DOI Heft:
No. 234 (September 1912)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Selwyn John Curwen: Italian art at the Venice international exhibition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21157#0304
Venice International Exhibition
ITALIAN ART AT THE VENICE
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.
The Exhibitions of International Art at Venice,
more than any others which I know, are always
distinguished by a brilliant and imposing initial
ceremony, in which the Queen of the Adriatic
seems to reassert her glorious artistic tradition.
One could hardly fail to feel something of this when,
in the presence of the Duke of Genoa, the opening
addresses were delivered by the Sindaco Grimani
and the Minister of Public Instruction in the
vestibule decorated by Galileo Chini with the story
of art, and the procession passed out to visit the
different galleries through the Great Central Hall,
adorned specially for this exhibition by Pieretto
Bianco with decorative panels, whose subject is the
renewed activity of Venetian life and commerce
(II Risveglio di Venezia).
It is as obvious as it is useful (and almost
obligatory) in reviewing this, the tenth Exhibition
of International Art in Venice, to compare it with
those of previous years; and I may state at once
that my own conviction confirms that which I found
very general—that a marked advance is apparent,
especially in the Italian schools. This is apparent
here in the painting even more than the sculpture,
in which elsewhere in Italy such progress has been
made in these last years ; and we shall form an idea
of this by running briefly over the various works'of
the different Italian schools, which are, speaking
generally, scattered over the different salons of the
central building, except in the case of “ individual
shows,” which occupy the whole or part of separate
rooms.
More particularly comparing this exhibition with
that of Rome last year, as well as with previous,
displays in Venice, I am impressed by the activity
and progressive spirit of art in Milan. Giuseppe
Mentessi, of course, stands alone in the monu-
mental grandeur of his tempera painting, I!Anima
delle Pietre (“ The Soul of the Stones ”), a moonlight
study of rocks and antique temples, to which his
brilliant painting of flowers near this forms a most
“a walk in the mountains”
282
BV ETTORE TITO
ITALIAN ART AT THE VENICE
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.
The Exhibitions of International Art at Venice,
more than any others which I know, are always
distinguished by a brilliant and imposing initial
ceremony, in which the Queen of the Adriatic
seems to reassert her glorious artistic tradition.
One could hardly fail to feel something of this when,
in the presence of the Duke of Genoa, the opening
addresses were delivered by the Sindaco Grimani
and the Minister of Public Instruction in the
vestibule decorated by Galileo Chini with the story
of art, and the procession passed out to visit the
different galleries through the Great Central Hall,
adorned specially for this exhibition by Pieretto
Bianco with decorative panels, whose subject is the
renewed activity of Venetian life and commerce
(II Risveglio di Venezia).
It is as obvious as it is useful (and almost
obligatory) in reviewing this, the tenth Exhibition
of International Art in Venice, to compare it with
those of previous years; and I may state at once
that my own conviction confirms that which I found
very general—that a marked advance is apparent,
especially in the Italian schools. This is apparent
here in the painting even more than the sculpture,
in which elsewhere in Italy such progress has been
made in these last years ; and we shall form an idea
of this by running briefly over the various works'of
the different Italian schools, which are, speaking
generally, scattered over the different salons of the
central building, except in the case of “ individual
shows,” which occupy the whole or part of separate
rooms.
More particularly comparing this exhibition with
that of Rome last year, as well as with previous,
displays in Venice, I am impressed by the activity
and progressive spirit of art in Milan. Giuseppe
Mentessi, of course, stands alone in the monu-
mental grandeur of his tempera painting, I!Anima
delle Pietre (“ The Soul of the Stones ”), a moonlight
study of rocks and antique temples, to which his
brilliant painting of flowers near this forms a most
“a walk in the mountains”
282
BV ETTORE TITO