Roger de Montebello is an old friend, and one of my best ones. When I
met him in Venice in the early 1990's, he
was already a painter. And he was constantly painting Venice, my home in the
middle of the water. I do not
remember how long it was before I saw his paintings in his studio, but I
remember feeling that I was standing before a representation of the
city, which was unique. Venice was still a new inspiration for him as a painter.
I fell in love with how he was interpreting and experimenting with the
play between the buildings and their reflection on the surface of the water,
and in particular how and what of them was reflected in it. The water, like the
sap that flows through plants, gives life to this city that was born on it.
There was not much water in the painting I was first attracted to: there
was a a bridge and a canal near the Arsenale of Venice, but just those signs of
colour reflected on the water, light wrapped around the shadow of man, were enough. As in these images, he was searching for
what in Venice gave inspiration, intending
to express his own emotion: a very distinctive vision of Venice.
An idea of virtually immobile and peaceful
freedom, lived by Roger himself in his "vagabondaggi" rowing a docile sandolo across the waters of
the lagoon; the lagoon which makes the city a world apart.
Montebello's images of Venice have a remarkable
stability, showing the constancy of the city. This also reflects his tenacity
to work so incredibly hard as an artist, to express through his paintings a
novelty and freshness of vision, where not everything
has already been said or painted about Venice, throwing a different light on
the city.
A Venice that conveys a great sense of peace and serenity: details
disappear with Montebello's precise will to focus on both transparency of light
and harmonious order; a world of clarity; almost a perfect world where the reflections are mirror-like, yet a
sense that life is gently present inside his paintings. He creates a
subtle vibration of light, with very clear and luminous skies, without losing
the sense of construction and timelessness.
It is almost a metaphysical version of what
exists in reality, and the reflections in the water have a double meaning as regards the signs of man, that vary in relation to the
movement of the timorous waves, showing a
mood that is peacefully amplified within ourselves, and one of the signs of man
and nature, water and sky that merge
in a single light.
Montebello's Venice paintings evidently relate
to the tradition, in Western art, of Metaphysical painting, which began with Piero delia Francesca and goes beyond Giorgio de
Chirico. Roger brings us an atmosphere where, it seems to me, that there is a
feeling of anticipation that exists only in living organisms, and not in inanimate objects.
It may be that feeling of waiting that I draw
from his paintings, like the calmness of the lagoon, to the storms - which in some way and with the same intensity - characterise my
own life and the desire to travel, cradled
by the waters.
That world of water, its moods, its
reflections, its colours are totally part of my life, to the point of my being incapable of living without being near
water. In one way it's the same world of foggy memories that somehow bring back the unconscious calmness of
floating as an embryo in my mother's womb, and I can experience the same calm
peacefulness every day in the Venice Lagoon. In another way it's the sensation of complete freedom. An immense liquid volume,
the surface of which is sometimes calm and sometimes choppy, that allows us to navigate, taking us from the
rivers, across the lagoon to the seas and oceans, from the Punta della Dogana in the Bacino di San Marco
to the island of San Michele, where I will pay my debts, or in my travels from
Venice to Istanbul. Water as a necessity for life.
Francesco da Mosto
Francesco
da Mosto is a writer, architect, historian, film-maker and Venetian citizen.
Apart from short spells in Rome, Paris and sailing in the Mediterranean, he has
lived in Venice ail his life.
Francesco presented the BBC TV series Francesco's Venice, Francesco's
Italy and Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage, and wrote the accompanying
books as well as Francesco's Kitchen - an intimate guide to the
authentic flavours of Venice.