DOI issue:
Nr. 115 (October 1902)
DOI article:Melani, Alfredo: An italian painter: Gaetano Previati
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0066
Gaetano Previati
picture in the least, either passed by without taking
any notice of it, or laughed at it without knowing
why. The so-called connoisseurs pronounced the
artist altogether second-rate; only here and there
some critic tried to rectify the wrong impression
given,, without, however, achieving any satisfactory
result. I, for my part, having realised on the
opening day of the Exhibition, that a great battle
would be waged around this, the boldest, the most
lyrical of all the canvases of Previati, wrote an
article in Arte e Storia, in which I endeavoured to
explain the aesthetic, the poetic meaning of
Maternity, a picture which would probably be
rejected by the Hanging Committee, but my
article had no more than a negative result.
The picture is of considerable size, and is an
ideal presentment of the sentiment of maternal
love, representing as it does a mother suckling
her child, whilst a group of angels, supposed to
be visible to her alone, are looking on. The
isolated figure of the mother is near a tree, the
soft and pleasing shade of which recalls the wil-
low described by Alfred de Musset. The draw-
ing, the colouring of sky and ground, all combine
to produce a harmony which is full of the in-
definable mystery of a dream. No attempt at
rendering motion, no desire to produce a definite
and sensible effect, here distracts the attention of
the spectator from the mystic meaning of the
conception of the poet-artist, whose aim has been
to work out an immaterial idea with the aid of the
material means of painting. As a result, the
critics, unable to comprehend the mystic spirit of
the conception, accused Previati of having com-
pletely lost the sense of colour ; some even going
so far as to add that he had lost that of line as
well, little dreaming that the painter of Maternity
had really approached the realisation of his aes-
thetic vision by correcting the ordinary modes of
expression, which in his opinion were not alto-
gether suitable for the sentiment of his picture.
Previati had, indeed, endeavoured to make
colour, generally one of the most definite means
of pictorial expression, all but immaterial; and
the drawing of his composition was really in
exact correspondence with his own emotions at
the time of his conception of the picture.
Previati told me himself that, convinced as
he is of the principle that emotion is the true
source of all creative or suggestive power, he
never dreams of reproducing in cold blood
either his paintings or his sketches. He never
takes brush or pencil in hand except when
he is in an exalted frame of mind, that is to
54
say, inspired ; and the work once done, product
as it is of that inspiration, even if it does not
conform to rules of drawing or to the conven-
tions of classic beauty, is never touched by him
again. In a word, Previati works himself up into
a state of exaltation, so that he may make his
own sensibility as vivid and contagious as possible,
hoping to communicate his own emotion, his own
poetic feeling, to the spectator. The ideal of others
is, of course, different: they aim at the correct
academic form they have been taught to respect, at
producing sensual effects of colour; but Previati
longs to light up the path of the soul, to realise the
ideal emotions, and on this account he may justly
" THE KISS" BY G. PREVIATI
picture in the least, either passed by without taking
any notice of it, or laughed at it without knowing
why. The so-called connoisseurs pronounced the
artist altogether second-rate; only here and there
some critic tried to rectify the wrong impression
given,, without, however, achieving any satisfactory
result. I, for my part, having realised on the
opening day of the Exhibition, that a great battle
would be waged around this, the boldest, the most
lyrical of all the canvases of Previati, wrote an
article in Arte e Storia, in which I endeavoured to
explain the aesthetic, the poetic meaning of
Maternity, a picture which would probably be
rejected by the Hanging Committee, but my
article had no more than a negative result.
The picture is of considerable size, and is an
ideal presentment of the sentiment of maternal
love, representing as it does a mother suckling
her child, whilst a group of angels, supposed to
be visible to her alone, are looking on. The
isolated figure of the mother is near a tree, the
soft and pleasing shade of which recalls the wil-
low described by Alfred de Musset. The draw-
ing, the colouring of sky and ground, all combine
to produce a harmony which is full of the in-
definable mystery of a dream. No attempt at
rendering motion, no desire to produce a definite
and sensible effect, here distracts the attention of
the spectator from the mystic meaning of the
conception of the poet-artist, whose aim has been
to work out an immaterial idea with the aid of the
material means of painting. As a result, the
critics, unable to comprehend the mystic spirit of
the conception, accused Previati of having com-
pletely lost the sense of colour ; some even going
so far as to add that he had lost that of line as
well, little dreaming that the painter of Maternity
had really approached the realisation of his aes-
thetic vision by correcting the ordinary modes of
expression, which in his opinion were not alto-
gether suitable for the sentiment of his picture.
Previati had, indeed, endeavoured to make
colour, generally one of the most definite means
of pictorial expression, all but immaterial; and
the drawing of his composition was really in
exact correspondence with his own emotions at
the time of his conception of the picture.
Previati told me himself that, convinced as
he is of the principle that emotion is the true
source of all creative or suggestive power, he
never dreams of reproducing in cold blood
either his paintings or his sketches. He never
takes brush or pencil in hand except when
he is in an exalted frame of mind, that is to
54
say, inspired ; and the work once done, product
as it is of that inspiration, even if it does not
conform to rules of drawing or to the conven-
tions of classic beauty, is never touched by him
again. In a word, Previati works himself up into
a state of exaltation, so that he may make his
own sensibility as vivid and contagious as possible,
hoping to communicate his own emotion, his own
poetic feeling, to the spectator. The ideal of others
is, of course, different: they aim at the correct
academic form they have been taught to respect, at
producing sensual effects of colour; but Previati
longs to light up the path of the soul, to realise the
ideal emotions, and on this account he may justly
" THE KISS" BY G. PREVIATI