DOI issue:
Nr. 246 (September 1913)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21159#0338
Studio-Talk
Fired with the desire to
avenge his country’s wrongs,
Bianchi paid his tribute of
patriotism to his fatherland as
a volunteer under Garibaldi
in 1859. It was a time of
unbounded enthusiasm for
the independence of Italy,
but I should have omitted
any reference to these mili-
tary incidents were it not that
on this occasion the painter
evinced that rebellious spirit
—he was once actually taken
prisoner—which is the foun-
dation of all his artistic
work. Bianchi was politically
a rebel, and artistically a rebel
and an innovator who, with-
out attaching himself to, or
identifying himself with, the
symbolists or luminists, with-
out propounding new theories,
set himself steadfastly to study
the beauty which he saw all
around him, quietly and in-
dependently, and . continued
in that study till he died in
I9°4> _
the theme for many a seascape, count him as among
their most powerful painters. Chioggia especially
has given the Lombard artist many a subject, the
calm or the violence of her waters has often proved
seductive to his brush, but he died without having
said the last word in paint about Chioggia, the
light of his eyes and ideal of his aesthetic taste.
Though primarily a sea painter, however, Bianchi
wrestled with the problems of figure-painting with a
power and complete understanding which I would
especially commend to the reader’s notice. The
Girl of Chioggia, which we reproduce, is an evidence
of his wide knowledge ; while the portrait of his
father shows us with what consummate skill he
could deal with the intricacies and difficulties
of portraiture. In certain pictures Mose Bianchi
evokes reminiscences of the ordered and scrupulous
As mariniste Bianchi was
excellent, and both Venice and
Chioggia, which afforded him
318
‘A GIRL OF CHIOGGIA
(Owned by Sgr. Luigi Ponti)
BY MOSfe BIANCHI
more certain livelihood than art, but Mose followed
the desire of his heart.
A disciple of Bertini, Bianchi soon showed that
his temperament chafed under the restrictions
of academic teaching—his soul longed for the open
air, for life, for movement. At the time of his
dlbut as an artist painters were divesting themselves
of the cloak of romanticism, and historical painting
was beginning to attract all their attention. On
all sides huge cartoons, great canvases, were being
executed in a stilted manner and in a conventional
style that left all life outside the picture. Even
Bianchi was not able to dissociate himself from the
general craze and contributed to the mass of his-
torical paintings that were being executed on all
sides certain pictures full of conventional beauty,
done in such a manner as to
prove him a master of the
academic style.
Fired with the desire to
avenge his country’s wrongs,
Bianchi paid his tribute of
patriotism to his fatherland as
a volunteer under Garibaldi
in 1859. It was a time of
unbounded enthusiasm for
the independence of Italy,
but I should have omitted
any reference to these mili-
tary incidents were it not that
on this occasion the painter
evinced that rebellious spirit
—he was once actually taken
prisoner—which is the foun-
dation of all his artistic
work. Bianchi was politically
a rebel, and artistically a rebel
and an innovator who, with-
out attaching himself to, or
identifying himself with, the
symbolists or luminists, with-
out propounding new theories,
set himself steadfastly to study
the beauty which he saw all
around him, quietly and in-
dependently, and . continued
in that study till he died in
I9°4> _
the theme for many a seascape, count him as among
their most powerful painters. Chioggia especially
has given the Lombard artist many a subject, the
calm or the violence of her waters has often proved
seductive to his brush, but he died without having
said the last word in paint about Chioggia, the
light of his eyes and ideal of his aesthetic taste.
Though primarily a sea painter, however, Bianchi
wrestled with the problems of figure-painting with a
power and complete understanding which I would
especially commend to the reader’s notice. The
Girl of Chioggia, which we reproduce, is an evidence
of his wide knowledge ; while the portrait of his
father shows us with what consummate skill he
could deal with the intricacies and difficulties
of portraiture. In certain pictures Mose Bianchi
evokes reminiscences of the ordered and scrupulous
As mariniste Bianchi was
excellent, and both Venice and
Chioggia, which afforded him
318
‘A GIRL OF CHIOGGIA
(Owned by Sgr. Luigi Ponti)
BY MOSfe BIANCHI
more certain livelihood than art, but Mose followed
the desire of his heart.
A disciple of Bertini, Bianchi soon showed that
his temperament chafed under the restrictions
of academic teaching—his soul longed for the open
air, for life, for movement. At the time of his
dlbut as an artist painters were divesting themselves
of the cloak of romanticism, and historical painting
was beginning to attract all their attention. On
all sides huge cartoons, great canvases, were being
executed in a stilted manner and in a conventional
style that left all life outside the picture. Even
Bianchi was not able to dissociate himself from the
general craze and contributed to the mass of his-
torical paintings that were being executed on all
sides certain pictures full of conventional beauty,
done in such a manner as to
prove him a master of the
academic style.