Sobborgo di Porta Adriana a Ravenna (1875) by Telemaco SignoriniLa Galleria Nazionale
A city street illuminated by the sunshine and crowded with very different people; farmers and young well-dressed women walk alongside. But… what age are we in?
Telemaco Signorini portrays an everyday moment in the city of Ravenna in the late 19th century. Yet, the image we have before us is quite different from the contemporary impressionists’ paintings and their sparkling Paris populated by the upper-middle class.
The rural reality is given great space inside the painting. In the middle of the street, a barefoot woman with a bundle on her head immediately catches the eye, moving towards the observer.
A little further away, an elegant and thin lamppost appears beside the carriageway. In this reality social progress advances sparingly, intermingled with the habits of village life.
The artist belongs to the Macchiaioli movement, which derives from the Italian word “macchia”, “spot”. In fact, the aim is to transfer their impressions on canvas, to describe the reality through spots of colors and chiaroscuro.
It is through such technique that a clear and dazzling scene comes to life. A view of “real everyday life” in a dimension of simplicity and rurality.
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