National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rome)
Suburb of Porta Adriana in Ravenna is one of the masterpieces by the Italian painter, Telemaco Signorini. He was a prominent painter of the ‘Macchiaioli group’ of the Italian artists. A famous late 19th century artist, Signorini captured the essence of Ravenna in this 1876 oil painting on canvas. This painting reflects the historical elements of Ravenna, a city known for its Byzantine heritage.
The painting depicts a street scene with people going on in their lives, presenting a very common and realist idea. Through this painting, Telemaco Signorini chose to bring the lives of the working class in the suburbs to light and make art connect to the common public. The ‘en plein air’ approach of this painting, i.e painting outdoors allowed him to capture the patches/spots (meaning macchie) of light and shadow.
During the 1870s Signorini traveled extensively across the Italian peninsula, seeking subject matter that transcended local boundaries to represent a unifying national identity. His style characterized by a rapid, direct application of paint smoothly captures the quiet atmosphere and the cobblestones drenched in sunlight.
I see a scenery of late-19th-century Italian life, with everyday people just following their day routines in the sun. I think it represents the genuine, unpolished architecture of the working-class suburbs and captures the fashion and reality of the people as a mass, rather than focusing on anything grand or aristocratic.
