Domenico Baccarini
(Faenza, 1882
– 1907)
Italian painter, engraver and
teacher.
He was born into a peasant
family and lost his father when he was five. His mother managed
to send him to drawing classes at the Civico Ateneo in Ferrara,
where Gaetano Previati was his classmate, and then to the
Accademia di Belle Arti in Parma, where he studied decoration
and stage design. Between 1877 and 1881 he attended the
Accademia di Brera in Milan and was introduced by Previati into
the circle of Gli Scapigliati. His friendships with Emilio
Longoni (1859-1932), Cesare Tallone, Leonardo Bistolfi and the
socialist lawyer Luigi Majno date from this time. In 1880
Mentessi won a prize at the Scuola di Architettura and became
assistant to Luca Beltrami at the Brera, beginning a lifelong
career as a teacher of architectural drawing and geometry. In
1887 he was appointed Professor of Landscape Painting at the
Brera and in the early years of the 20th century he also gave
courses at the Societ? Umanitaria in Milan. Due to his
friendship with the Swiss painter Luigi Rossi (1853-1923), he
acted as a consultant in the commission for the teaching of
drawing in the canton of Ticino. He was also active in
organizing exhibitions. In the 1890s Mentessi painted landscapes
and pictures dealing with social issues, among them Our Daily
Bread (1894; Ferrara, Gal. Civ. A. Mod.), which was shown at the
first Venice Biennale in 1895. The theme of the painting is
pellagra, a disease caused by malnutrition that was widespread
in the Ferrarese countryside. Gradually he developed his own
manner of depicting poverty and suffering, central to which is
the theme of motherhood, in either a secular or a religious
context. Apart from imaginative compositions, he worked on
engravings from the beginning of the 20th century. With Sad
Vision (1899; Venice, Ca' Pesaro), a large pastel exhibited in
Paris in 1900, Mentessi began a series of works on religious
subjects in the Symbolist vein. With Gloria (1901; Rome, G.N.A.
Mod.), which was much acclaimed when it was exhibited in Venice
in 1901, the artist took up the theme of anti-militarism. This
he repeated in various minor works during World War I. The
triptych Passion Week (1914; Ferrara, Gal. Civ. A. Mod.) has, in
the scene of a massacre, intense passages of raw realism..(tratto
da www.exibart.com)
Works:
Paintings