Studio: international art (78.1919)

“ MARKET AT AIX-EN- PRO-
VENCE.” WOOD-ENGRAVING
BY MAURICE DE LAMBERT

(See preceding article)

A YOUNG ITALIAN ENGRAVER:
BENVENUTO DISERTORL BY VIT-
TORIO PICA. 0000

BEYOND a certain number of pen-
drawings, all of which are designs
or preparations for future engravings, the
young Trentino artist, Benvenuto Diser-
tori, has to his credit, up to now, only
about fifty completed engravings on copper
and wood. 00000
Whoever examines this small collection
of Disertori's completed works cannot fail
to be at once surprised and delighted to
discover that, save for a few fleeting traces
of conventionalism in his very earliest
compositions, he owes nothing to the in-
fluence of other artists, Italian or foreign,
ancient or modern, and therefore one is
face to face with that rare and wonderful
marvel—an original artist. 000
By nature precocious, gentle, and intro-
spective, with sudden flashes of mischievous
wit, taking the deepest pleasure in reading
and long meditation, Disertori, having
finished his schooling, was uncertain
whether to devote himself to painting or to
literature. He chose painting, and leaving
his native Trento, where until that time he
26

had lived, dreamed, and studied, he went
to Venice and entered the Academy of Arts
in that city. During the one year he
remained there he produced many drawings
and sketches, no better and no worse than
the average student's. The mixing of
colours gave him no pleasure, however, and
the spectacle of Venice with her voluptuous
feast of ever-changing tints touched no aes-
thetic chord in his soul. 000
Discontented and discouraged, he left
Venice for Munich, where he studied the
nude and became interested in the old
woodcuts of Albrecht Diirer. Then, giving
way to the growing spiritual restlessness
within him, he left Munich for Rome, and
again left Rome to wander over the pro-
vinces of Central Italy for many months.

The small and characteristic cities of
Umbria and Tuscany, from Fiesole to San
Gemignano, from Gubbio to Perugia,
awoke all his old love for the poets, ascetics
and chroniclers of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries, and stirred turbulent
longings and emotions within him to an
extraordinary degree. 000
Persuaded that he had chosen the wrong
road, he one day abandoned all projects
of becoming a painter and took train to