DOI Artikel:
Melani, Alfredo: Tranquillo Cremona - painter
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20710#0065
Tranquillo Cremona
to recognise his strong personal influence. To them " That is by Cremona ! " An artist can desire no
Cremona spoke his last word with The Falconer, the more significant praise. Cremona, in his handling
most remarkable work of his first period, and a alone, is one of the most original of Italian artists—
really powerful painting. To this period also I might almost say the most original. In his art the
belongs a very charming and romantic picture, brush work is wedded to the drawing, and design
which might form a pendant to Hayez's Kiss, and colour compose a harmony which has taken its
Lovers at the Tomb of Romeo and Juliet, an oil rise in the artist's imagination and soul. Nay, in
painting of considerable merit. Still, it is inferior his soul even more than in his imagination, for his
to many another work by the same hand, though later work is compact of sensibility and emotion,
leading us naturally to The Cousins, a work which Cremona devoted his attention not merely to the
shows the portents of revolution. lines of the figure, but to the inmost spirit which
Before going on to Cremona's second manner, to gives them their beauty. A line being to him an
show how unmistakably school-work was the true element that can never be dissevered from colour,
starting-point of his development, I must note that, he drew with his brush and palette ; his eye took
like his predecessors and his contemporaries, Cre- in together the form and the colour of the model
mona turned his attention to historical painting, before him. One of his critics very truly remarked
At that period every artist sought his ideal in that Cremona from the very first touch tried to
ancient history. Such assemblies of puppets were present everything at once, and the soul appeared
as common then as scientific assemblies are now. on the canvas with the substance, both being con-
Hayez was an historical painter; but Cremona, ceived of as one from the inception of the work,
while paying his tribute to the
"learned school," was not the
man to put his imagination at the
service of others. His view was
that a work is interesting in pro-
portion to the absence of history
nd the prese nee of life and actu-
ality ; so, after a very brief delay,
he went forward in the road
pointed out to him by nature.
Among the few historical pic-
tures which Cremona projected or
executed, Marco Polo in the
Presence of the Great Khan of
Tartary shows that such a painter
as he was can produce historical
pictures which1 are at least less
tiresome than such works com-
monly are.'
This brings us to the really
important phase of Cremona's
career—the riper age, when he
gave the rein to his ideal and
his individuality. The pictures
he then painted enable us to take
the artist's mental measure—his
artistic learning and the breadth
of his views; and these mature
works show us not merely an in-
tellectual transformation, but a
new scheme of technique, wholly
subjective and personal, which
makes us say at a glance, as we
stand before one of his pictures,
48
BY TRANQUILLO CREMONA
to recognise his strong personal influence. To them " That is by Cremona ! " An artist can desire no
Cremona spoke his last word with The Falconer, the more significant praise. Cremona, in his handling
most remarkable work of his first period, and a alone, is one of the most original of Italian artists—
really powerful painting. To this period also I might almost say the most original. In his art the
belongs a very charming and romantic picture, brush work is wedded to the drawing, and design
which might form a pendant to Hayez's Kiss, and colour compose a harmony which has taken its
Lovers at the Tomb of Romeo and Juliet, an oil rise in the artist's imagination and soul. Nay, in
painting of considerable merit. Still, it is inferior his soul even more than in his imagination, for his
to many another work by the same hand, though later work is compact of sensibility and emotion,
leading us naturally to The Cousins, a work which Cremona devoted his attention not merely to the
shows the portents of revolution. lines of the figure, but to the inmost spirit which
Before going on to Cremona's second manner, to gives them their beauty. A line being to him an
show how unmistakably school-work was the true element that can never be dissevered from colour,
starting-point of his development, I must note that, he drew with his brush and palette ; his eye took
like his predecessors and his contemporaries, Cre- in together the form and the colour of the model
mona turned his attention to historical painting, before him. One of his critics very truly remarked
At that period every artist sought his ideal in that Cremona from the very first touch tried to
ancient history. Such assemblies of puppets were present everything at once, and the soul appeared
as common then as scientific assemblies are now. on the canvas with the substance, both being con-
Hayez was an historical painter; but Cremona, ceived of as one from the inception of the work,
while paying his tribute to the
"learned school," was not the
man to put his imagination at the
service of others. His view was
that a work is interesting in pro-
portion to the absence of history
nd the prese nee of life and actu-
ality ; so, after a very brief delay,
he went forward in the road
pointed out to him by nature.
Among the few historical pic-
tures which Cremona projected or
executed, Marco Polo in the
Presence of the Great Khan of
Tartary shows that such a painter
as he was can produce historical
pictures which1 are at least less
tiresome than such works com-
monly are.'
This brings us to the really
important phase of Cremona's
career—the riper age, when he
gave the rein to his ideal and
his individuality. The pictures
he then painted enable us to take
the artist's mental measure—his
artistic learning and the breadth
of his views; and these mature
works show us not merely an in-
tellectual transformation, but a
new scheme of technique, wholly
subjective and personal, which
makes us say at a glance, as we
stand before one of his pictures,
48
BY TRANQUILLO CREMONA