Studio: international art (78.1919)

A YOUNG ITALIAN ENGRAVER: BENVENUTO DISERTORI

“ LA NINFETTA " (THE LITTLE
NYMPH). ETCHING BY
B. M. DISERTORI

meet the eye at every turn in the old his-
torical cities of Tuscany and Umbria are
eloquent of the noble heroism and patrio-
tism, of the bloody and implacable partisan
hatred, and of the blind and savage religious
fanaticism which flourished in the ancient
past. Without any recourse to theatrical
tricks, eliminating only the human element,
and presenting these palaces, towers, and
campanili as they appear in our days to his
mortal eyes, he has attempted to suggest
to those who peruse his works the poetic
and tragic visions which filled his brain
whilst engraving these scenes on copper,
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and often, if not always, he has succeeded
admirably in his attempt, a a 0
There are artists who can draw inspira-
tion from the most varied aspects of nature
and humanity, attributing to them, in the
course of their literary or pictorial trans-
scription, a little or a good deal of their
own temperament. On the other hand,
there are artists who can only derive inspi-
ration from those actual scenes or historical
events which are in perfect harmony with
their own thoughts, justifying a famous
definition by Amiel, for whom a landscape
represented a “ state of mind of the artist/'