calm of the sunset, listening to the feelings which Nature
awoke in me ; she blended them into a single dream of
love and sadness which rose ever higher, and when at
home I wished to fix it on my canvas it rose higher still ;
and why did it rise ? It is clear that I felt impotent to
portray it, and indeed how could I have done so ? I had
studied but the first elements of drawing. I should have
liked to describe it with my pen, but at that time I did
not know how to write my own name.

"... I then decided to study Nature in her living
form and in her luminous colour ; I opened the windows
and looked boldly at the sun ; I loved its smile and

128



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



wished to conquer it. I did not think of what others do
or have done, because when we learn from others it is too
difficult and too hard to come back to ourselves ; and if we
are content to go forward on the road marked out by
others, we shall always walk in the shadow of a shade
which will be lost in the darkness of ages, and our work
will endure only as the picture of an epoch. It is
essential, then, to be, and not merely to appear to be. And
if one day I shall climb up the ladder of fame I shall be
able to place my feet firmly on it and say, ' This glory is
mine.'

" I shall always alternate the study of Nature in all
her different aspects, thus penetrating into my own soul,
so as to hold in close embrace my ideal, and to raise
it that all those who have in them a tender feeling of
love, like you, dear friend, may see it."*

Segantini was already beginning to make an obscure
and introspective analysis of his own character, as we
see from this letter. When writing in this sort of style,
he is not so interesting nor so effective as when he
writes of nature and art and the flowers, the things
which he really understood. Signora Neera repeatedly
asked him for information about himself, and the de-
velopment of his art. Thus she wrote to him at the
beginning of their acquaintance : " How I should like,
if I dared do so, to ask you about your early years,
and how, in your almost uncultivated life, alone with

'■■' Unpublished letter communicated by Signora Neera.

129 ^



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



nature, your thoughts, and your feeling, art began to
develop ; and how you learnt to know what we call
the world, society, and its passions. Was the study
of man blended in you with the study of nature, or
did you merely have an intellectual intuition of it ?
Have you read much ? " *

In answer to these and similar queries, Segantini
sent her the story of his life. Here is another fragment : —

"You want to know what I did between the time
when I was a swine-herd and that described in
Dalbesio's notes, and how I left the worthy contadini
and began to learn drawing. To fill up this gap I
should have to write some hundreds of pages of
manuscript. Have patience, and I shall write them some
day, but not too soon. When I have written them I
shall send them to you. But for the present do not
let us speak of it, not even in the form of notes. Be
satisfied with the idyllic part, which you have already.

"You ask me if you ought to divide my work
into three periods. I think so ; divide them thus : —
Milan : studies to understand technical values ; hence
perspective, landscape, and figure, the symbolic and the
fantastic, as in the ' Lying in State ' (' The Hero ').
Brianza: studies to master the method of expressing
sentiment, and a return to the study of nature in
'Sheep-shearing' and 'Alia Stanga.' Orisons: still
•deeper studies of nature, alternated with a few symbolic

* Communicated by Signora Neera.
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GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



and fantastic compositions. The final goal of my
constant study is thoroughly to master the whole of
Nature in all her gradations, from sunrise to sunset,
and from sunset to sunrise, with the relative structure
and form of all things, of men, of animals, and of
insects, and finally to create a powerful and vigorous
work that shall be wholly ideal. I shall also send
you a note of the pictures I have painted, with their
dates, and some photographs." *

The outcome of these confessions was an article by
Signora Neera, which appeared in the Efnporium,
on the painter and his work. He was much pleased
at it. "I have read the Emporium again and
again," he wrote, " with the same interest with which
I read everything of yours. I find the biographical
sketch excellent. You have made a thorough and
conscientious criticism of my art, explaining my ideal
and the reason of things. In this article you have
produced a piece of work which is at once critical,
philosophical, and moral. I am most grateful to you."t

It would be important to know something of his
views and ideas on purely literary subjects, as the
work of his last phase was much influenced by books.
Unfortunately, however, he seldom wrote about such
matters. His reading was extensive and varied, but,
save for a few remarks dropped here and there, we
do not know what he thought of the different writers

* Unpublished letter communicated by Signora Neera. f Idem.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



whose works he read. He was an ardent bibliophile,
and filled his house with books of all sorts, many of
which must have been somewhat beyond his compre-
hension. In a letter to Signor Martinelli, he expresses
his views on Zola, of whose books he was an admirer : —
"And why should Zola be wrong in trying to see
Rome as it really is ? It is in this way that he will
be able to produce a work that will be truly Zolian. I
do not wish to inquire whether Zola's work be artistic
or scientific, but I feel that it is a work of infinite
value for history ; and I think that from this point of
view his work will be immortal, even as the human
soul. For, indeed, I do not know who has succeeded
better than he in materialising the spirit of our society,
and in animating the matter with which it is clothed.
It may be that he is only a reporter, but he is the
reporter of his own age for all future ages. For the
sake of art, of science, of the whole progress of
humanity, it were desirable that in each generation such
a reporter should arise, who would reproduce, with as
much feeling and love of truth, all the different kinds
of souls of that particular generation, and would con-
centrate them in himself. And if this wish be not
realised, it will at least be possible to say that in
those few volumes of Zola's we can live through fifty
years of nineteenth century life in a month. This, in
my opinion, is the spiritual and moral value of
Zola's work."

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



It may seem strange that such a lover of fair ideals
as Segantini should admire the writings of the great
French realist, with his brutal outspokenness, and his
terrible insistence on the seamiest sides of life. But if
Segantini was an idealist, he, too, was an ardent
lover of truth, and Zola's vivid descriptions, and splendid
if lurid colouring, appealed even to the painter of the
'* Ave Maria a Trasbordo."

Another writer who at one time exercised a certain
influence on Segantini was Nietzsche. The only allusion
to him which we have come across is in a letter in
which he mentions a design for a binding for the
German philosopher's works, on which he was engaged.
But some of his remarks on Christianity, which we have
already quoted, suggest unmistakably that he had been
inspired by Nietzsche. In the last phase, however, that
philosopher's teachings on that question were discarded.

There are a few passages in Segantini's letters in
which he expresses admiration for the Signora Neera's
novels and short stories : —

" You ask me for my opinion of your story. Well,
here is my candid judgment. When one reads it, one
feels a strong sense of the emotion and passion with
which it is inspired ; but there is an absence of serious
study of material and human atmosphere. It is a
great pity in so original a work."* Later he added:
" Do you know that I still feel a sort of remorse

* Unpublished letter communicated by Signora Neera.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



for my criticisms on your story? I still remember
them quite well — 'absence of material and human
atmosphere.' My remorse comes from the fear lest
those words should be interpreted in a different sense
from that which I intended, i.e., that I should have
preferred your story to be more materially realistic.
It is not so ; your story does not, in my opinion,
belong to the same category as Chateaubriand's * Atala '
or * Rene ' ; but it is of a purely symbolic character,
hence the atmosphere should be symbolic, veiled, and
mystic, something that should be felt instinctively, but
not seen save in broad and rapid flashes of light like
lightning in the darkness of a storm. Now I shall
explain what I mean by the absence of human atmos-
phere. The symbol is the thought; all the parts, both
in the individuals and in the masses, should represent
its quintessence."*

This letter is of especial interest inasmuch as it
heralds the symbolism which was soon to be the chief
feature of the artist's work. The symbolic tendency
manifested itself in his writings earlier than it did in
his painting. He evolved it and elaborated it in thought
before attempting to put it into his canvases.

Signor Grubicy had many times written and spoken
to Segantini about music, and advised him to devote
his attention to it and even to study it, thinking that
it might serve to inspire him in his work. He also

'■ Unpublished letter communicated by Signora Neera.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



wished him to write down some suggestions for the
plot of an opera, for he felt sure that, with his originality,
he would even in that line produce something out of
the common. Segantini was fond of music, and he
kept quite a little collection of musical scores in his
house for his friends. He had no time to study it,
but he accepted his friend's proposal and sketched
the following scheme for an opera, or rather the ground-
work on which to construct a plot : —

"Act I.

" Some days ago, while on a journey, I stopped at an
inn in the Engadine, where I noticed a hurry and scurry
unusual in these parts, and many kellnerinnen bedecked
in fresh flowers and gala attire. I asked the landlord in
Romanisch if a wedding party was expected. ' No,' he
replied, * it is the singers from St. Moritz, Samaden, and
Pontresina, who are having a sledge ride ; they have
come here for dinner, and are giving a concert for their
own amusement. You will like it, for they are the best
singers of the Canton.'

" Shortly after from the top of the mountain we could
see what looked like a black snake coming rapidly down
the mountain side : it was a procession of sledges follow-
ing each other in quick succession at short intervals.
The sun was shining in its full purity on the white,
glistening snow ; the deep blue sky was reflected in the
shadows. Then the snake dissolved, and we could make



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



out the single sledges quite distinctly : they were large,
square, open, two-horse vehicles, built expressly for the
purpose. We could already hear the cracking of the
whips jumbled up with the tinkling of the horses' bells.
Suddenly there arose something like a sacred hymn sung
softly ; I was filled with emotion ; the cracking of the
whips, the tinkling of the bells, the hissing sound of the
sledges, and the song formed a single harmony with the
sun, the sky, and the earth.

" When the first sledge was at the end of the last
turn, they all instantly formed up in line before the hotel,
and everyone descended. The landlady came out to
welcome the singers, and they answered her in groups.
On the doorstep the kellneri7inen were drawn up' in a
row to receive the guests, greeting them with compli-
ments and handshakes. They knew each other, being
nearly all of the same district, and in many cases related.
The whole party thereupon entered the inn.

** Then from the other side we hear the other pro-
cession arrive, with the same cracking of whips. The
first party hears them, and issues forth ; they meet, and
exchange greetings. Then the leaders give out the parts,
and there on the piazza, in the sunlight, they all begin to
sing, including the women. After the song they re-enter
the inn, and the curtain falls.

"Act II.
''Scene I. — A parlour in a Swiss inn; evening; lights.

136



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



Supper is over. Kelluerinnen bustling about. A few
tipsy men singing on their own account : they are made
to stop. The singers who are still sober start singing
once more. During the song bells are heard at various
distances. The singers do not notice it, and their song
joins the sound of the bells. Someone leaves the room
hurriedly, and then returns crying * Fire ! ' and naming
a neighbouring village. Everyone rushes out shouting.

" Scene II. — The hotel scene is raised, disclosing
white mountains reddened with the glow of fire ; the
sky is dark and stormy, heavy and leaden ; a furious
wind makes the firs crackle, and shrieks threateningly ;
the bells continue their sad lament from afar ; a wailful
murmur is heard coming from where the fire is raging.
From the opposite side the bells of a large sledge are
heard in the distance ; the sound comes nearer and
nearer yet, then the sledge crosses the stage noisily,
and disappears like a flash of lightning; as it draws
further away the bells and the horn become fainter.
Then another distant sound answers it. There are two
large sledges, then several horns at various distances,
together with the bells of the horses and the cracking
of whips. A fire-engine flashes past and some mounted
firemen ; then another sledge full of firemen, with torches
and buckets, crosses the stage and away.

" N.B. — All the villages up here have their own
fire-engines and squads of experienced firemen, and
everybody is obliged to come and help when a village

137



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



is on fire. This year I witnessed two fires : the first, at
Conters, began at eleven at night, in midwinter ; the
whole valley was filled with a lurid glow ; the burning
barns shot forth columns of smoke and flame, which
towered up to the heavens. I was there until morning,
working and making others work. I was also present
at a fire at Castiel, but merely as a spectator. This
place (do you know it ?) is the chief centre of the Albula
region : in less than two hours it was completely
destroyed, owing to the high wind. Not even the church,
which was on a height, was spared ; the wind carried
the flames up there, and the door of the organ loft, and
even the scaffolding from which the bells were suspended,
which, as you know, is of wood, were burnt, so that the
bells fell one after another down the sides of the steeple
to the ground, making strange sounds ; these continued
for some seconds and blended with the weird harmony of
the fire. During this fire I witnessed the most heart-
rending episodes ; here is one of them. Let us return
to the stage.

"A woman rushes forth from the fire, half naked,
her hair down her back ; she is carrying two children
in her arms, but one has been injured by the fire ; she
kneels down before a little chapel by the road-side,
and sighs, prays, and lifts up her children towards
the image; then she lays them on the ground in utter
weariness. The burnt child is dead ; she gazes at it
half stupefied, understands, utters a cry of anguish,

138




PORTKAII" 0\- CARLO ROI PA.



7V> /.ICC /■. KV) ■



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



rises up, shakes her fist at the heavens, and falls back-
wards. Curtain.

" As you see, I have not sought a subject, but I have
tried to give you a free groundwork for music, clear
and open, unexpected, with no confidences or secrets sung
to the footlights ; no plot, simply a vivid and realistic
situation. It is the only rustic, or rather Alpine, scene
which I can offer to Leoni.* If he understands it and
likes it, you will let me know, and I shall write it out in
detail, and design the costumes and the scenery. If
not, amen."

There is in this sketch a strong sense of the pic-
turesque ; the scene which Segantini had witnessed is
described in a vivid and sympathetic manner. But it is
evident that he had no idea of the exigencies of the stage,
nor of the elements which constitute a dramatic plot. It
is doubtful if any plot at all could have been evolved out
of these suggestions. Signor Leoni, in fact, did nothing
with it, and Segantini himself afterwards admitted, in a
letter in which he also expresses his opinions on opera in
general, that his idea was of no use for the stage : —

"I am sorry to have written something for music
which is not easily understood. The mistake is
partly due to my not having expressed myself clearly,
and partly to the fact that I omitted to make a few
preliminary remarks of my own on music.

" In my opinion nothing is more incomprehensible

* An Italian composer, a friend of the artist's.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



than a musical drama ; it is absurd ; music has no need
of words to express itself, it has them already in the notes;
I think that there is no language more expressive, more
sweet, more penetrating than that of music. When I go
to the theatre to hear an opera, I never by any chance
buy the libretto ; I retire into the back of the box and
shut my eyes. Music is an art which should be heard
and felt, but not seen. With these ideas I wrote that
sketch full of jingling bells, cracking whips, and echoes
of distant sorrow. . . . The crackling of the fire, the
howling of the wind, the bells and horns answering each
other at various distances, all this I wrote, not that it
should be acted on the stage, but that it should be set to
music."* Evidently Segantini's taste for music lay in
the direction of cantatas and symphonies ; but he must
have had only a very slight knowledge of the opera
and of the stage. When asked by his friend for another
subject he sent the following sketch : —

" I have been thinking over the matter, and have
glanced rapidly through history to satisfy you ; but
partly because I detest such subjects, and partly on
account of my dislike for the drama in general, and above
all for opera, which owing to its length is always boring,
I have not succeeded in putting together a really serious
and possible human motif ; hence, although I am sorry
to be unable to co-operate in a musical idea, I must give
it up. But I shall first make my declaration of faith,

* p. Levi's " Giovanni Segantini," p. 46.
140



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



which is that the music drama, as it exists to-day and as
it has always existed, is bound to die. It is too long for
the neurotic character of modern society ; our activity
does not permit us to apply ourselves for three hours
at a stretch to the same subject without our attention
wandering. . . . An opera should be determined on a
particular framework ; if it exceeds it or falls short of
it, the harmony of the whole is destroyed. A musical per-
formance should be all of one piece, i.e., it should consist
of a single act. In this way in one evening the music of
three or four composers could be performed, as is done
at concerts, to the satisfaction of all tastes. The
composer would thus enjoy the advantage of concen-
trating his talent without tiring himself or his audience,
or wasting his energy on useless decoration. Music,
poetry, painting, aided by dramatic and physical art, we
might almost say — welded together and harmonised
both in the whole ensemble and in the separate parts,
might arouse that deep emotion which we may call the
voluptuousness of sentiment. But above all, music, or
rather poetry, must be separated from the drama, whether
it be historical or modern, and must enter into the land
of dreams and be free in form and conception. To
explain myself better I shall give you another sketch. I
do not know if I shall succeed, but at any rate you will
understand my idea.

" A knight is in search of love. A witch shows him
a dark and difficult path at the end of which is an

141



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



enchanted garden. It is a garden of roses ; white
roses, red roses, blending into a harmony of fleshy lips,
whence a perfumed freshness of youth and love exhales.
Among the roses there is the one that has been w^aiting
for the knight for years. The petals of the roses are as
large as human faces ; the thorny branches are like arms,
the leaves like those of the acanthus.

" How will the knight find his rose among so many ?
It has a hypnotic force that attracts him ; when he
gets near it he will hear it sighing. He will pluck off
the petals, and it will come to life.

"The scene changes: there is the enchanted garden
lit up by the moon. Optical and phonetic description.
The knight finds his rose, plucks off the petals, and
discovers a golden-haired head inside ; he kneels down
and sings a hymn to the Queen of the Roses. She
rises up, her golden hair reaches down to her feet.
Tableau. A fair face, smiling sadly ; she is attired
in pale blue with silver streaks. Duet (which I do not
write lest even the swans in the pond should laugh).

" The rose-maiden breaks off a branch from the
tree and throws it down on the ground. The spell is
broken, and a splendid palace arises. Palace described.
Chorus of children. The knight and the lady knock at
the door, which is opened. Tableau. Pages ; black
slaves. All the flowers in the rose-garden open out,
and singing maidens come forth from them.

" A wizard pronounces a curse. The witch reappears,

142




PORTRAIT OF TH1-: ARTIST, 15Y HIMSJiLF.



[To face p. 142.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



and causes the palace to sink into the earth. A general
groan from the whole throng and the curtain falls.

'' I have tried to add a little colour to this sketch,
but I feel that I have not succeeded. I have put
down all these ideas to give some life and movement to
the scene. I recommend you to burn it. I hear the
morning hours striking."

The influence of Wagner and of the German
romantic school is unmistakable in this fantastic
jumble. It suggests reminiscences of the flower maidens
in " Parsifal " and of German fairy tales, with a touch
of " Orlando Furioso " thrown in. The idea of human
faces inside roses was one that seized Segantini's
imagination. He refers to it more than once in his
letters, and he afterwards portrayed it in a little picture
called "A Rose-leaf."

Concerning music he again wrote : " You may
publish my ideas on music ; but think well if it be
worth your while, and if they be any good ; and do
not forget that I only wrote at your own request. I
think that you have let Leoni read my sbrodolata* on
the " Queen of the Roses." If that is the case it
means that you yourself have not read the whole of
it, because I believe I told you to throw it into the
fire." As might be easily imagined, nothing came of
this musical project either, and the opera, "The Queen
of the Roses," remains yet to be written.

* Untranslatable word meaning a confused medley of ideas without cohesion.

H3



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



Segantini's opinions on political and social questions
are neither very original nor very profound. But his
proposed solution of the labour problem is decidedly
curious, and characteristic of the artist's eminently
unpractical mind. The letter in which he discusses
this question was inspired by the economic crisis
caused by the expulsion of a large number of Italian
workmen from France.

"When I read about the return of the workmen in
the Rifor7na I had an idea. There is no doubt that if
measures are not taken in time, this trouble may do
serious harm to the country, and to the workmen who
are in Italy, for there will be the competition of the
unemployed and the dishonest practices of the manu-
facturers, who think of their own immediate profits
rather than of the good of their country ; the honest
capitalists will be obliged to take measures to protect
themselves, or they will succumb to the competition
of the dishonest ones, and he who bears the cross in the
end is always the working man. We know that he
cannot work alone any longer ; the good old days when
each artisan thought with his own mind and when each
one might truly be called an artist are past and gone.
Nowadays the working man is a slave ; machinery,
that spectre of modern civilisation, has arisen and says
to mankind : ' I am strength, I am skill, I absorb your
brain, do not attempt to kill me, I am invulnerable. I repre-
sent wealth, and I shall sow misery ; I represent union,