Studio: international art (35.1905)

The Venice Exhibition

furniture was executed by Vittorio Fiori of Bologna,
after the designs of Professor Tartarini.

The most interesting picture shown is Boldini’s
Portrait of Whistler. It is sufficient to mention it.
Some highly interesting pieces of sculpture are to
be seen here, the work of Giuseppe Romagnoli.
His Portrait of Countess Bianconcini di Mignano
is done in an admirable manner. It was repro-
duced in the July number of The Studio. He
also shows a Head of a Woman in marble and a
very spontaneous sketch in bronze.

The committee from the province of Lombardy
consisted of Giovanni Beltrami, Antonio Carminati,
Emilio Gola, Gaetano and Emilio Quadrelli.

The large room opens out into a verandah—a
rather refreshing surprise after the continued repe-
tition of rooms of similar shapes and sizes. A
feature of this little corner is a bit of glass
design by G. Beltrami of Milan. The artists
represented include Emilio Borsa, Riccardo Galli,
Pompeo Mariani, Achille Alberti. A great number
of black-and-whites are shown by Pompeo Mariani
and Giovanni Beltrami.

No small amount of effort was spent in the
decoration of the Tuscan room. The committee
was composed of Domenica Trentacosta, Plinio
Nomellini, Vincenzo Giustiniani, Riccardo Maz-
zanti, and Francesco Gioli.

A unique feature of the room is the frieze of
decorative tiles. Below this frieze the great spaces
are covered with silk of a dull old rose—not a bad
background for the paintings. Among the things
shown the best perhaps is a Portrait of a Ma7i by
Ernestini Orlandini, and a landscape by Llewelyn
Lloyd. Salvino Tofanari shows a full length por
trait of a woman. The Peasant on Horseback, by
Clementi Origo, is a very direct bit of modelling,
the best of the sculpture shown. Force, by Ales-
sandro Lazzeimi, should not be overlooked.

In the Neapolitan and Sicilian rooms were
shown but few things of any considerable im-
portance. The Cafe in Montmartre, Chopin, and
Decadence, by Sonello Balestrieri, On the Quay,
by Giovanni Campriana, and the Landscape, by
Ettore de Maria Bergler, are among the best.

Rome sent the following committeemen : Adolfo
Apolloni, Onorato Carlandi, Giuseppe Cellina.

The scheme of the room is quite unique, being
kept after a fashion in old Roman style. A foun-
tain with a life-size figure called The Vigour of
Youth, by Adolfo Apolloni, is the principal feature
of the decoration. DAbisso, by Giulio Bargellini,
is an interesting composition, good in drawing and
in colour. A portrait and Solitude, by Umberto
228

Coromaldi, a portrait by Arturo Noci, and The
Tiber, by Onorato Carlandi, are worthy of notice ;
but the portrait of his father by Antonio
Mancini is the strongest work shown in this
section. It is to be regretted that more of the
work of this clever painter is not to be seen.

This completes the long list of rooms over which
so much pains have been taken to arrange them
in a most tasteful manner. But here might arise
the question as to what is taste.

After having spent three weeks with these high
priests of modern architecture and decorative de-
sign, and heard their daily discussions in the cafe
and elsewhere, the result arrived at is not unlike
that described by old Omar :—

“ Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about, but evermore
Came out by the same door wherein I went.”

So it is when taste is the point in question. I
believe it to be too national, too provincial, and too
personal for any one person or nation to say just
what is good or bad. If, however, it were left for
the list of exhibitors in the Venice Exhibition to
cast a vote as to just which room is best adapted
to the exhibition of paintings, I am firm in the
belief that the unanimous choice would fall to
Frank Brangwyn’s design for the English salon.

Of the exhibition as a whole, I would say that
few have been more complete. When one considers
the difficulties that had to be overcome, the many
languages spoken, the work being directed by means
of interpreters, and the scores of other obstacles,
the result is quite marvellous. Suffice it for me
to venture this suggestion :—That if in building
the Tower of Babel the services of two men like
Professor Antonio Fradeletto as General Secretary
and Romolo Bazzoni as Superintendent of Works
could have been secured, the process of construc-
tion would never have ceased until the edifice
had been completed.

Arthur S. Covey.

At a recent meeting of the Anglo-Russian
Literary Society an interesting paper was read on
the work of Roerich, the painter, some of which is
familiar to readers of The Studio. Roerich, though
only thirty years old, is an energetic worker and a
zealous champion of Russian art. As secretary of
the St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement
of Art he is indefatigable in his efforts to ensure the
preservation of Russia’s ancient art treasures. The
paper was by Mr. S. Makovsky, son of the painter.