The Macchiaioli

Thursday June 16th, 2016 , Schools & Periods

Silvestro Lega, La pergola (1868).

THE MACCHIAIOLI

Macchiaioli. Not a year goes by without an exhibition dedicated to the Macchiaioli or to an artist who was attached somehow to the most important artistic movement in Italy in the 19^th century.

The latest exhibition I wrote about is “I Macchiaioli. Le collezioni svelate” (“The Macchiaioli. The collections revealed”) arranged at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome. But before that an exhibition dedicated to Giovanni Fattori, the main exponent of the movement, took place at the Palazzo Zabardella in Padua. Not to mention that every time you admire a painting by Boldini, you can’t help thinking that at the beginning of his career he was a member of the Macchiaioli.
SEA ALSO: the photo gallery with the portraits of women by Giovanni Boldini.

I think it’s time for me to give a definition of “Macchiaioli”, and I will be waiting for your comments in order to know if you like their paintings.

IMPRESSIONISM

Thursday May 5th, 2016 , Schools & Periods

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise (1872) – Musée Marmottan Monet (Parigi).

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism. On April 15^th 1874 in Paris at the studio of the photographer Nadar a group of young artists of the Sociètè anonyme coopèrative des artistes peintres sculpteurs et graveurs (Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers) presented an art exhibition. Those artists were: Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley e Pierre Auguste Renoir.

Their exhibition was a failure, but it was the first Impressionist exhibition.

Futurism

Thursday April 14th, 2016 , Schools & Periods

Manifestazione interventista | Carlo Carrà

Carlo Carrà, Manifestazione interventista (1914)

Futurism

Futurism is an artistic movement of avant-garde born in 1909 with the publication in France of the Manifesto of Futurism.

The manifesto was published in the newspaper Le Figaro by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and it announced the beginning of the struggle against the tradition, and was in sharp contrast with the Romantic culture of the 19th century.

Symbolism

Wednesday February 3rd, 2016 , Schools & Periods

The angel of life |Segantini | simbolism

The angel of life by Segantini (1894).

Symbolism

The last time I told someone that I would attend an art exhibition dedicated to Symbolism, I saw the bewilderment in the eyes of my interlocutor.
The bewilderment typical of someone who was trying to recall at least the name of an artist, either a painting or a definition, in order to understand what I was talking about.

It has always been difficult to define Symbolism, because it’s an art movement which doesn’t identify a precise group of artists, whereas it’s a general trend which affected each artistic and creative sector between 1880 and 1919.

I’m trying to clarify the matter in this post.

Post-Impressionism

Thursday January 28th, 2016 , Schools & Periods

Paul Cézanne, Hortense Fiquet, 1877 (detail).

Post-Impressionism

In 1910 Grafton Galleries in London hosted an exhibition entitled “Manet and the post-Impressionist”, which showed works of art clearly illustrating the crisis suffered by the Impressionist movement. In fact the movement had lost its early enthusiasm.

On that occasion, English art critic Roger Fry coined the term “Post-impressionism” to describe the artists, who were inspired by innovative Impressionist ideas, but at the same time they reached a new artistic style.
But what is exactly Post- Impressionism?