Academy. Previati had,
Florence to go to Milan was an oleograph after moreover, done very little—he had next to nothing
Bertini, The Wave. One day, when he was to show—but for all that he was admitted at once
walking along the Via Cerretani, near the to the Academy, and soon afterwards to the School
Lung' Arno, his attention was arrested by the of Painting directed by Bertini, who was much
reproduction of Bertini's picture exhibited in a struck with the first attempts of the young Ferrarese.
In his early essays at
painting, however, Previati
showed himself more an-
xious to respect academic
traditions as to form, than
to make form a vehicle
of emotion; but the latter
was to come in due time.
Gradually his contempla-
tive nature freed itself from
the trammels of scholasti-
cism, and he was brought
into touch with those who
rebelled against academic
routine. There was about
the School of Bertini a
spirit of liberty which
aimed at rendering abortive
the efforts of the official
school, the object of which
was to produce facsimile
copies, or exact studies 01
nature, without any of
that imagination or insight
into the spirit of the sub-
ject without which there
can be no true art, no
real artists. It was Tran-
quillo Cremona who was
the leading spirit in Milan
in the crusade against
conventionalism; it was
Cremona who led paint-
ing back once more to the
true art path, wresting it
1 cleopatra " by g. previati from routine. Cremona,
5°
very strong master, who, like all true artists, was an window, and he then and there made up his mind
earnest champion of orginality. to go to Milan, with a view to following the foot-
I do not know for what reason Previati addressed steps of the painter of The Wave. He declared
himself to Cassioli, but it is evident that when the that the picture seemed to him so full of poetry
young Ferrarese artist went to Florence he had that he could not be content till he had made the
as yet no very definite plans of his own, and he personal acquaintance of the painter of the original
had certainly not yet made up his mind to Arrived then at Milan, Previati went straight to
rebel against old traditions. Moreover, when I the studio of Bertini; and although he had no
have related a fact which I heard from the mouth letter of introduction, no school certificates, for
of the artist himself, I feel sure that those who though he was now twenty-four years old, having
know Previati and his work will be very much been born in 1852, he had gone through no regular
surprised. course, he asked the painter of The Wave to
Gaetano assured me that what led to his leaving receive him into the Academy. Previati had,
Florence to go to Milan was an oleograph after moreover, done very little—he had next to nothing
Bertini, The Wave. One day, when he was to show—but for all that he was admitted at once
walking along the Via Cerretani, near the to the Academy, and soon afterwards to the School
Lung' Arno, his attention was arrested by the of Painting directed by Bertini, who was much
reproduction of Bertini's picture exhibited in a struck with the first attempts of the young Ferrarese.
In his early essays at
painting, however, Previati
showed himself more an-
xious to respect academic
traditions as to form, than
to make form a vehicle
of emotion; but the latter
was to come in due time.
Gradually his contempla-
tive nature freed itself from
the trammels of scholasti-
cism, and he was brought
into touch with those who
rebelled against academic
routine. There was about
the School of Bertini a
spirit of liberty which
aimed at rendering abortive
the efforts of the official
school, the object of which
was to produce facsimile
copies, or exact studies 01
nature, without any of
that imagination or insight
into the spirit of the sub-
ject without which there
can be no true art, no
real artists. It was Tran-
quillo Cremona who was
the leading spirit in Milan
in the crusade against
conventionalism; it was
Cremona who led paint-
ing back once more to the
true art path, wresting it
1 cleopatra " by g. previati from routine. Cremona,
5°