Noé Bordignon (1841 - 1920) The Month of Mary in Venice, 1884 Oil on canvas 73 x 104.5 cm Signature: lower left 'N. Bordignon'. Distinctive elements: on the verso, a label with date 23/06/1986 and inventory references Provenance: Private collection, Milan Bibliography: "R. Accademia di Belle Arti. Esposizione 1884. Official catalogue", Milan, 1884, no. 264; "Esposizione Accademia di Venezia", Venice, 1885, no. 98; Fernando Mazzocca, Elena Catra, Vittorio Pajusci, ed. Dal realismo al simbolismo", exhibition catalogue, Genoa, 2021, p. 99 Exhibitions: Milan, Academy of Fine Arts, 1884; Venice, Academy of Fine Arts, 1885; Castelfranco Veneto, Museo Casa Giorgione, San Zenone degli Ezzelini, Villa Marini Rubelli, "Noè Bordignon 1841-1920. From realism to symbolism", 2021-2022 Conservation status. Support: 90% (rintelo) Conservation status. Surface: 90% (reduced fall and paintwork recovery) A student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice under Michelangelo Grigoletti and Carl Blass, Noè Bordignon furthered his studies in Rome, where he experimented with landscapes in the open countryside and approached genre themes through the work of Michele Cammarano and Filippo Palizzi. During the 1870s, he worked for numerous churches in the Veneto province, including those of San Zenone degli Ezzelini, Monfumo and Pagnano d'Asolo, while at the same time producing scenes of contemporary life in which he depicted a popular Venice and a rural world with Christian traditions. This profound religiosity made him distant from official Venetian artistic circles and in tune with the social doctrine of Pope Leo XIII, but it did not prevent him from gaining recognition at international exhibitions. During these years he set up his studio in Corte San Marco, a small enclosed field with a characteristic hexagonal well accessible from Fondamenta dei Cereri. Among the works set here is 'The Month of Mary in Venice', which was presented at the Milan Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition in 1884 and exhibited at the Venice Academy the following year. In 1883, 'The Gossips', whose compositional structure anticipates that of the present painting, was presented at the Milan Exhibition. In this second work, Bordignon accentuated the intimist aspect of his painting, achieving a clearly higher quality through the much more refined representation of feelings. The group of four women intent on chatting around the well in Corte San Marco is replaced by the more sober figures of two women with a child. The image comes alive with detail. Inside the doors scenes of domestic intimacy appear and on the right, devotees with their children gather around the shrine of the Virgin, which in the first work appeared neglected and abandoned, while now it is decorated with flowers and candles. A little girl, who has detached herself from the group, prays with clasped hands sitting on the base of the well. Teresa Sacchi Lodispoto