The Choir of the Church of Sant’Antonio in Milan

The painting, which shows the choir of the church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Milan with an altar boy putting out the sheets of music for the next service, was produced by Segantini at the end of his studies and shown in the annual exhibition of the Brera Academy. The critical acclaim was such that it was bought by the Milan Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente and assigned to Paolo Guicciardini, one of the members, by drawing lots. A second smaller version was produced in 1882 (whereabouts unknown). The skill demonstrated in the work in the Cariplo Collection also attracted the attention of the art dealer Vittore Grubicy, who began supporting the artist financially in 1879 and persuaded him in later years to adopt the more modern Divisionist approach. In choosing a perspective view of an interior for his debut, Segantini followed the example set within the sphere of Lombard Naturalism by Mosè Bianchi and Filippo Carcano, whose work he studied with particular attention, above all as regards the pictorial rendering of light effects. It is, in fact, light that plays the leading role in the painting. Flooding into the church from a high window with a red curtain that does little to lessen its strength, it leaves the large canvas of Saint Anthony of Egypt in shadow and sweeps down to set the wooden choir stalls aglow. The deft combinations of different shades of brown describe the downward slant of the shadow, at an angle accentuated by the vertical layout of the composition. The result is a work in which the uncommon talent of the young painter gives an early indication of the exceptional artistic career to come.