Cesare Laurenti
Cesare Laurenti (born November 6, 1854 in Mesola , † November 8, 1936 in Venice ) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked in the fields of architecture, illustration, engraving , restoration , and the furnishing of museums, albeit at the same time only private who operated poetry .
life and work
Cesare Laurenti was born in Mesola, in Ferrarese, as the son of Agostino and Maria Arveda. Since his artistic ambitions met with rejection in his family, he moved to Padua at the age of 18 to study with the sculptor Luigi Ceccon (1833-1919). This was made possible by his patron , the Conte Leopoldo Ferri, who also introduced him to the architect and critic Pietro E. Selvatico. Ferri met Laurenti when he was still working in a printing company. Ferri let him live on his estate with Voltabarozzo and introduced him to Ceccon.
In 1875 Laurenti married Annina Levi, who gave birth to their son Fosco. This in turn later became the father of Anna, to whom the collection of Laurenti's unpublished writings goes back. In 1876 he moved to Florence , where he trained at the Accademia di belle arti , and where he met the painters of the Renaissance . He learned from Giuseppe Ciaranfi, for example, about anatomy, art history and mythology. From 1878, after graduating, he lived in Naples until the autumn of 1880 , where he learned from Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi , this time at the Istituto di belle arti there . Although he returned to Padua in 1881, he soon moved to Venice, where he spent the rest of his life. Leopoldo Ferri supported him again, this time with an apartment including furnishings and clothing for 7,000 lire. He also gave him access to wealthy clients. Laurenti was able to pay his debt within five years. In 1881 Laurenti's work appears for the first time in an exhibition, the Società Promotrice di Firenze . In 1882 his work Un baso a la più bela was exhibited in Venice, and in the same year his Prete in Milan. While he was still following his usual style with A Venezia , Lutto already shows a latent proximity to symbolism. Private donations allowed him to forego exhibitions for a while, in the course of which he created works such as Giovani innamorati , L'Apertura del regalo , Mosca cieca , La visita , La scelta del pesce or La Lettura . The world of ordinary people came into play here, but above all that of youthful ease. Until the late 1880s Laurenti toyed with the idea of aspiring to a chair at the Accademia, but his academic career was blocked. Instead, he pursued his need to teach in his studio, where he invited painters such as Luigi Selvatico, Vittore Antonio Cargnel, Nino Busetto or Guido Cadorin, as well as random visitors, yes, tourists. There was a considerable collection of books on subjects such as painting technique , art history, but also ancient and modern literature. His literary works remained a hobby, they were never published.
At first, Laurenti was still strongly influenced by Verism , closely oriented towards the style and content of Giacomo Favretto (1849–1887). But he soon turned to the peculiarities behind the external appearance of things and people with more symbolic expression. This reorientation can be recognized for the first time in his Frons animi interpres ( Trieste , Museo civico Revoltella ), presented in 1887 at the Esposizione nazionale artistica di Venezia . A similar type of transition can be seen in Parche , which was created in 1891 ( Ca 'Pesaro ) and exhibited at the first Triennale di Milano in the same year. Laurenti received the Premio Principe Umberto for this work , Queen Margherita acquired the work at the 1907 Biennale. In the following works, too, there is a preference for representations of women with a particular sensitivity for their state of mind, for feelings and thoughts. This also applies to Primo dubbio (1891), Via aspra (approx. 1893) or Coscienza (1893), the latter first shown at the Triennale di Brera in Milan in 1894.
Laurenti developed a high presence at exhibitions, also in Germany, primarily in Munich , where he first achieved success with Ritratto femminile in 1883 ; in Venice he exhibited at all the biennials between 1895 and 1909. In 1907 he even got a personal exhibition there with 16 paintings and two sculptures.
At the first exhibition in 1895, Laurenti's inclination towards symbolism was emphasized in the catalog. Among the exhibited works were La Parabola or La scala della vita with four stages of development in the course of increasing human age. Laurenti took part in the 1897 Biennale with Fioritura nuova (Ca 'Pesaro). Ninfea's knowledge of the European art market , presented at the Biennale of 1899, where influences from Max Klinger and Arnold Böcklin can be seen, as well as references to the pagan world. In 1901 he participated with a diptych : Parallelo , where he contrasts the bright, happy, pagan world with the tragic bitterness of modern life. In 1903 he presented two paintings at the Biennale: Le statue d'oro with the 16 most important figures of antiquity , which the Venice municipality bought for the Galleria di Ca 'Pesaro . The work was never exhibited until 1985 and only shown on the occasion of a work exhibition for Laurenti in Mesola.
During this time the painter also worked as an illustrator for various magazines, such as for Italia ride (1900) or Novissima (1901-02), but also in the design of the cover for Pompeo Molmenti's La pittura veneziana , which was made in 1903 by the Alinari brothers appeared in Florence.
His reputation earned him commissions from wealthy Venetian families, such as Treves de Bonfili, for whom he painted a portrait of Countess Ortensia Treves de Bonfili and exhibited it at the 1899 Biennale. From the Swiss Giovanni Stucky , the owner of the Stucky mill , he received two huge orders, namely the new palazzetto on the Zattere and the bridge that was to connect the Giudecca with the Zattere in order to get to the Accademia . But neither of the two projects was realized.
He had better luck building the Pescheria nuova in Venice. This fish market was realized in Gothic style between 1900 and 1908 together with the architect Domenico Rupolo and the Venetian artist Umberto Bellotto .
He also worked with the latter on the design of the dining room in the Paduan Hotel Storione . The cycle was considered the most important work of " liberty veneto " and was created between 1903 and 1905. In 1929 the work was restored by Laurenti. After the hotel was demolished in 1962, only studies, illustrations and a few fragments of the work have survived.
In 1909, when Laurenti's last participation in the Biennale came to an end, the time of greatest productivity and originality came to an end. He devoted himself increasingly to antiquarian, collecting and restoration activities. During the First World War he left Venice for some time, went to Milan, where he ran a studio that he owned Angelo Bonutto, with whom he had been friends since 1909 at the latest, then he moved to Bergamo and Florence. Only in 1919 did he return to his studio near San Vio . From 1924 he returned to the Biennale. Despite Molmenti's support, Maschera Bella , exhibited at the Milan exhibition on portraits of women, did not receive an award. The work no longer corresponded to the prevailing taste and it was already part of a collection, so it was too old. In 1930 he exhibited the portrait of Bebè at the Biennale , which is lost, but which shows that Laurenti was also able to paint in a clear, linear and modern way. His enthusiasm for experimentation was evident even in old age, for example with the Ritratto di bambina con bambola .
In his last years he devoted himself to a monument for Dante Alighieri , a work begun in 1911 for Monte Mario in Rome. The work was never realized, however, and the plaster model was destroyed during the Second World War.
literature
- Paola Pietrini: Laurenti, Cesare. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 64: Latilla – Levi Montalcini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2005, (forms the basis of the article).
- Cristina Beltrami (Ed.): Cesare Laurenti (1854–1936) , ZeL edizioni, 2010. ISBN 978-88-96600-07-8
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Cristina Beltrami (ed.): Cesare Laurenti (1854–1936) , ZeL edizioni, 2010, p. 13.
- ↑ In Germany, where it was acquired by Carl Brandt in Munich in 1900, the work was called Lebensbrücke (Hollis Koons McCullough (Ed.): Telfair Museum of Art. Collection Highlights , University of Georgia Press, 2005, p. 132) .
- ↑ Martina Carraro: La pescheria di Rialto e le altre incursioni architettoniche di Cesare Laurenti , in: Cristina Beltrami (ed.): Cesare Laurenti (1854–1936) , ZeL edizioni, 2010, pp. 29–35.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Laurenti, Cesare |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Venetian painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 6, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mesola |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 8, 1936 |
| Place of death | Venice |