DOI article:
Melani, Alfredo: Tranquillo Cremona - painter
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20710#0064
Tranquillo Cremona
earliest attempts, of his pictures before they became and the painter who influenced them in his turn:
what we now find so interesting, so free from con- attracted in his early works by the romanticism of the
ventional formulas. In Cremona's first manner we time, and loving form for its own sake in subserviency
can discern the artist who will tread his own path to tradition, while in his later manner we find him a
by the light of his own intelligence, and this gives master of ripened judgment, having his own ideal,
the Bacio by Hayez special importance. and with a giant's stride leaving his teachers in the
I have, before now, tried to set this popular lurch. It is especially interesting to note the vast
painting in its true light—a pathetic picture of a gulf which divided him from them, from his pre-
volunteer kissing his betrothed—and I do not decessors and his contemporaries, as soon as his
hesitate to assert that it laid the germs of a stronger individuality declared itself, and led to his second
school, of which Cremona was a leading champion. manner. In Cremona a new artistic era opened
The influence of Hayez on the generation that grew for Italy, and as time goes on this becomes more
up around him was profound. He was no less the and more apparent, even to those who are unwilling
artist of a transition than
was Jacopo della Quercia
at the time of the Renais- ^^^^nMBBWWBWMBBi—MUBMHBWW^MB^—
sance, or again, than
those artists who con-
structed the Porta della
Carta at Venice; and
they were not so revo- *i
lutionary as Cremona,
for the times were not
ripe, and would have
nothing to say to a
painter who defied all'
systematic training.
Next to Hayez the
first place in modern
Lombard art must be
assigned to Cremona;
even Giuseppe Bertini,
who succeeded Hayez
at the Brera Academy,
and taught Cremona,
cannot fill it; for he, at
the time when Cremona
had revealed his strong
individuality, had a few
f :;':cv,vrs \v!im, unaware
of modern tendencies,
stood apart or allied
themselves with the re-
calcitrant party that con-
demned Cremona's new
spirit of artistic expres-
sion, while it attracted
youthful intellects.
Thus we see in Cre-
mona two very distinct
artists : the painter who
i) ] is i'm's; vi rrmlu a ■!£.■<.
not shake off the influ-
ence of his surroundings, study by tranquillo cremona
47
earliest attempts, of his pictures before they became and the painter who influenced them in his turn:
what we now find so interesting, so free from con- attracted in his early works by the romanticism of the
ventional formulas. In Cremona's first manner we time, and loving form for its own sake in subserviency
can discern the artist who will tread his own path to tradition, while in his later manner we find him a
by the light of his own intelligence, and this gives master of ripened judgment, having his own ideal,
the Bacio by Hayez special importance. and with a giant's stride leaving his teachers in the
I have, before now, tried to set this popular lurch. It is especially interesting to note the vast
painting in its true light—a pathetic picture of a gulf which divided him from them, from his pre-
volunteer kissing his betrothed—and I do not decessors and his contemporaries, as soon as his
hesitate to assert that it laid the germs of a stronger individuality declared itself, and led to his second
school, of which Cremona was a leading champion. manner. In Cremona a new artistic era opened
The influence of Hayez on the generation that grew for Italy, and as time goes on this becomes more
up around him was profound. He was no less the and more apparent, even to those who are unwilling
artist of a transition than
was Jacopo della Quercia
at the time of the Renais- ^^^^nMBBWWBWMBBi—MUBMHBWW^MB^—
sance, or again, than
those artists who con-
structed the Porta della
Carta at Venice; and
they were not so revo- *i
lutionary as Cremona,
for the times were not
ripe, and would have
nothing to say to a
painter who defied all'
systematic training.
Next to Hayez the
first place in modern
Lombard art must be
assigned to Cremona;
even Giuseppe Bertini,
who succeeded Hayez
at the Brera Academy,
and taught Cremona,
cannot fill it; for he, at
the time when Cremona
had revealed his strong
individuality, had a few
f :;':cv,vrs \v!im, unaware
of modern tendencies,
stood apart or allied
themselves with the re-
calcitrant party that con-
demned Cremona's new
spirit of artistic expres-
sion, while it attracted
youthful intellects.
Thus we see in Cre-
mona two very distinct
artists : the painter who
i) ] is i'm's; vi rrmlu a ■!£.■<.
not shake off the influ-
ence of his surroundings, study by tranquillo cremona
47