Gaetano Previati – The Best Of Italian Divisionism Style In Sacred Art
Intertwined with mysticism of the late 19th century, Divisionism – the painting style of the Italian north – aimed to bring together colors, words and melodies. Was this experiment successful? – most likely yes, like any other artistic phenomenon. Luminous paintings of Gaetano Previati, the most prominent representative of this style, remain in the history of Italian painting as bright flashes of colors’ purity.
Gaetano Previati (1852–1920), an Italian artist born in Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, statudied fine arts and painting at Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. This is also where he first got in touch with the group of Italian artists who called themselves “Scapigliatura” (transl. into English as “Dishevelment”). In short, it was the Italian version of French bohemia. They were true rebels in art and opponents of Italian romanticism in painting, preferring French naturalism. After having done some experimenting with this artistic group of rebels, Previati finds the style that he finally prefers – Divisionism.
Devisionism
Divisionism is an Italian artistic style, born at the end of the 19th century. Technically it comes from the Neo-Impressionism and is characterized by the separation of colors into single points or lines that interact with each other in an optical sense. It might be also called a very specific variant of Pointillism.
Divisionism is not an official artistic movement because the artists, participants, never wrote an artistic manifesto. However, it was Gaetano Previati who outlined the principles of this painting technique and properly developed it. It was also him who influenced the spread of Divisionism in Liguria, Lombardy, Tuscany and Piedmont. The major divisionists were Segantini, Previati, Morbelli, Pellizza and Longoni.
Among Gaetano Previani’s most important works is the Maternita, painted in 1890 and presented at the Milan Triennale. In the painting, a woman, sitting under a tree, tenderly bends over a child to whom she offers her breasts while she is surrounded by fleeting figures of angels.
Either because there is a lot of yellow color in his paintings, or because the paints are applied to the canvas in their pure form, but the works of Gaetano Previati really glow. And this unusual glow seems very appropriate in painting on a religious subject.
