(Innsbruck 1894–1965 Rome)
Venezia Chiesa di San Martino, c. 1914, signed
R. M. Baldessari, oil on panel, 37.2 x 55.2 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Archivio per il Catalogo delle Opere Futuriste di Roberto Marcello Baldessari under no. B14–20. It is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Maurizio Scudiero on 20/6/2017.

Provenance:
Luigi Colacicchi, Rome
Private Collection, Rome

This work is one of a pair, the other being “Venice, Rialto Bridge”, dated 1914 (here in the archive B14-17). Both works are rare, some of the first to document the very early Divisionist period, when Baldessari was still strongly influenced both by the painting of Attilio Basta, his fellow countryman and follower of Segantini, and that of Carlo Carrà, due to his emphasis on light and its radiance of pure colour. It is, therefore, a Divisionism that already looks to Futurism, even for those two delicate figures, taken from Russolo’s paintings. The Futurist-Divisionist treatment of light is also found in another important painting from this early period, the large canvas “Luce+Ambiente (Luna Park)” (see R.M.B. Cat. Gen., vol. 2, 1997, no. 7). This Venetian painting is also an important and evocative piece in the development of the artist’s career, marking the very moment of transition from Figurativism to Futurism. The work belonged to the musicologist Luigi Colachicchi, who collaborated with Igor Stravinsky and Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia.

Maurizio Scudiero, curator of the Archivio R.M.B., 20/6/2017