Studio: international art (27.1903)

Gaetano Previati

" maternity " by g. previati

can alone raise the productions ot an artist above
mediocrity; and those two qualities are sensi-
tiveness to impressions, and imagination.

If Previati belongs to any school at all, it is
certainly not one bound to follow academic tradi-
tions, but one recognising to the full the principle
that a true artist is he who allows full scope to his own
originality. This principle explains Previati's own
words, which express in a new way an idea not ex-
clusively his own, and throw a prophetic light upon
what may be called the advance guard of criticism.
" On the eve of producing a work of art the artist
should do his utmost to arouse emotion at the
fountain head," that is to say, in his own spirit;
for the supreme, aim of art is expression; to a

painter reality is but a form oi expression, and as
a result its only role in art is to give an impulse to
imagination.

Naturally those whose role is to invent recipes
for success will be quite unable to grasp the prin-
ciple which is the essence of the art of Previati;
but the painter does not, as a rule, address himself
to the general public or to those who admire con-
ventional beauty. Previati had for the first time
to face the violent attacks of his adverse critics in
1891, when he exhibited his Maternity, an occa-
sion which the opponents of art as an expression
of emotion, converted into a regular fete. There
was, in fact, a genuine revolt of the anti-revolu-
tionists. The public, who did not understand the

"roi soleil'

by g.

previati

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