Positive Symbolism in Pellizza Da Volpedo’s Paintings / Anat Moberman, Ph.D. ענת מוברמן

In this climate of economic and social instability worked Pellizza da Volpedo. In addition to his Symbolist paintings, found Pellizza solidarity with the workers’ struggle.[4] As a socialist artist he saw his role to create a social art, “Art for the Humanity” according to his words.[5] The fruits of his social commitment can be seen in two unique paintings that combine Symbolist trends with socialist thinking. The first piece is “The Mirror of life, and what the first does, the others also do” (1898), and the other is The Four State” (1891-1901).

    “The Mirror of life” (fig. 1)[6] continues the trend of the Poetic Nature mentioned displays, in Divisionism technique, a sheep’s line walking slowly in mountain scenery of Volpedo’s village[7] at twilight time.

The inspiration for the subject and the name of the painting was taken from Dante’s Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, canto III [8].

The Purgatory is characterized by an activity of rise and not of fall like in Hell. Hell has a gravity pulling down (in a direction of decline and deterioration), whereas the Purgatory has Levitacion, a kind of levitation (rise up). The Purgatory world is dynamic and souls can move on and up to the next terrace, while the suffering souls in Hell trapped and unable to move. This difference between Purgatory and Hell represents the process done in the Purgatory, of liberation, purification and rebirth.[9]

Changing the title indicates that this is not just a Symbolist painting of Poetic Nature but it also indicates the social perception of the artist. Pellizza’s choice to use the Divisionism is also due to social position: as a modern technique contemporary technique, the Divisionism was an expression of Pellizza’s belief in a better future for humanity.[10]

In a letter from 1895 Pellizza wrote: “modern art should, besides being an harmony of color and balance, rise to the concept of human … I feel that now it is no longer a period of creating ‘art for art’s sake’ but ‘Art for the Humanity’.[11] Thus, the formal reduction generated by using the Divisionist technique that creates an interpretation of the reality instead of describing it, the quiet rhythmic sheep’s walk and the light illuminate their profile like an halo, transform the scene from a mere naturalistic description of sheep walking around the meadow, to a suggestive Symbolist description aiming to transfer in the wave line march “an internal emotional state. A kind of spiritual calmness, joining the soul to the great calm before skipping between good and evil among the joys and pains of life.”[12]   According Damigella, Pellizza was influenced from many socialist writings, and adopted the socialist Antonio Labriola’s[13] (1843-1904) ideology about progress stating that social development is a given product of struggles, triumphs and incorporated concepts of contrasts.

The Symbolist’s drive to create alternative utopian worlds was replaced in the Positive Symbolism by a promise for a better future, the result of ongoing struggles. Thus, the utopian world becomes affordable in Pellizza’  work.

This unique Positive Symbolism is expressed in his famous work The Fourth State (fig. 2)[15] which became the symbol of the Italian worker’s struggle.[16] The painting presents a march, located in Piazza Malsapina in the village of Volpedo,[17] of workers in strike: two men and a woman with a baby in her arms, marching before a crowd of workers.[18] Although this is a march of farmers as part of their struggle to improve their living conditions, there is no violent or disorderly movement. The villagers are marching with determination and full confidence in the righteousness of their struggle.

In a letter to his friend, V. Pica, Pellizza declared his intention to introduce “a true description of the progress of the workers’ mass, description that symbolize the big move they are doing…”[19] Although the initial realistic appearance of the painting, with the application of the Divisionism and the stagnation of mass marching scene,  Pellizza creates a Symbolic presentation of workers marching, from dark and miserable conditions, described in the Symbolic dark background,  toward a better and brighter future. Thus, as in the previous painting, a realistic place of nature, transformed, with the aid of the Divisionism and the colors that were chosen, to a Symbolic place charged with social ideas.

[8]. As sheep come out of their pen,

    in ones, twos, and threes,

    and others stand timidly,

    with eyes and nose towards the ground,

    and what the first does, the others also do…

Dante: The Divine Comedy,Purgatorio, canto III (versi 79-84), from:

    http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/DantPurg1to7.htm

[9]. http.aguda.org.il   (Sep. 2013).

[10]. Damigella, Anna Maria, “Divisionism and Symbolism at the Turn of the Century “, in: Braun, Emily

(ed.), Italian Art in the 20^th Century, Painting and Sculpture 1900-1988, Preste, London, 1989. p.33

[14]. Antonio Labriola, “Historical Materialism” in : http://www.marxists.org/archive/labriola/ (Sep. 2013).

[15]. Pellizza da Volpedo, Il quarto stato , 285 x 543 cm, Oil on poplar, Museo del Novecento, Milan. In;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quarto_Stato.jpg.

[16]. The term “Forth Estate” was taken from Henri Fielding’s citation in the Convent Garden Journal

(1752): “None of our political writers…take notic of any more than three estates, namely, Kings,

Lords, and Commons … passing by in silence that very large and powerful body which form the

forth estate in this community … the Mob.” Fielding, Henry, (13 June, 1752), Convent Garden

Journal (London) 47. Quoted in OED “estate, n, 7b”.  This early use of “mob” meant to the

“common masses”. This sense, which came to represent a social left sided tendency, representing

the workers, has prevailed in other countries in Europe. In:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fourth+estate (Sep. 2014).