Observations placeholder
Segantini - Petalo di rosa
Identifier
008129
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A portrait of his wife sick from tuberculosis, but in fact I am not sure we are meant to see her as sick, I think we are meant to see her as greatly loved. Through the feminine man finds salvation....
From Juliet Heslewood's book Lover
His painting of Bice, like many of his other works, is composed of natural imagery yet is essentially symbolic. Beneath its surface was a picture entitled Phthisis (tuberculosis) for which Bice was also the model. Segantini chooses not to emphasise the negative
aspect of the illness, but shows her on the brink of recovery. A small, devotional cross stands above her brightly lit pillow. The rose petal is evoked in the bloom of her pink
cheeks. The picture's suffused glow comes from his use of gold leaf which he painted onto it then scratched. Segantini's lengthy correspondence reveals his concern to present the painting more as a Symbolist work than as a portrait.....
Rose Petal 1889-91 3rl. tempera and gold leaf on canvas
A description of the experience
