Gaetano Previati (1852 – 1920) was an Italian

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

painter in the Divisionist style.

Biography

Previati was born in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

. He relocated to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

in 1876 and enrolled at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera ("academy of fine arts of Brera"), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di ...

of Fine Arts, studying under

Giuseppe Bertini Giuseppe Bertini (1825–1898) was an Italian painter, active in his native Milan. Biography He studied at the Brera Academy under Luigi Sabatelli and Giuseppe Bisi, and in 1845 was awarded the ''Gran premio di pittura dell'Accademia di Brer ...

Giovanni Morelli Giovanni Morelli (25 February 1816 – 28 February 1891) was an Italian art critic and political figure. As an art historian, he developed the "Morellian" technique of scholarship, identifying the characteristic "hands" of painters through s ...

, and

Federico Faruffini Federico Faruffini (1833–1869) was an Italian painter and engraver of historical subjects, in a style that combines the styles and themes of Realism with the diffuse outlines and lively colors of Scapigliatura painters. Biography Born in Sesto ...

. While he focused on historic and religious canvases, albeit with a bent for mysticism and passionate topics. He became strongly attached to the Divisionist style, and even published a treatise on ''I principi scientifici del Divisionismo (1909).

Biography

In 1879, he won the Canonica prize with his composition of ''Gli ostaggi di Crema''. The next year at Turin, he exhibited a large canvas of ''Cesare Borgia at Capua''. Having settled in Milan definitively in 1881, he came into contact with the

Scapigliatura ''Scapigliatura'' () is the name of an artistic movement that developed in Italy after the Risorgimento period (1815–71). The movement included poets, writers, musicians, painters and sculptors. The term Scapigliatura is the Italian equivalent of ...

movement. In 1881 at Milan, he displayed the genre painting ''Preferenza'' as well as ''Christ Crucified'' (1880); ''Abelard''; and ''At the entrance of the Harem''. In 1883, he exhibited ''Un angolo del solaio'', ''May'', and ''Saleswoman''. At the 1883 Mostra of Rome he exhibited ''Angels'' and ''A November at Ferrara''. In 1884 at the Mostra of Turin, he displayed the following oil paintings: ''Oporto''; ''May: First Communion''; and ''Crepuscoli''; and four watercolors: ''Aurora''; ''Herb Market''; ''Suonatori''; ''Storia di un nudo: Studio''. in 1886–87, at Milan and Turin, he exhibited the patriotic historical painting titled ''Tiremm innanz'' (Fire away). Lorenzo Benapiani wrote about ''Fire Away'' in his book titled ''Ars''. The canvas depicts the execution of the patriot Antonio Sciesa who had been active in the rebellion in Milan against Austrian rule. The political overtones of his works causes controversy with the government; for example, an award given to his ''Cleopatra'' was withdrawn by the Academic Council of Milan. At Venice, in 1887, he exhibited ''L' Haschich'' and at the 1888 National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Bologna: ''Christ and the Magdalen''; ''Oporto'' and ''Le fumatrici di haschisch''.''Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi: pittori, scultori, e Architetti''
by

Angelo de Gubernatis Count Angelo De Gubernatis (1840–26 February 1913), Italian man of letters, was born in Turin and educated there and at Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times. Life In 1862 he w ...

. Tipe dei Successori Le Monnier, 1889, page 391. He took part in the 1st Brera Triennale in 1891 with a work clearly showing his adoption of Divisionism, of which he was also a theoretician, and

themes. He took part in the Venice Biennale by invitation from 1895 to 1914, including solo shows of his work in 1901 and 1912. He was involved in the creation of the ''Dream Room'' at the 7th Biennale in 1907 and exhibited at the Salon des Peintres Divisionnistes Italiens organised in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

by the art dealer Alberto Grubicy. It was Alberto and his brother Vittore who founded the ''Società per l’Arte di Gaetano Previati'' in 1911, purchasing a large number of his paintings and showing them in exhibitions in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

(1915) and Milan (1916 and 1919). Grief-stricken over the death of members of his family, he died in 1920 at the town of

Lavagna Lavagna is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, Italy. History and Culture The village, unlike nearby Chiavari which has pre-Roman evidence, seems to have developed in Roman times with the Latin name of ''Lavania''. T ...

in Liguria, where he was in the habit of staying for long periods.

Gallery

Previati ostaggi di crema.jpg, ''Ostaggi di Crema'' Gaetano Previati, Cesare Borgia a Capua.jpg, ''Cesare Borgia a Capua'' Gaetano Previati - Paolo e Francesca (1887 ca.).jpg, ''Paolo e Francesca'' Gaetano Previati - Maternità.jpg, ''Maternity'' Gaetano Previati-Madonna de las lilas.jpg, ''Madonna of the Lilies'' Gaetano Previati-Adoration of the Magi.jpg, ''Adoration of the Magi'' Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Previati Gaetano, La Danza delle Ore.jpg, ''Dance of the Hours''

References

* Laura Casone
Gaetano Previati
online catalogu
Artgate
by

Fondazione Cariplo Fondazione Cariplo is a charitable foundation in Milan, Italy. It was created in December 1991 when the Amato law, Law no. 218 of 30 July 1990, came into force. Under this law, saving banks were required to separate into a not-for-profit fou ...

, 2010, CC BY-SA (source for the first revision of this article).

Other projects

{{DEFAULTSORT:Previati, Gaetano 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters Painters from Milan Scapigliatura Movement 1852 births 1920 deaths Symbolist painters Divisionist painters Painters from Ferrara Brera Academy alumni Orientalist painters 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists