Maternity

The scene depicts a mother, a reinterpretation of the Madonna, breastfeeding her child, surrounded by angels; the figures stand out against a green meadow, on which grows a luxuriant tree filled with light (a reference to the Tree of Life). Unlike many other Lombard painters of his time, Gaetano Previati embraced Divisionism out of a need to convey an idea through the physical study of matter, rather than starting from direct observation of reality; the lyricism and the vibrations inherent in the pictorial medium were meant to serve the sensations he intended to communicate in his works: for this reason, he employed pure, divided colours, arranged in filaments of adjacent hues following a sinuous rhythm, intended to convey the fluctuating nature of the inner concept. This fundamental artwork, therefore, represents a turning point in the artist's career and a manifesto of the new Divisionist painting: in a letter to his brother, written in 1890, he declared his intention to depict in painting "all the intensity of maternal love stripped of the trinkets that have served for a thousand paintings". Thus the artist conceived Maternity, in which the traditional sacred representation gives way to a simpler depiction: the relationship between mother and child unfolds in a dimension of affection and tenderness, emphasized by the choice of warm, pure colours that create an atmosphere of tranquillity, while the unreal luminosity, enveloping the Madonna breastfeeding the Child and surrounded by a host of adoring angels, lends a mystical dimension to the scene. However, precisely for this reason, critics responded negatively to the work, judging it unsuitable for exhibition; indeed, because of the manner in which it was executed, the painting appealed to very few people: a scene that approaches, though not explicitly, a religious dimension, traversed by a myriad of broad brushstrokes that make the entire space vibrate.