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Posted: October 14
(Rome) A new book appeared in the reading room yesterday, titled "Fratelvenzo: First Survey of his pictorial work." The bright colors and highly textured paint on the cover illustration reached out at me from a rack full of dull titles of new theology and spirituality books-- dull in visual terms, I mean, not in terms of theme. But that is what Brother Venzo does--he grabs your attention because of the intense clarity of his way of seeing.
Mario Venzo joined the Italian province of the Jesuits in 1940, and is known in the art word as Fratel Venzo (Brother Venzo). I never knew of him before coming to the Curia and encountering his large painting of the crucified Christ right outside the community chapel. The corpus angles across the large vertical painting, and the shadows on the body range over greens and blues. It is not "naturalistic" but it is powerful. Everytime I see it, I have to pause to think about what Jesus suffered, but it also reminds me that I need to paint and to encourage other Jesuits to express themselves artistically.
Fratel Venzo's story began in Northern Italy where his early passion for painting led him away from the family silk-weaving business to studying art at Venice's Academy of the Fine Arts which focused on a classical tradition of painting. When he finished his studies there, he moved to Paris in 1925 like many other young artists of his generation. The Venice Biennel of 1920 had opened his eyes to the work of Bonnard, Matisse and Cezanne, fueling his desires to take a place in the center of the art world. Life was not easy, especially after his father cut off his subsidy; for awhile he turned out works in an antique style that he could sell on the streets. Eventually he started being more successful, but increasingly felt that something was missing in his life. The answer finally was that his spiritual hunger was not satisfied by a Paris career, so he returned to Italy in 1940 and entered the Society of Jesus. For eight years he hardly painted, thinking that he had made a choice to give up art as the price of a Jesuit vocation.
His initial paintings as a Jesuit brother were not very distinguished. In 1950 he did a portrait of the brother, St. Alphonsus Rodriguez; the work is very conventional both in its limited color palette and its use of traditional iconography (the saint seated before a small crucifix, rosary in hand.) There were hints of what was to come. A 1948 work called "Olivio di Sicilia" is the first example in the book on Venzo that shows his bold use of color in portraying an olive tree. Within a few years a mature Fratel Venzo created a steady stream of mature works marked by vibrant color. It reminds me of the strong use of color of Andre Derain and the Fauvists, but Fratel Venzo has his own way of using color, much more subtle—if you can say that for someone who makes such bold statements.
The big difference between the Jesuit painter and his peers who remained in the limelight in the art world is a spiritual depth that permeates his work. Paolo Bellini, editor of the "Fratelvenzo," noted that the Jesuit was "an artist of great talent, who know how to find the balance between bursts of creativity and the time he needed for reflection, who valued silence as well as the need to express the overwhelming force of artistic expression."
I am delighted that my brother is getting this comprehensive catalogue of all his work, and it is a great pleasure to browse the book which presents nine small images per page. There is so much to discover about Fratel Venzo and so much to delight in. I suppose that I will eventually have to return the book to the library.
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