DOCSLIB.ORG

The Macchiaioli As "Proto-Impressionists": Realism, Popular Science and the Re-Shaping of Macchia Romanticism, 1862-1886

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Macchiaioli As The Macchiaioli as "Proto-Impressionists": Realism, Popular Science and the Re-shaping of Macchia Romanticism, 1862-1886 NORMA F. BROUDE In the current literature of nineteenth-century Italian painting, the In its original form, as an esthetic based upon the principles of Tuscan Macchiaioli are frequently described as "proto-Impression­ French Romanticism,4 the macchia flourished as an organized and ists," as an early group of plein air painters, who, though less dar­ productive movement i~ Florence for a relatively brief period, ap­ ing and unquestionably less brilliant than their better-known and proximately seven years, between 1855 and 1862.5 By the early somewhat younger contemporaries, the French Impressionists, fol­ 1860's, new influences from France-in particular, word of Cour­ lowed nevertheless a line of inquiry which surely anticipated bet's Realism-had begun to reach Florence.6 In 1862, Telemaco theirs.1 Signorini's expression of dissatisfaction with qualities in his work This approach to the Macchiaioli as proto-impressionistic "patch" which he now considered to be "troppo soggettivo e individuale" is painters, though misleading, has informed much of the scholarly undoubtedly a reflection of the inroads that had already been made and critical work written in the field since the resurgence of interest into the aesthetic philosophy of the Italians by the standard of ob­ in the Macchiaioli early in this century. It has been fostered not jective naturalism.7 In this sense, 1862, the year in which the only by a persistent misinterpretation of the name of the group and macchia is said to have died, does indeed mark a definite turning by a biased emphasis upon only a certain area of its work,2 but also point in the history of the movement. For while several of the by an uncritical acceptance on the part of scholars of a series of es­ Macchiaioli had been sketching from nature as early as 1854,8 and says by the sculptor and early friend of the Macchiaioli, Adriano many of them, after 1859 especially, had turned increasingly to Cecioni, essays in which the original program and activities of the contemporary rural life for thematic material, the attitude with group are described in terms which would clearly seem to relate which they had approached this material had been essentially a Ro­ the Italian movement to French Impressionism.3 These often-quoted mantic one. During the early sixties, however, certain aspects of and highly influential essays, however, were written by Cecioni not this attitude began to change, and gradually a few of the artists in the early 1860's, as an immediate response to events witnessed in the original group began to look upon their art more exclusively and experiences shared with his painter-friends, but in the early as the recording of visual experience than as the reflection of the 1880's, at a remove of more than twenty-five years from the actual feelings which these experiences had evoked. Among the Macchia­ inception of the macchia movement. The prevailing assumption of ioli and their friends, those who were most deeply influenced in Cecioni's accuracy and reliability as a reporter, therefore, though their own work by the rising tide of Realism were Telemaco Si­ unchallenged by modern scholarship, is nevertheless unfounded, gnorini and Adriano Cecioni, both of whom are thought of today for it fails to take into consideration the impressive time lapse in­ as the principal theorists and chroniclers of the original macchia volved and the actual circumstances and influences under which movement. Cecioni's late essays were written. Our purpose here will be to sort By 1862, the macchia, understood in Romantic terms as the po­ out the various influences which, in the 1860's and seventies, did in etically evocative chiaroscuro "effect" of a painting, was no longer fact seriously modify and re-shape Cecioni's thought, and to trace a new or controversial idea for progressive artists in Florence, many the process by which the original concept of the macchia underwent of whom were already beginning to look toward Realism for the a significant theoretical transformation in the hands of Cecioni and current and vital issues of the day. Nevertheless, many of the values other late chroniclers of the movement as well. and aesthetic principles which the Macchiaioli had derived from their 1 See, e.g., Lionello Venturi, Italian Painting from Caravaggio to Modi­ that "verso il 1862 questa ricerca artistica che aveva fatto il suo gliani, New York, 1952, 100, 115-16; also, Enrico Somare, Signorini, tempo mori senza onor di sepoltura" (Telemaco Signorini, "Cose Milan, 1926, 29. d'arte," Il Risorgimento, 1874; reprinted in Somare, Signorini, 256- 2 See Norma F. Broude, "The Macchiaioli: Effect and Expression in 57). Nineteenth-Century Florentine Painting," Art Bulletin, 52, 1970, 11- 6 The art of Courbet was apparently not one of the initial influences 21. upon the Italians, none of whom gave any indication of even having 3 Cecioni's collected writings have appeared in the foliowing editions: been aware of the Pavillon du Realisme in 1855 (see Roberto Longhi, Adriano Cecioni, Scritti e ricordi, ed. Gustavo Uzielli, Florence, 1905; "II Impressionismo e il gusto degli italiani," intro. to John Rewald, Adriano Cecioni, Opere e scritti, ed. Enrico Somare, Milan, 1932. Storia dell'Impressionismo, trans. Antonio Boschetto, Florence, 1949, 4 For a discussion of the aesthetic and its relationship to French xi). Although the Italians had in all probability been exposed to Romanticism, see Broude, "The Macchiaioli," 15-18. Courbet's work by 1861 (in that year, Signorini, Cabianca and Banti 5 These dates are suggested by Telemaco Signorini, who, in an article made their own first trip to Paris), we find nowhere in the writings written in 1874, describes the visit of three Italian artists to the Paris of the artists or their associates any indication of precisely when it Exposition of 1855 as the event primarily responsible for the birth was that the Macchiaioli first became seriously interested in the of the new aesthetic, while further on in the same article, he declares Frenchman's work. MACCHIAIOLI 405 experiments of the 1850's were not entirely or immediately super­ clio reconstruction of that which has first been grasped and "created seded by the newer ideas. The change in their thinking took place with the mind."10 gradually, it would appear, and even as late as 1873, we find echoes Despite these similarities, however, there are several indications of the older attitudes in an essay by Adriano Cecioni. Though not in this essay of an important difference between Cecioni' s aesthetic dealing directly with the Macchiaioli, this essay, entitled "On the assumptions and those of the older, Romantic school. He writes: Importance of Technical Facility in Art," provides important in­ The choice is free; the subject, reality; the aim, truth. Everything is sights into the practices and procedures which then prevailed among beautiful in nature from the point of view of art because everything is the Florentines and indicates the extent to which the Realist aesthetic, made up of the same elements, i.e., light, color, chiaroscuro and drawing. by the early seventies, had affected the conception then current of Differences in thematic choice do not account for the greater or lesser beauty of a work of art.... the relationship between art and nature. Cecioni writes: Everything must be sure and decisive, without the sacrifice of the smallest detail; the total effect must be obtained by means of that in­ Art, considered today as interpretation of nature, has a great mission finite gradation which is in nature. to accomplish. Art must be the medium for the reproduction of that A field, for example, is one color and, at the same time, thousands of which impresses us in nature; and when, with a work of art, we succeed colors, by virtue of the play which light creates over it, and because of in producing the same sensation, only then will art have fulfilled its the many small plantlets intermingled with the grass, all different in function .... form and color; all of this must be interpreted and distinguished by Art must be that which surprises nature in both her normal and means of extremely fine observation.11 unusual moments and effects. Since this surprise, embodied in a work of art, succeeds in producing the same effect produced in us by nature, The fine optical distinctions upon which the writer dwells here raise the means employed must be the result of serious consideration. Nat~re certain questions. What precisely, we should ask, does Cecioni now produces her effects without laboring excessively over them, and the mean when he speaks of the sensations that are evoked and repro­ artist must be able to do the same thing. Among the artist's most essen­ tial skills is that of quick analysis, by means of which he must acquire duced by a work of art? By "sensazione" in this context, is he refer­ the mastery that will enable him to seize those strange and wondrous ring (as did the Barbizon painters and the original Macchiaioli) to effects that do not last long enough to be tranquilly copied. Proportion, something subjective and emotional in the artist's experience, or is point of view, chiaroscuro and the relationship among the tones are the most important things .... It is necessary to determine everything the allusion now to something that is more purely visual and ob­ before beginning to paint, and then, with the aid of a serious elaboration, jective? to begin to render with colors that which has first been created with the Answers to these questions emerge from yet another essay by mind.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • THE ARTIST's EYES a Resource for Students and Educators ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    THE ARTIST'S EYES A Resource for Students and Educators ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is with great pleasure that the Bowers Museum presents this Resource Guide for Students and Educators with our goal to provide worldwide virtual access to the themes and artifacts that are found in the museum’s eight permanent exhibitions. There are a number of people deserving of special thanks who contributed to this extraordinary project. First, and most importantly, I would like to thank Victoria Gerard, Bowers’ Vice President of Programs and Collections, for her amazing leadership; and, the entire education and collections team, particularly Laura Belani, Mark Bustamante, Sasha Deming, Carmen Hernandez and Diane Navarro, for their important collaboration. Thank you to Pamela M. Pease, Ph.D., the Content Editor and Designer, for her vision in creating this guide. I am also grateful to the Bowers Museum Board of Governors and Staff for their continued hard work and support of our mission to enrich lives through the world’s finest arts and cultures. Please enjoy this interesting and enriching compendium with our compliments. Peter C. Keller, Ph.D. President Bowers Museum Cover Art Confirmation Class (San Juan Capistrano Mission), c. 1897 Fannie Eliza Duvall (1861-1934) Oil on canvas; 20 x 30 in. Bowers Museum 8214 Gift of Miss Vesta A. Olmstead and Miss Frances Campbell CALIFORNIA MODULE ONE: INTRO / FOCUS QUESTIONS 5 MODULE FOUR: GENRE PAINTING 29 Impressionism: Rebels and Realists 5 Cityscapes 30 Focus Questions 7 Featured Artist: Fannie Eliza Duvall 33 Timeline:
    [Show full text]
  • Review of the Year the April 2008 – March 2009 NATIONAL GALLEY
    review of the year THE April 2008 – March 2009 NATIONAL GALLEY NGreview_texta-wa/w.indd 1 4/11/09 21:34:48 NGreview_texta-wa/w.indd 2 6/11/09 01:23:23 THE NATIONAL GALLEY review of the year April 2008 – March 2009 published by order of the trustees of the national gallery london 2009 NGreview_texta-wa/w.indd 3 6/11/09 01:23:31 Contents Introduction 5 Director’s Foreword 7 Michael Levey (1927–2008) 8 Acquisitions 12 Loans 18 Conservation 22 Framing 28 Exhibitions 34 Education 43 Scientific Research 46 Research and Publications 50 Private Support of the Gallery 54 Financial Information 58 National Gallery Company Ltd 60 Trustees and Committees of the National Gallery Board 62 NGreview_texta-wa/w.indd 4 4/11/09 21:34:52 the national gallery review of the year 2008 2009 – 5 introduction The year was dominated by the Gallery’s than had ever been paid by either institution for campaign, launched jointly with the National any work of art, it represented excellent value, Galleries of Scotland, to secure the funding and that the supreme importance of the painting of £50m required to acquire Titian’s great would be acknowledged by all who care for masterpiece Diana and Actaeon. Even before the Old Master paintings. The Art Fund was the first launch of the campaign in August, much work publicly to show its support for the campaign, had been done in London and Edinburgh to with the offer in early October 2008 of a grant arrive at an initial agreement with the owner of £1m, an unprecedented sum for it to give of the painting, the Duke of Sutherland, as to a single work.
    [Show full text]
  • Pittura-Romantica-2.Pdf
    Lezioni di storia dell’arte L’arte del Romanticismo L’esperienza italiana: Francesco Hayez e i Macchiaioli. Prof.ssa Annamaria Donadio Lezioni di storia dell’arte In Italia si radicò una corrente del romanticismo, il cosiddetto romanticismo storico, il cui massimo esponente è Francesco Hayez (Venezia, 10 febbraio 1791 – Milano, 21 dicembre 1882). I dipinti di Hayez tendono a rappresentare soggetti del passato, per lo più medioevale, nel tentativo di ritrarre situazioni assimilabili al suo tempo (esattamente come Alessandro Manzoni conseguì nell'Adelchi). Il suo più noto dipinto, intitolato semplicemente Il bacio (1859), rappresenta un uomo in procinto di fuggire ma capace di dedicare all'amata un bacio appassionato e sincero, identificando quindi il primato del sentimento su qualsiasi altra cosa. F. Hayez “Il bacio” – 1859 Pinacoteca di Brera - Milano Prof.ssa Annamaria Donadio Lezioni di storia dell’arte … Per la prima volta viene espresso in un quadro un bacio passionale e carico di emotività. L'uomo, mentre bacia la sua amata, appoggia la gamba sul gradino: Hayez comunica, con questo particolare, l'impressione che egli se ne stia andando, e dà più enfasi al bacio. La scelta dell'artista di celare i volti dei giovani conferisce importanza all'azione e le ombre che si possono scorgere dietro al muro, nella parte sinistra del quadro, indicano un eventuale pericolo. L'intera scena, a giudicare dagli abiti e dall'architettura, si svolge in un'ambientazione medioevale, ma in realtà è del tutto immersa nel presente. F.Hayez “Il bacio” – 1859 Pinacoteca di Brera - Milano Prof.ssa Annamaria Donadio Lezioni di storia dell’arte Hayez attraverso i colori (il bianco della sottoveste, il rosso della calzamaglia, il verde della piuma sul cappello e del risvolto del mantello e infine l'azzurro dell'abito della donna) vuole rappresentare l'alleanza avvenuta tra l'Italia e la Francia (accordi di Plombières).
    [Show full text]
  • Modernism 1 Modernism
    Modernism 1 Modernism Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.[2] [3] [4] Arguably the most paradigmatic motive of modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms.[5] [6] [7] Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God.[8] [9] In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an Hans Hofmann, "The Gate", 1959–1960, emerging fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 collection: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. injunction to "Make it new!" was paradigmatic of the movement's Hofmann was renowned not only as an artist but approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic exhortation was also as a teacher of art, and a modernist theorist articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the both in his native Germany and later in the U.S. During the 1930s in New York and California he 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of introduced modernism and modernist theories to [10] harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking.
    [Show full text]
  • Oil Sketches and Paintings 1660 - 1930 Recent Acquisitions
    Oil Sketches and Paintings 1660 - 1930 Recent Acquisitions 2013 Kunsthandel Barer Strasse 44 - D-80799 Munich - Germany Tel. +49 89 28 06 40 - Fax +49 89 28 17 57 - Mobile +49 172 890 86 40 [email protected] - www.daxermarschall.com My special thanks go to Sabine Ratzenberger, Simone Brenner and Diek Groenewald, for their research and their work on the text. I am also grateful to them for so expertly supervising the production of the catalogue. We are much indebted to all those whose scholarship and expertise have helped in the preparation of this catalogue. In particular, our thanks go to: Sandrine Balan, Alexandra Bouillot-Chartier, Corinne Chorier, Sue Cubitt, Roland Dorn, Jürgen Ecker, Jean-Jacques Fernier, Matthias Fischer, Silke Francksen-Mansfeld, Claus Grimm, Jean- François Heim, Sigmar Holsten, Saskia Hüneke, Mathias Ary Jan, Gerhard Kehlenbeck, Michael Koch, Wolfgang Krug, Marit Lange, Thomas le Claire, Angelika and Bruce Livie, Mechthild Lucke, Verena Marschall, Wolfram Morath-Vogel, Claudia Nordhoff, Elisabeth Nüdling, Johan Olssen, Max Pinnau, Herbert Rott, John Schlichte Bergen, Eva Schmidbauer, Gerd Spitzer, Andreas Stolzenburg, Jesper Svenningsen, Rudolf Theilmann, Wolf Zech. his catalogue, Oil Sketches and Paintings nser diesjähriger Katalog 'Oil Sketches and Paintings 2013' erreicht T2013, will be with you in time for TEFAF, USie pünktlich zur TEFAF, the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht. 14. - 24. März 2013. TEFAF runs from 14-24 March 2013. Die in dem Katalog veröffentlichten Gemälde geben Ihnen einen The selection of paintings in this catalogue is Einblick in das aktuelle Angebot der Galerie. Ohne ein reiches Netzwerk an designed to provide insights into the current Beziehungen zu Sammlern, Wissenschaftlern, Museen, Kollegen, Käufern und focus of the gallery’s activities.
    [Show full text]
  • Cooperativa Agave Scuole Secondarie Di I E II Grado Il Caffè Michelangelo: Officina Di Una Nuova Arte
    Dalla macchia verso la modernità Presentato da Rivolto a Cooperativa Agave Scuole secondarie di I e II grado Il caffè Michelangelo: officina di una nuova arte. Aperto in via Larga a Firenze nel 1848 vicino all'Accademia delle Belle Arti, accoglieva giovani studenti dell'Accademia ed intellettuali italiani e stranieri. I giovani ribelli Gli iscritti all'Accademia, contestavano l'educazione tradizionale e la pittura di storia antica che, nel periodo romantico, aveva trionfato con soggetti letterari e patriottici. Cercavano invece un linguaggio espressivo libero e rinnovato. Stefano Ussi, La cacciata del Duca di Atene da Firenze 1860, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Firenze. Enrico Pollastrini I novellatori del Decameron 1855, Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Livorno. Dagli incontri e scontri presso il Caffè Michelangelo, sarebbe presto nata una nuova via dell'arte italiana tracciata dai "progressisti", chiamati poi in senso dispregiativo Macchiaioli. I giovani dissidenti si rivolsero ai generi minori del paesaggio e della scena di genere, dipinti rigorosamente "dal vero". Serafino de Tivoli fu uno dei primi pittori toscani a partire per Parigi, dove nel 1855 si era aperta l'Esposizione Universale. Era curioso di vedere i quadri realistici dei famosi pittori di Barbizon, che tanto si avvicinavano per stile ai Macchiaioli. Serafino de Tivoli, Paesaggio con buoi 1855, Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Livorno. Constant Troyon, La Ford 1852, Museo del Louvre, Parigi. La grande scoperta: il ton gris Cristiano Banti, anche lui di ritorno da Parigi, cominciò a parlare agli amici Macchiaioli del ton gris. Con l'aiuto di uno specchio nero, ritornato in auge con i pittori di Barbizon, si riusciva ad abbassare le gradazioni di luminosità nell'insieme, così da vedere nitidamente i contorni e il forte stacco chiaroscurale dei volumi a scapito del dettaglio.
    [Show full text]
  • Timeline / 1830 to 1880 / ITALY
    Timeline / 1830 to 1880 / ITALY Date Country Theme 1831 Italy Political Context Giuseppe Mazzini founds the republican movement for national unification, Giovine Italia (Young Italy). 1831 - 1835 Italy Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion Once Rossini has left the stage, his place is taken by Gaetano Donizetti (1797– 1848) and Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835). They introduce the new romantic spirit into melodrama and establish a tighter link between words and music. Their style is characterised by greater attention to the psychology of the different characters. 1835 - 1837 Italy Reforms And Social Changes For the first time, a cholera epidemic hits Italy, killing more than 140,000 (26,000 in Palermo and 19,600 in Naples). Its causes remain unknown until the 1880s. Its spread is favoured by poor sanitation in urban centres. Cholera epidemics hit poor people especially and often occasion social unrest. 1837 - 1840 Italy Great Inventions Of The 19th Century Naples and Turin are the first Italian towns to have gas street lightning. 1839 Italy Great Inventions Of The 19th Century First Italian railway line (Napoli–Portici, 8 km). In the following years, other railway lines are inaugurated in other Italian states, e.g. Milano–Monza (1840), Pisa- Livorno (1844), Padova–Venezia (1846), Torino–Moncalieri (1848). Political fragmentation is an obstacle to the construction of long railway lines. 1842 Italy Travelling A seaside hostel is opened in Viareggio (Tuscany) for the treatment of children affected by tuberculosis (the first of its kind in Italy). In Tuscany, experiments of “marine therapy” for children started in the 1820s. By 1882, 21 seaside hostels for medical purposes are active in Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Mario Puccini “Van Gogh Involontario” Livorno Museo Della Città 2 Luglio - 19 Settembre 2021
    Mario Puccini “Van Gogh involontario” Livorno Museo della città 2 luglio - 19 settembre 2021 ELENCO DELLE OPERE GLI ESORDI E IL MAESTRO FATTORI Giovanni Fattori, Ritratto di contadina, 1880 circa, olio su tavola, 34x31 cm, Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori Livorno Silvestro Lega, Busto di contadina, 1872-1873, olio su tavola, 40x26 cm, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Palazzo Pitti, Firenze Mario Puccini, Ave Maria, 1887 circa, olio su tela, 69x42 cm, Istituto Matteucci, Viareggio Plinio Nomellini, Ritratto di signora, 1885 circa, olio su tela, 33x16 cm, collezione privata Mario Puccini, La modella (La fidanzata), 1889-1890, olio su tela, 49,6x26,6 cm, collezione Fondazione Livorno Plinio Nomellini, Signora in nero, 1887, olio su tela, 43x20 cm, collezione Giuliano Novelli Mario Puccini, Ritratto della fidanzata all’uscita dalla chiesa, olio su tela, 31x21 cm, collezione Rangoni Mario Puccini, Lupo di mare, olio su tela, 38,5x26,2 cm, collezione Rangoni Mario Puccini, Ritratto di giovane, 1890, olio su tela applicata a cartone, 35x25 cm, collezione Rangoni Mario Puccini, Autoritratto con colletto bianco, 1912, olio su tela, 31x21,8 cm, collezione Rangoni Mario Puccini, Interno del mio studio, olio su cartone, 44x28 cm, collezione Rangoni Mario Puccini, Autoritratto, 1914, 47x33 cm, collezione privata Mario Puccini, Autoritratto in controluce, 1914, olio su tavola, 38,5x32,8 cm, collezione privata, courtesy Società di Belle Arti, Viareggio Giovanni Fattori, Nel porto, 1890-1895, olio su tavola, 19x32 cm, Museo Civico Giovanni
    [Show full text]
  • ITALIAN ART SOCIETY NEWSLETTER XXX, 1, Winter 2019
    ITALIAN ART SOCIETY NEWSLETTER XXX, 1, Winter 2019 An Affiliated Society of: College Art Association International Congress on Medieval Studies Renaissance Society of America Sixteenth Century Society & Conference American Association of Italian Studies President’s Message from Sean Roberts benefactors. These chiefly support our dissertation, research and publication grants, our travel grants for modern topics, February 15, 2019 programs like Emerging Scholars workshops, and the cost of networking and social events including receptions. The costs Dear Members of the Italian Art Society: of events, especially, have risen dramatically in recent years, especially as these have largely been organized at CAA and I have generally used these messages to RSA, usually in expensive cities and often at even more promote upcoming programing and events, to call expensive conference hotels. The cost of even one reception attention to recent awards, and to summarize all the in New York, for example, can quickly balloon to activities we regularly support. There are certainly no overshadow our financial support of scholarship. It will be a shortage of such announcements in the near future and significant task for my successor and our entire executive I’m certain that my successor Mark Rosen will have committee to strategize for how we might respond to rising quite a bit to report soon, including our speaker for the costs and how we can best use our limited resources to best 2019 IAS/Kress lecture in Milan. With the final of my fulfill our mission to promote the study of Italian art and messages as president, however, I wanted to address a architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871; and Revelation of Modernism: Responses to Cultural Crises in Fin-De-Siècle Painting, Both by Albert Boime
    Elizabeth Mansfield book review of Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871; and Revelation of Modernism: Responses to Cultural Crises in Fin-de-Siècle Painting, both by Albert Boime Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 1 (Spring 2009) Citation: Elizabeth Mansfield, book review of “Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871; and Revelation of Modernism: Responses to Cultural Crises in Fin-de-Siècle Painting, both by Albert Boime,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 1 (Spring 2009), http://www.19thc- artworldwide.org/spring09/70-art-in-an-age-of-civil-struggle-1848-1871-and-revelation-of- modernism-responses-to-cultural-crises-in-fin-de-siecle-painting-both-by-albert-boime. Published by: Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. ©2009 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide Mansfield: Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871; and Revelation of Modernism Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 1 (Spring 2009) Albert Boime Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871 Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008 784 pp; 385 b/w illustrations Cost: $65.00 [cloth] ISBN: 9780226063287 Revelation of Modernism: Responses to Cultural Crises in Fin-de-Siècle Painting Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2008 304 pp; 77 b/w, 8 color illustrations Cost: $54.95 [cloth] ISBN 978-0-8262-1780-6 As wide-ranging as Albert Boime’s scholarly legacy is, his contributions to the history of nineteenth-century art are especially noteworthy.
    [Show full text]
  • Highlights from the Scottish National Gallery Edgar Degas
    Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2015 Meet the Masters: Highlights from the Scottish National Gallery Edgar Degas: Portrait of Diego Martelli (1879) Anthea Callen 28/29 October 2015 Lecture summary: This lecture considers Degas’s Portrait of Diego Martelli (1879, o/c, 110.40 x 99.80 cm) within the context of a group of major portraits of friends executed by the artist during this period of the later 1870s. The lecture differentiates between the work of portraying friends and of undertaking paid commissions of non-intimates: how might economic factors influence the artist-model relationship in portraiture? The decade of the 1870s in Degas’s art is characterised as one of feverish experimentation in varied and often unconventional media, methods and composition. Looking at the technical and aesthetic problems of making a portrait, and of ‘likeness’, I examine the ways ideas of personality or character were viewed and constructed at this period, and the radicalism of Degas’s approach. Another friend portrayed by Degas at this time, the realist writer Edmond Duranty, wrote important pamphlets not only on Degas’s art (La nouvelle peinture, 1876), but also on ‘physiognomy’ (Sur le physiognomie, 1867), the ‘science’ of reading character through outward facial and bodily expression – coincident indeed with Duchene de Boulogne’s neurological research on the mechanisms of facial expression (1862), with which Degas would have been familiar. Degas’s intimacy with Duranty gave him a particular take on representing character in his portraits, indebted to Duranty’s writings and their conversations on the subject of art and physiognomy. Slide list: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • I MACCHIAIOLI (Prof.Ssa M. Lisa Guarducci) La Maggiore Apertura
    I MACCHIAIOLI (prof.ssa M. Lisa Guarducci) La maggiore apertura politica della Toscana rispetto al rigore poliziesco presente negli altri stati (controllo austriaco nel Lombardo-Veneto; Stato Pontificio al centro; Borboni al sud) fa sì che a Firenze, a partire dal 1855, giungano artisti da tutta Italia. Firenze è vista come nuova Atene. Dal '59 se ne vanno i Lorena; dal '60 la Toscana entra nel Regno d'Italia divenendone capitale tra il '65 e il '71. A Firenze giunge il foggiano Saverio Altamura (1826-97) che nel '55 è a Parigi per vedere l'Esposizione Universale ( e il Pavillon du Realism di Odoardo Borrani, Le cucitrici di camice rosse , 1863 Courbet): sarà lui ad offrire l'occasione del rinnovamento artistico in città. Prima significativa affermazione della maniera moderna: l'Esposizione Nazionale di Firenze del 1861. Luogo d'incontro: il Caffè Michelangiolo. Il gruppo si stringe intorno a Diego Martelli (1839-1896), vicine alle idee socialiste, scrittore e critico sostenitore dei macchiaioli ( che ricevette nella sua villa di Castiglioncello). Nel 1879 tiene a Livorno una memorabile conferenza sugli impressionisti che paragona alla baraonda del caffè Michelangiolo. Nel 1856 era stato a Firenze Degas. Fu Telemaco Signorini, pittore e teorico, a proporre l’appellativo di ‘Macchiaioli’. Il principe Antonio Demidoff apre al pubblico la propria collezione privata, ricca di opere di Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, i pittori della "scuola di Barbizon". 1856: data ufficiale di nascita della 'macchia', comunque convenzionale (conclusione: ’67 ca.). La macchia è esibita in opposizione feroce alla forma accademica ufficiale, immobilizzata e fredda. La macchia va messa in parallelo con l'impressionismo, ma è altra cosa: manca di sistematicità nella ricerca e coerenza nell'applicazione pittorica della teoria; è consistente, ha un peso, una solidità assenti nei 'trattini' impressionisti.
    [Show full text]