The art of Giulio Artistide Sartorio, 1860–1932
Giulio Artistide Sartorio is generally counted as one of the Italian Symbolists, along with painters such as Giovanni Segantini. He’s also one of the few notable artists of the period to have worked as a film director.
I’ve been fascinated by the curiously erotic academic style of Sartorio’s early work for years but these paintings rarely appear in books (although there have been a couple of monographs) and there’s little decent attention given to him on the web. Philippe Jullian in his essential guide to Symbolism, Dreamers of Decadence (Pall Mall Press, 1971), describes his work as being “vast paintings… full of handsome warriors who are always naked and generally dead.” Gabriele D’Annunzio, who knew heroic camp when he saw it, became a fan when the pair met in Rome in the 1880s. Sartorio illustrated D’Annunzio’s Isotta Guttadauro in 1886 and they continued to collaborate into the 1920s. One possible reason for Sartorio’s falling out of favour may have been later association with Mussolini’s Fascists, something else he shared with D’Annunzio.
Diana of Ephesus and the Slaves (1893–98).
Much as I’d like to point you to a large reproduction of the bizarre Diana of Ephesus and the Slaves, there doesn’t seem to be one around just now. However, you can see a few gallery pages of Sartorio’s work here if you don’t mind the copyright label spoiling everything.
Diana of Ephesus and the Slaves (detail).
Gorgon and the Heroes (1895–99).
L’Invasione degli Unni (no date).
Siren or The Green Abyss (1900).
Pico, roi du Latium, et Circé de Thessalie (1904).
Pico, roi du Latium (detail).
Ex libris Gabrielis Nuncii “per non dormire” (1906).
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Angels 4: Fallen angels
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
#1 posted by Nathalie
There was a wonderful exhibition on Sartorio last year, in Chiostro del Bramante and I discovered this painter, whom I had never heard of before. i should have known (by now) that you would have liked him too…
It was truly enchanting (the reproduction here does not do credit to the vibrant colours of “Pico, Re del Lazio” by the way : I got so mesmerized by it that I had to get myself the postcard - sadly, there was no catalogue for the show).
The ink works (a lot of ex libris) that were presented were also very good but the painter seem hardly known outside Italy. He has done the frescoes on the Parlement ceiling too.
Mar 11th, 2007
#2 posted by John
Ack, now I’m jealous! I found a lot of references to that exhibition while searching for these pictures. Nothing for it now but to see if I can track down some of the books about him.
Mar 11th, 2007
#3 posted by Nathalie
I went in to look at the LiveJournal post I had made about that exhibition and I had put a link to the site, link that I know expected NOT to be working anymore since I could not find an archive on the Chiostro’s page.
However, much to my surprise, it DOES still work so you can have a look at a few paintings:
http://spacedlaw.livejournal.com/919.html
(Oh and if you scroll down the comments, you will see another painting from another show that enchanted me last year, that of Jiang Guo Fang.)
Mar 12th, 2007
#4 posted by John
Oh, I did look at that site but didn’t persevere with my search there. A shame they don’t have more pictures but I’ve lifted their detail from the Pico, Re del Lazio.
The Jiang Guo Fang is a painting? Wow.
Mar 12th, 2007
#5 posted by Nathalie
Wow exactly.
They were vibrant with colours and amazing details, and the artist used a camera obscura or photography to prepare his paintings, something that Sartorio also did (being a pionneer in that respect).
It was a bit like looking at the movie “The last Emperor”.
And this time, the exhibition HAD a catalogue.
Mar 12th, 2007
#6 posted by Wiley
I remember hearing a lecture on Greek lifestyle touch on the goddess in the top picture, and how, in whichever city-state her cult was most concentrated, they had rigged fountains in temples using her likeness as the headpiece and that each of her nipples would spew forth milk rather than water during the climax of celebrations.
For obvious reasons they would never leave her statue-fountains on for very long.
Mar 15th, 2007
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