A visual Journey into the Bible The Book of Genesis

A Visual Journey into the Bible Page: 8
The Creation
The Creation of Light
Gaetano Previati (1852-1920). Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna. Rome. 1913.
The very beginning lines of the book of Genesis tell that first, God created heaven and
earth. But the earth was without form, dark, and a wind swept over the seas. God said,
‘Let there be light’, and then there was light. God saw that light was good, so he
divided the light from the darkness and called light ‘day’ and darkness ‘night’. This
was the first day.
Thus was created light, the fundamental feature of nature that painters need for their
craft. Without light there can be no paintings and some painters of the nineteenth
century reflected on this with new insight. How exactly did light create colours, how
were impressions of hues created from areas of paint
Gaetano Previati was born in Ferrara, Italy. In 1870 he followed the courses of the
Academy of Fine Arts there, but was called to military service from 1873 to 1876 in
Livorno. Only in 1877 could he continue to study at the Brera Academy of Milan.
Previati first worked on Romantic history paintings but gradually he developed a
strong feeling for the expressive powers of colour only. He worked at Christian
themes, acknowledged and was sensitive to the powerful influences of the scenes of
the New Testament, which fascinated him in a mysterious way. In this search and also
abandonment to the mystic undercurrents in the themes of the Bible he approached
the theorists of Symbolism. He participated in the first Salon of the Rose+Croix of
1892 founded by the Sâr Péladan. In the beginning of the 1890’s his experimenting
with colour led him also to the theory of Divisionism, as discovered somewhat earlier
by French painters like Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. With the advice of an Italian
art critic, Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, he elaborated on and applied the theory of
Divisionism in his paintings. A Divisionist painting of his exhibited at the Triennale
of Milan in 1891 provoked violent polemics in Italian art circles. From then on
Previati continued to work in the Divisionist style of using just a few primary colours
such as red, blue and green, and adding yellow. By separating and juxtaposing small
strokes of these hues he created vibrating effects of luminosity in paintings, which had
to be viewed from a distance of a few metres to really come to splendour. Which
painter could more suitably make a picture on the creation of light
Gaetano Previati made a picture of the moment when God created light, the beginning
of creation. We must first note Previati’s technique of applying colour paint on the
canvas. Previati placed thin strokes of paint one next to the other. The juxtaposed
strokes were mostly of a different hue, but one hue or a set of hues might dominate
over a relatively large area. The overall hue of these areas then might contract
strongly or contrast only in tone and intensity. Previati preferred in many paintings
one dominant hue of just a few dominant hues, to create a dominant mood. That was
his technique of Divisionism.
Copyright ©: René Dewil Date: October, 24 2000