Mattia Traverso (Genoa, 1885 – 1956), Sermon of St. Francis to the Birds

Mattia Traverso (Genoa, 1885 – 1956)

St. Francis' Sermon to the Birds

Oil on canvas, 117 x 153 cm

Signed and dated lower left Mattia Traverso 1933

Mattia Traverso's artistic career, which began in Genoa in 1885, finds in the painting Sermon of Saint Francis to the Birds a synthesis between a solid academic education and a profound devotional sensitivity, developed during his long stays in Rome. The son of a goldsmith, Traverso trained at the Ligurian Academy of Fine Arts, distinguishing himself early on with a talent that allowed him to obtain the prestigious Brignole Sale De Ferrari scholarship in 1911. The work that earned him this recognition was Salome, a work in which the anatomical rendering and sensuality of the subject already announced that mastery of the human figure that would later become the cornerstone of his subsequent production, expressed in both the profane and sacred fields. Thanks to the scholarship funds, the painter was able to settle in Rome, immersing himself in an artistic climate that led him to specialize in large-scale religious painting and to experiment with the fresco technique, while never abandoning portraits and genre scenes. In the painting examined here, Traverso addresses one of the most famous themes of Franciscan iconography, taken directly from the Legenda Maior of Saint Bonaventure, which tells of how the Poverello of Assisi, near Bevagna, addressed the birds, urging them to praise the Creator. The comparison with Giotto's famous predecessor in the Upper Basilica of Assisi seems inevitable and useful for understanding the evolution of figurative language: while Giotto achieved a monumental and didactic synthesis, capturing the event in a spatiality defined by a few symbolic elements, Traverso immerses the scene in a lush and light-filled nature. Saint Francis is placed at the centre of the composition, wrapped in his simple brown habit, his face marked by an expression of serene ecstasy and his hands moved in a gesture of welcome. Around him, a multitude of birds of different species crowd on the ground and on the branches of the trees, rendered with an almost ornithological precision that testifies to the painter's attention to natural detail. In the background, on the right, two of the saint's companions can be seen observing the miracle with a mixture of amazement and devotion, set in a hilly landscape that fades towards the horizon under a clear sky. Traverso's ability to range across different genres is confirmed by comparison with his other major works: if here spiritual lyricism prevails, in the Allegory of Work (The First of May) preserved at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Genoa the artist demonstrates a plastic strength and a social tension of a different nature, while maintaining the solidity of design learned during his years in Genoa. His activity for ecclesiastical commissions is vast and sees him as a protagonist in numerous centres, as demonstrated by the Madonna at the Liberation of the Elect at the Diocese of Ferrara, where the compositional complexity is combined with a highly effective study of light. However, it is in the Ligurian region that Traverso left the most widespread testimonies of his religious art, populating the churches of Genoa and the region with canvases of notable emotional impact. Consider Emiliani's Saint Jerome Presenting the Orphans to the Madonna, where the charitable theme is translated into an accessible yet formally sophisticated language, or the Samaritan Woman at the Well, a work in which the sacred dialogue is tinged with an everyday life full of symbolic meanings. Again, Saint Bernard Celebrates Mass and Saves Souls reaffirms his ability to orchestrate complex choral scenes, where the supernatural bursts into reality with a naturalness that is a hallmark of all his work. St. Francis' Sermon to the Birds fits perfectly into this catalogue, representing a moment of balance between traditional hagiographic narration and a modern pictorial rendering, capable of conveying the Franciscan message of universal harmony through a skillful use of color and atmospheric rendering, confirming Mattia Traverso as one of the most significant and prolific figures in Ligurian painting of the first half of the twentieth century.

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