Joseph Mentessi

(Ferrara 1857 – Milan 1931)

Peace, 1907

Oil on canvas, 164 x 135 cm
Museum of the Nineteenth Century, inv. 37

In a field brightened by the early morning light, against the backdrop of a cemetery lake landscape with delicate pinkish shadows, a young woman dressed in white and with her head covered by an impalpable veil is pictured in contemplation while holding a bundle of flowers in her arms. This is the angelic allegory of Peace, characterized by graceful Art Nouveau decorativism but also by a solid chiaroscuro construction that makes the female image realistic. The peculiar fusion of social realism and mystical symbolism that distinguishes Mentessi’s works in the early twentieth century finds an effective formal correspondence in the use of pastel associated with tempera. This technique allows the artist to modulate the texture of the signs, making some details more defined and blurring others, in an evocative vision suspended between adherence to reality and symbolic transfiguration. Mentessi presented the painting at the 1907 Venice Biennale but it was bitterly criticized: reviews complained about the repetition of a repertoire already seen and the now antiquated artistic language, considered lagging behind new trends. The artist also received a solemn rebuke from the young Umberto Boccioni, who, visiting the exhibition, noted, “Mentessi horrible senile.”