Lot Essay
Daniela Fonti has described Severini's Paesaggio Toscano as "un caso unico nel catalogo del grande pittore toscano". The work is also known by the more formal title of L'Equivalente plastico di un Paesaggio, under which it appeared in the Futurist exhibition in the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, of February 1913. The Futurists often gave their paintings more than one title; one more informal and used by the artists, the other more ideological and used in exhibition catalogues. These names were specifically chosen to allude to the new 'poetic style' of Futurism, based on comparing dynamic rhythms and abstract geometrical shapes with traditional themes. For example, Severini called one of his most important self-portraits, of 1912, Il Mio Ritmo.
Daniela Fonti suggests that Paesaggio Toscano was painted between late 1912 and early 1913. Severini himself mentioned the work in a letter of February 1914 to Giovanni Papini after it had been included in the 'Lacerba' exhibition in Florence between November 1913 and January 1914. (This 'Lacerba' exhibition could well explain the 1913-14 dating which appears on a few of the later exhibition labels). By early 1914, it was one of a number of paintings being negotiated for sale by Gonelli.
The period of 1912-1913 was one of intense research by Severini, when he explored the Futurist theories of dynamism using the language of Cubism. This can be seen in two other well-known works by the artist, the self-portrait mentioned above, formerly in the Galleria Sprovieri, Rome, and in Ritmo Astratto di Madame M. S., 1912, in the Zacks Collection, Toronto. Paesaggio Toscano is also directly related to the contemporary Paesaggio Urbano (see Fig. 1), painted for Guillaume Apollinaire, which employs the same sophisticated Cubist vocabulary. The whole structure of cylinders, cubes, interlaced planes and lines corresponds directly with works by Picasso, Braque and Léger of this period and of slightly earlier. It is very interesting to note that Severini organised a special visit to Picasso's studio in the spring of 1912. He was in Paris with Umberto Boccioni, Filippo Marinetti, Luigi Russolo and Carlo Carrà on the occasion of the Futurist exhibition at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.
Severini explained in a letter to Ardengo Soffici of September 1913 that the stable and severe compositional framework of Paesaggio Toscano was a deliberate reaction to the accusation that the Futurists were, infact, neo-impressionists. The foreshortening of the hills is typically Futurist in its creation of an continuum between architecture and nature, whilst the recognisable elements, such as the small white house with the outer stairway, represent the fragments of reality from which Severini began his process of re-interpretating nature. This involved a thorough identification of the landscape and the decomposition of various planes via the 'transparencies' of the Cubists. The fundamental Futurist desire for dynamism is present throughout the work, seen in the rotary rhythm of the dark green forms of the trees. Colour is also used to express a special 'stato d'animo', perhaps the result of Severini's unconscious nostalgia for the countryside where he was born.
We are grateful to Daniela Fonti for her extensive research and contribution to this catalogue entry.
Daniela Fonti suggests that Paesaggio Toscano was painted between late 1912 and early 1913. Severini himself mentioned the work in a letter of February 1914 to Giovanni Papini after it had been included in the 'Lacerba' exhibition in Florence between November 1913 and January 1914. (This 'Lacerba' exhibition could well explain the 1913-14 dating which appears on a few of the later exhibition labels). By early 1914, it was one of a number of paintings being negotiated for sale by Gonelli.
The period of 1912-1913 was one of intense research by Severini, when he explored the Futurist theories of dynamism using the language of Cubism. This can be seen in two other well-known works by the artist, the self-portrait mentioned above, formerly in the Galleria Sprovieri, Rome, and in Ritmo Astratto di Madame M. S., 1912, in the Zacks Collection, Toronto. Paesaggio Toscano is also directly related to the contemporary Paesaggio Urbano (see Fig. 1), painted for Guillaume Apollinaire, which employs the same sophisticated Cubist vocabulary. The whole structure of cylinders, cubes, interlaced planes and lines corresponds directly with works by Picasso, Braque and Léger of this period and of slightly earlier. It is very interesting to note that Severini organised a special visit to Picasso's studio in the spring of 1912. He was in Paris with Umberto Boccioni, Filippo Marinetti, Luigi Russolo and Carlo Carrà on the occasion of the Futurist exhibition at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.
Severini explained in a letter to Ardengo Soffici of September 1913 that the stable and severe compositional framework of Paesaggio Toscano was a deliberate reaction to the accusation that the Futurists were, infact, neo-impressionists. The foreshortening of the hills is typically Futurist in its creation of an continuum between architecture and nature, whilst the recognisable elements, such as the small white house with the outer stairway, represent the fragments of reality from which Severini began his process of re-interpretating nature. This involved a thorough identification of the landscape and the decomposition of various planes via the 'transparencies' of the Cubists. The fundamental Futurist desire for dynamism is present throughout the work, seen in the rotary rhythm of the dark green forms of the trees. Colour is also used to express a special 'stato d'animo', perhaps the result of Severini's unconscious nostalgia for the countryside where he was born.
We are grateful to Daniela Fonti for her extensive research and contribution to this catalogue entry.