(Murano 1878–1947)
Il giardino delle fate (The fairy garden), triptych, 1913, signed with the artist’s monogram, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 100 x 240 cm (overall dimensions), 100 x 80 cm (each element)

This work is accompanied by a photo certificate issued by Giovanni Mariacher, Venice 1971

Provenance:
Franco Semenzato, Venice
European Private Collection (acquired from the above by the father of the present owner in the 1970s)

Exhibited:
Venice, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Ca’ Pesaro, 1913

Literature:
G. Damerini, L’ottava mostra giovanile d’arte a Ca’ Pesaro. Dalla mostra di Felice Casorati a quella dei postimpressioni-sti, in “Gazzetta di Venezia”, 18 maggio 1913
R. Pallucchini, Vittorio Zecchin. Riflessioni sull’arte di un muranese, Premiate officine Grafiche C. Ferrari, Venice 1947, p. 27 with ill.
G. Perocco (ed.), Vittorio Zecchin, Catalogue oft the exhibition held at Museo di Ca’Pesaro, 1981
M. Barovier, Vittorio Zecchin 1878-1947; pittura, vetro, arti decorative, Marsilio Editori, Venice, 2002, p. 307
N. Stringa, S. Portinari (ed.), Gli artisti di Ca’ Pesaro. L’esposizione d’arte del 1913, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari – Digital Publishing 2017, p. 27

Una saletta preziosa ha creata Vittorio Zecchin. [...] Egli ha collocati tre pannelli
(Il Giardino delle Fate) al sommo e tre pannelli nel fuoco delle pareti (Murine, Perla
Orientale, Primavera) di un bizantinismo ricchissimo: figure di donne pallide, dalle chiome rosse o corvine, dai manti aurigemmati, occhieggianti, come un tessuto di penne di pavone;
ha composto – se è permessa l’immagine – una murina dipinta intorno alla sala che
contiene murine e vasi ed anfore di quel vetraio insigne che è il Barovier. Ci inganniamo?
Ma crediamo che questo ambiente sontuoso, festa di luci, di immagini, di colori, avrà un
successo grande quanto meritato, per la sua peregrinità e pel suo senso di venezianità.
Gino Damerini, 1913

It is difficult to confine the artistic persona of Vittorio Zecchin (1878-1947) to the simple decorativism seen as characteristic of him for so long. Zecchin’s art is modern art, and certain aspects are extremely innovative; he did not evolve towards Modernism as it was then understood because Modernism itself was so innate and inherent in his soul as to be the only true manifestation of art for him.
Heir to the great glass-making tradition of Murano, where he was born, Zecchin soon had to confront the great crisis which that industry was experiencing. He stubbornly pushed himself to renew a dying artistic tradition with visionary and personal interpretations which cross over from art to the most up-to-date concept of design.
The triptych is the full expression of that which Zecchin was able to render his own, and of that which he was able to embrace and interpret over the course of his career as an artist: he borrowed from Klimt, translating those aspects which most suited his temperament into an entirely Venetian language. He made use of the Viennese artist in order to reach the applied arts in an isolated Venice which required new inspiration.
The colours are underpinned by a formal scheme of figures and background, and directly recall the colours of late-mediaeval and fifteenth-century Venice through the vitreous and flamelike quality of the paint, reminiscent of a Muranese furnace.
The composition adopts a symbolism which is openly mystical, enchanted, fairytale-like, a primitive, oriental ritual fantasy which seems to want to resurrect a sacred, atavistic state of awareness of a civilisation with lies dormant in the hidden areas of our memory.
In ’71 Giovanni Mariacher, then director of the Civic Museum of Art in Venice, wrote the following regarding the triptych: “The restrained sophistication of the lines which elegantly frame shapes and colours enhances the intricate diversity of the procession which occupies all the space in the triptych. The slight asymmetry in the positioning of the figures lends dynamism to the composition. […]
The meticulous choice inherent in the variegated chromatic sequence, joined with the sophisticated striving for dynamism in the composition, never repetitive, renders this painting a masterpiece.”