DOI Heft:
Nr. 118 (January 1903)
DOI Artikel:Fred, Alfred W.: The International Exhibition of Decorative Art at Turin, the Italian section
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0286
Turin Exhibition
and XVIth centuries—not only has there been Of the complete rooms, decorated and furnished
a stagnation of artistic crafts but also, and throughout, in the Turin Exhibition, I can praise
more recently, such changes in social life and but few. A young lady's bedroom, by Moretti, is
habits, and in the general conditions of existence, simple, bright, and pleasing in colour. The Familia
as seem to have undermined the very demand for Artistica of Milan have made a more serious
such work. It is no mere tourist's exaggerated attempt to provide for the requirements of the
view to say that Italians live in the streets, and so middle-class, by showing some furnished rooms of
feel but little of that desire for the graces of suitable style and price for daily uses, in which the
domestic life which influences northern nations, treatment is simple and the colouring restricted to
Still, it can be seen that the organisers of the Turin a key of green, blue or red. One excellent room
exhibition have done their utmost to arouse the is priced at 680 lire (,£3°).
demand, and we cannot doubt that they will Those decorated by Issel are adapted to a more
succeed with a race so instinctively artistic as the fastidious taste and deeper purse. Here we have
Italians; not perhaps immediately, nor till original a nursery, intended no doubt to train the youthful
design has taken the place of imita-
tions of foreign work.
As yet, in fact, we too plainly
see that Italy has no modern native
school of industrial art; we find
a confusion and mixture of styles,
and a craving for novelty, out of all
proportion to the gift of inventive-
ness, especially in constructive de-
sign, which is subordinated to
frittered detail and gaudy colouring,
to produce the " modern " appear
ance which we find in England,
Austria, and Belgium. Italian
drawing-rooms are furnished with
every variety of work which can
be comprehended under the desig-
nation of " New Style." Thus, we
see furniture of plain design, sug-
gesting English influence, decora-
ted with coloured marqueterie in
the manner of E. Galle; or pieces
of light scroll work, in the early
Dutch style, mixed up with female
figures of pre-Raphaelite affectation
—all the medley which ensues when
art is applied to craft with no sense
of purpose, but solely for the sake
of novelty, however eccentric it
may be.
I need not dwell on the many in-
stances of barbaric misuse of costly
materials. The objects shown in
our illustrations are free from this
fault; hence, they hardly give an
adequate idea of the general level of
the Italian section, where, though
much was attractive, too much was in
extravagant bad taste, a mere frantic «r0ses" stained glass designed by g. beltrami
assertion of originality at any price. executed by g. rovetta
274
and XVIth centuries—not only has there been Of the complete rooms, decorated and furnished
a stagnation of artistic crafts but also, and throughout, in the Turin Exhibition, I can praise
more recently, such changes in social life and but few. A young lady's bedroom, by Moretti, is
habits, and in the general conditions of existence, simple, bright, and pleasing in colour. The Familia
as seem to have undermined the very demand for Artistica of Milan have made a more serious
such work. It is no mere tourist's exaggerated attempt to provide for the requirements of the
view to say that Italians live in the streets, and so middle-class, by showing some furnished rooms of
feel but little of that desire for the graces of suitable style and price for daily uses, in which the
domestic life which influences northern nations, treatment is simple and the colouring restricted to
Still, it can be seen that the organisers of the Turin a key of green, blue or red. One excellent room
exhibition have done their utmost to arouse the is priced at 680 lire (,£3°).
demand, and we cannot doubt that they will Those decorated by Issel are adapted to a more
succeed with a race so instinctively artistic as the fastidious taste and deeper purse. Here we have
Italians; not perhaps immediately, nor till original a nursery, intended no doubt to train the youthful
design has taken the place of imita-
tions of foreign work.
As yet, in fact, we too plainly
see that Italy has no modern native
school of industrial art; we find
a confusion and mixture of styles,
and a craving for novelty, out of all
proportion to the gift of inventive-
ness, especially in constructive de-
sign, which is subordinated to
frittered detail and gaudy colouring,
to produce the " modern " appear
ance which we find in England,
Austria, and Belgium. Italian
drawing-rooms are furnished with
every variety of work which can
be comprehended under the desig-
nation of " New Style." Thus, we
see furniture of plain design, sug-
gesting English influence, decora-
ted with coloured marqueterie in
the manner of E. Galle; or pieces
of light scroll work, in the early
Dutch style, mixed up with female
figures of pre-Raphaelite affectation
—all the medley which ensues when
art is applied to craft with no sense
of purpose, but solely for the sake
of novelty, however eccentric it
may be.
I need not dwell on the many in-
stances of barbaric misuse of costly
materials. The objects shown in
our illustrations are free from this
fault; hence, they hardly give an
adequate idea of the general level of
the Italian section, where, though
much was attractive, too much was in
extravagant bad taste, a mere frantic «r0ses" stained glass designed by g. beltrami
assertion of originality at any price. executed by g. rovetta
274