VITTORIO MARCHI, OR THE PLEASURE OF
PAINTING “EN PLEIN AIR”
di Paolo Rizzi
‘This one / painted at about 8 in the morning”,
says Vittorio Marchi in front a painting showing a foreshortening of river
Si/e. A few
steps and we reach a summer landscape at Ra//e: “The time here was about / / .30”. Time means
a /ot to a painter In fact, it represents the precise memory of a certain range
of co/ors as flxed on the canvas.
/mpressionists ore particu/ar/y famous far their sensitivity to time. In fact they
were a/ways trying to catch “the moment” of their emotion. Monet had arranged 6
or 7 ease/s with /ounted canvas on a barge floating on the Seme. He used to
start painting at daybreak and was moving from one ease/ to another about every
hour “Light is rushing — he used to say — and / must stop it”. This is what Marchi
does, a painter en plein air of his Treviso native /and.
What is the idea of
painting this way to-day? In other words, what is the importance of running
after the mutabi/ity of the season’s colors. Our customary practices are
/eve//ing ones that make every aspect of our /ive artificial, sophisticated and
consequent/y beyond bio/ogica/ rhythms. We shou/d give the environment the same
/oving care as Marchi does. We should regard it as a projection ofourse/ves, of
our fee/ing and our culture. “I fee/ trevigiano from top to toe”.
Trevigiano means for him having deep
roots in his native /and whose center is Sernaglia della Battaglia. He
passionate/y /oves the “quartiere del Piave”, the houses of Cison di Va/marino,
the Susegana castle, the hi/ls of Col/a/to and Refronto/o, the Carraresi tower
of Casa/e, the garden of Barbisano, the scorched hill towards Ra/le, the o/d
windows of Farra di Soligo, the hermitage of Rua di Fe/etto, the houses adorned
with flowers at Miane, the Si/e river where boats float on the s/ow, calm water
This is the source ofMarchVs painting, as fresh and bri//iant as a tender green
absorbing the tones of the /ight according to the emotions produced by
contemp/ation of nature. Are rea//y the French /mpressionists the on/y masters
in this field? Vittorio Marchi belongs to the same stoc/r as the Venetian
painters. Between 400 and 500 first G. Bel/mi then Giorgione, Cima da
Coneg/iano and others removed with increasing skil/ the drapes used as
background for Madonnas and Sacred Conversations, thus a/lowing the sight of
foreshortened hi/ls and fle/ds. Sacred images b/ended with the /andscape to
form a unique harmony. The dawn or sunset /ight wou/d stream a/I aver the
Madonncfs mant/e which contributed to render religion nearer to men. Some 20
years later Tiziano wou/d dare nudes of /adies and courtesans looking out from
windows a//owing the sight of blossoming
gardens. Since then the Venetian painting has interpreted far centuries this
kind ofsymbiosis between man and nature.Vittorio Marchi knows it. Fee/ing
trevigiano (and there fare Venetian) means far him diving with abso/ute
simplicity into the environment to get the most genuine aspects of the
/andscape. His painting does not obey to preconceived ideas nor to intel/ectua/
or sophisticated aspects and flows as c/ear as a mountain stream. His eye
fol/ows the emotions of co/or and suggests the pro per strength of the brush
work. Sometimes tones are c/ear~ sometimes vei/ed by the evening mist,
sometimes excited by the yel/ow of a co/za meadow or by the rose of a peach
tree. All shades vary as if they were caressed by the young wind coming down
the hi/ls. A most p/easant painting as suggested by nature. Ba/ance between
sense and reason. This is the main feature of the Venetian painting.
From his “Quartiere del Piave” Marchi might
perhaps sometimes throw a g/ance to Fe/tre and the Belluno Province. But his
/and main/y suggests the colors which mix ůp and play and spark/e and g/itter
His paintings are windows open on to nature, as we/l as sensations that /ead to
the most genuine joy of /iving.
Vittorio Marchii Via Emigranti 11 Sernaglia TV
Tel. 0438 82998 – 860307