Filippo MONTEVERDE (Italian, 1846 - 1920)
Filippo MONTEVERDE is an artist too long forgotten. Forgotten by studies, disappeared from exhibitions, neglected by the market. In his story, first of all, the silence that enveloped his work while he was still alive is striking, perhaps justifiable in light of his not easy and vagabond character that led him to long periods of absence from the city; a silence that continued, however, wrongly, after his death.
The only opportunity to see a significant group of his gathered works was in fact, in 1934, the exhibition of Brescian painting of the 19th century, where almost 500 paintings were exhibited, intended to "present a complete vision, in the guise of the historical panorama, of the most salient works of all the painters fellow citizens" of the 19th century, MONTEVERDE appeared with ten paintings (five portraits, four still lifes and a landscape).
Even at the level of studies and artistic repertoires the presence of Filippo MONTEVERDE is decidedly sparse. It is remembered (but erroneously with the name of Francesco) by Angelo De Gubernatis in the 1889 Dictionary, by Agostino Mario Comanducci in the expanded 1970 edition of the Dictionary of modern and contemporary Italian painters, designers and engravers and in the Brescian Encyclopedia by Antonio Fappani.
A biographical and critical profile, the only one that is truly extensive and documented, was dedicated to him in the Commentaries of the University of Brescia for the year 1980 by Riccardo Lonati.
Filippo MONTEVERDE was an atypical personality in 19th century Brescia painting. He never participated in the Legato Brozzoni grant competition, he never exhibited at the exhibitions of the "Arte in Famiglia" Society, he was never associated with the University. On the contrary, from the scarce documentary sources that speak to us of him we can infer a conflictual relationship with the city environment, rather backward on the aesthetic level and faithful to the consolidated liturgies of a "power" which was accessed mostly through friendships or students.
Filippo MONTEVERDE was born in Brescia on April 3, 1846 in a wealthy family of Genoese origin, active in the silk and glassware trade. Of his brothers, Felice became canon of San Nazaro; Giuseppe, together with his father Antonio, managed for many years a silk and "fashion items" shop under the Portici; at the same time the family also had a glass factory in via Sostegno. From Giuseppe a dynasty of small metallurgical industrialists then originated.
Filippo, interested more in art than in family activities, attended the "Moretto" municipal school of drawing from 1863 to 1869, deserving awards for his skill, but also showing a rebellious spirit and making himself known in 1869 as guilty of "act of serious indiscipline and offense against the honorable members of the Commission elected to judge competitions ". In the meantime, in 1866 took part in the Garibaldi campaign in Trentino. News of his studies was handed down at the Brera Academy with Hayez, but no documentation was found in the Academy records.
Unlike almost all the Brescia artists of the time, he never participated in the Legato Brozzoni "grant" competition, perhaps because the ease of the family did not make it necessary, or perhaps because his character rejected the constraints imposed by the Legato on how to cultivate the study of art.
Indeed, in the 1870's his impatience for the environment led him to abandon even Brescia, to stay a few years in Rome, until 1879. Here he devoted himself to landscape paintings and studies of the Roman countryside; he certainly had contacts with the many nationally renowned artists who operated in Rome at that time.
Returning from Rome to Brescia in 1879, he continued to exhibit his works outside the local area, which was met with critical acclaim. The newspapers of the time reported flattering comments of his participation in the exhibition in Munich in 1879 and the great National Exhibition of Milan in 1881.
In Brescia he still remained outside the artistic circles of the city, at least judging by the fact that he did not participate in any of the many exhibitions organized by the "Art in the Family" Society, in which all the major names of Brescia's figurative art of the time were present.
He almost seemed to want to contrast himself with this atmosphere, showing off his professional activity, so much so that his advertising as a "painter in figure, landscape, etc." appeared in local newspapers in the 1880s, proposing himself to perform a "reproduction from a small photograph. , full-size oil portraits (half-length)" in his studio in" Piazzetta Manzione ". As a place to exhibit his works in the city he chose the windows of the antique dealer Coen which at the time had great merit in offering young Brescian artists an opportunity to make themselves known to the public.
In April 1882 he first exhibited "a robbery bird nailed over a rough door" and then began to present a series that brought him popularity, but also controversy.
The last mention of his art in the Brescia newspapers was found in 1885 about "a chicken painted by the talented Monteverde in such an artistic way that encourages him to detach it from the axis where it hangs". A small sign of recognition by the city environment seems to be found in 1886 by the artist's presence on the board of the "Society of Painters" (institution dedicated to the professional training of decorators), alongside Cesare Bertolotti, under the presidency of the architect Tagliaferri. But this evidently was not enough to reconcile Monteverde with Brescia, which he left just in that period to come back twenty years later, after having had his share of the family businesses liquidated.
"The Province of Brescia" newspaper of 1906, which documents his story, wrote: "After an absence of about 20 years, Mr. Filippo Monteverde, a good painter and our fellow citizen, who with his many paintings, and especially as a portrait painter, had left us with a valiant reputation for his art. In his long artistic wanderings abroad, he was in Munich, Switzerland, Paris and recently in Algeria, from which country he reported a good supply of studies and impressions taken from life "and spoke of" his temporary return to homeland."
The artist dies in Brescia December 20, 1920 without even a note in the news.
The only opportunity to see a significant group of his gathered works was in fact, in 1934, the exhibition of Brescian painting of the 19th century, where almost 500 paintings were exhibited, intended to "present a complete vision, in the guise of the historical panorama, of the most salient works of all the painters fellow citizens" of the 19th century, MONTEVERDE appeared with ten paintings (five portraits, four still lifes and a landscape).
Even at the level of studies and artistic repertoires the presence of Filippo MONTEVERDE is decidedly sparse. It is remembered (but erroneously with the name of Francesco) by Angelo De Gubernatis in the 1889 Dictionary, by Agostino Mario Comanducci in the expanded 1970 edition of the Dictionary of modern and contemporary Italian painters, designers and engravers and in the Brescian Encyclopedia by Antonio Fappani.
A biographical and critical profile, the only one that is truly extensive and documented, was dedicated to him in the Commentaries of the University of Brescia for the year 1980 by Riccardo Lonati.
Filippo MONTEVERDE was an atypical personality in 19th century Brescia painting. He never participated in the Legato Brozzoni grant competition, he never exhibited at the exhibitions of the "Arte in Famiglia" Society, he was never associated with the University. On the contrary, from the scarce documentary sources that speak to us of him we can infer a conflictual relationship with the city environment, rather backward on the aesthetic level and faithful to the consolidated liturgies of a "power" which was accessed mostly through friendships or students.
Filippo MONTEVERDE was born in Brescia on April 3, 1846 in a wealthy family of Genoese origin, active in the silk and glassware trade. Of his brothers, Felice became canon of San Nazaro; Giuseppe, together with his father Antonio, managed for many years a silk and "fashion items" shop under the Portici; at the same time the family also had a glass factory in via Sostegno. From Giuseppe a dynasty of small metallurgical industrialists then originated.
Filippo, interested more in art than in family activities, attended the "Moretto" municipal school of drawing from 1863 to 1869, deserving awards for his skill, but also showing a rebellious spirit and making himself known in 1869 as guilty of "act of serious indiscipline and offense against the honorable members of the Commission elected to judge competitions ". In the meantime, in 1866 took part in the Garibaldi campaign in Trentino. News of his studies was handed down at the Brera Academy with Hayez, but no documentation was found in the Academy records.
Unlike almost all the Brescia artists of the time, he never participated in the Legato Brozzoni "grant" competition, perhaps because the ease of the family did not make it necessary, or perhaps because his character rejected the constraints imposed by the Legato on how to cultivate the study of art.
Indeed, in the 1870's his impatience for the environment led him to abandon even Brescia, to stay a few years in Rome, until 1879. Here he devoted himself to landscape paintings and studies of the Roman countryside; he certainly had contacts with the many nationally renowned artists who operated in Rome at that time.
Returning from Rome to Brescia in 1879, he continued to exhibit his works outside the local area, which was met with critical acclaim. The newspapers of the time reported flattering comments of his participation in the exhibition in Munich in 1879 and the great National Exhibition of Milan in 1881.
In Brescia he still remained outside the artistic circles of the city, at least judging by the fact that he did not participate in any of the many exhibitions organized by the "Art in the Family" Society, in which all the major names of Brescia's figurative art of the time were present.
He almost seemed to want to contrast himself with this atmosphere, showing off his professional activity, so much so that his advertising as a "painter in figure, landscape, etc." appeared in local newspapers in the 1880s, proposing himself to perform a "reproduction from a small photograph. , full-size oil portraits (half-length)" in his studio in" Piazzetta Manzione ". As a place to exhibit his works in the city he chose the windows of the antique dealer Coen which at the time had great merit in offering young Brescian artists an opportunity to make themselves known to the public.
In April 1882 he first exhibited "a robbery bird nailed over a rough door" and then began to present a series that brought him popularity, but also controversy.
The last mention of his art in the Brescia newspapers was found in 1885 about "a chicken painted by the talented Monteverde in such an artistic way that encourages him to detach it from the axis where it hangs". A small sign of recognition by the city environment seems to be found in 1886 by the artist's presence on the board of the "Society of Painters" (institution dedicated to the professional training of decorators), alongside Cesare Bertolotti, under the presidency of the architect Tagliaferri. But this evidently was not enough to reconcile Monteverde with Brescia, which he left just in that period to come back twenty years later, after having had his share of the family businesses liquidated.
"The Province of Brescia" newspaper of 1906, which documents his story, wrote: "After an absence of about 20 years, Mr. Filippo Monteverde, a good painter and our fellow citizen, who with his many paintings, and especially as a portrait painter, had left us with a valiant reputation for his art. In his long artistic wanderings abroad, he was in Munich, Switzerland, Paris and recently in Algeria, from which country he reported a good supply of studies and impressions taken from life "and spoke of" his temporary return to homeland."
The artist dies in Brescia December 20, 1920 without even a note in the news.