GAETANO PREVIATI Ferrara, 1852 - Lavagna, 1920 Motherhood Signed Previati bottom centre Oil on canvas, 60.5X55 cm Provenance: Genoa, private collection In this painting, from an important private collection, Gaetano Previati depicts the theme of maternal love in a secular and universal language, devoid of direct religious references. While iconographically recalling the Madonna and Child, the artist transforms the subject into a symbolic celebration of motherhood as a vital and spiritual force of humanity. The Divisionist technique, based on the decomposition of light into filaments and thin brushstrokes, generates a vibrant and immaterial effect, capable of conveying a universal feeling: the sweetness, protection and purity of the bond between mother and child. The work, presented in a sumptuous carved and gilded frame probably created by Ettore Zaccari, the painter's trusted cabinet-maker, is a true manifesto of the 'painting of ideas', theorised by Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, in which the subject is no longer merely represented, but interpreted as a symbol of an inner value. He trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where he was a pupil of Giuseppe Bertini, a Romantic-oriented painter; he initially produced works on historical subjects, but soon moved towards the most innovative movements of his time: first to the Scapigliatura, attracted by his interest in sentiments and rebellion against academic canons, and later to Divisionism. The artist distinguished himself from his contemporaries, such as Giovanni Segantini and Georges Seurat, by a greater fusion between figure and environment. In fact, he did not limit himself to representing visual reality, but sought to evoke a psychological atmosphere, capable of provoking a profound emotional response in the spectator. This spiritual and inner tension stems from his training and interest in painting as a language of ideas, an approach that anticipated the principles of European Symbolism. .