On a lovely Friday morning, I ventured out to Museo Centrale Del Risorcimento, located near Piazza Venezia. The building itself lies behind Palazzo Venezio, which makes it hard to find for one who might not know where it’s at. It was built “to gather the testimonies of the political, economical, and social transformation of Italy during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. These testimonies consist of papers (letters, journals, work manuscripts), paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, prints, arms, which recall the events and chief protagonists of this important period of the history of our Country, thus forming a vast memorial archive of the Risorgimento.” The Museum itself stands as a significant building which houses much of Italy’s history, including much of Victor Emmanuele’s contributions, the man whose statue rests at the base of the National monument, in the middle of the Piazza.
Although I did not have the fortune of seeing much of Museo Centrale del Risorcimento, I did get the chance to see the Van Gogh exhibit, entitled Vincent Van Gogh “Timeless Country--Modern City”. The title of this exhibit is very pertinent to Van Gogh’s vision and his artwork. After viewing the exhibit, I was able to understand how Van Gogh’s art developed from casual observation, to a unique articulation of a new vision grounded on his development toward the Neo-Impressionist and Impressionist period. The result of being a man living in a period when art was changing from the pre-Impressionist era can be seen through his art. I noticed a development throughout his works, seeing ones from when he first began in 1881 to 1888, when his works seemed to evolve into what we know him to be famous for, an impressionist artist whose unique talent awarded him fame, not only in his time, but as remaining relevant forever. A quote I wrote down from one of the exhibit’s descriptions describes his ability and or desire to “create an oeuvre that was radically modern, but would nevertheless withstand the changes of time in order to remain relevant forever.”
Vincent Van Gogh’s art exhibits two fundamental aspects: his love for the countryside--unchanging and stable, and his attachment to the city as a place of progress. This was quite apparent through the artwork displayed in this exhibit. I felt like the pieces of art--one’s less known--that were in this particular exhibit at Museo Centrale del Risorcimento were important for understanding Van Gogh’s love for both the country and the city. His earlier sketches, at the beginning of the exhibit, were very distinctly inspired from some of his favorite artists: Jean Francois Millet, Honore’ Daumier, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cezanne. The sketches were simplistic, depicting everyday life. He focused on the figures themselves, paying little attention to detailed faces. His landscapes are like a portrait into reality--the reality of the simplistic, unchanging life of peasants. The very thing he wanted to portray through his art, can be seen quite apparently through such paintings as The Swamp (1881), The Ditch (1884), Field with Storm Clouds Overhead (1881), and Young Man with a Broom (1882). He catches moments, unimportant, yet realistic. His works from 1883 through 1885 focused on the countryside. It was not until Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886, that he was introduced to Impressionistic painting and met such artists as Seurat, Signac, and Gauguin. He responded to the trend in Paris to stray from the norm, of what had, up until this point, been unthinkable: Impressionism--“a movement in French painting, sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interest in the actual visual experience and effect of light and movement on appearance of objects.”
The art that followed his initiation or cultivation into this new era of paint were demonstrated in many of the art pieces in Museo Centrale del Risorcimento including Two Ladies at the Gate of a Park at Asnieres (1887). In this painting the brush strokes are different than from what I noticed in his prior paintings. The use of large strokes and “dotting” were obvious. Other paintings such as Kitchen Gardens on Montmartre (1887) showed this use of unique style in comparison to earlier works. The museum also showed a series of his self portraits. His change in style could also be seen from his 1886 self portrait when compared to his later self-portraits.
What I liked in particular about this Museum is that the exhibit not only displayed Van Gogh’s paintings but those of Millet and Gauguin, among others. The purpose for putting these in Van Gogh’s exhibit were to show where Van Gogh drew inspiration from and to contrast his paintings to those who were also painters in his own period--ones who had followed him in his converging with the neo-impressionist trend, and those who did not. I liked that the museum gave a lot of background history in addition, and alongside, the paintings. Each description was followed by a series of the paintings pertinent to the period of his life, whether pre-impression or post-impressionist.
The exhibit ended with his later paintings, after he moved to Arles in 1888. This last series of paintings, down the stairs below the other paintings, articulated his own vision, beyond is usual casual observation. The paintings themselves described a change from what he saw before in nature and countryside to a progression of his work, which “was now changed by his vast knowledge of art and specific ideas.” He was no longer concerned with timelessness, but with modern life, as seen in The Sower (1888). This painting showed a vast difference in its use of color (purples and yellows) and its brush strokes from his former works, and even from Gauguin, his friend and fellow artist. I noticed that his sketches from 1888 depicted, more so than before, industrialization.
Overall, Museo Centrale del Risorcimento held a beautiful exhibit of Van Gogh. I was able to appreciate one of my favorite artists in one of my favorite cities. The museum itself stood in a location that is filled with history, near the Roman Forum and with the Colloseum in the distance. As I walked out of the Museum to Piazza Venezia, I could not help but take what I had seen, and what had inspired me in the Museum with me.
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