FRANCO BOZZI – January 1998
REFLECTIONS ON GIOVANNA BRUSCHI
In order to interpret Giovanna Bruschi’s vision and penetrate the wealth of her fertile work. We must first of all immerse ourselves in the deep spirituality of Umbrian art. As a matter of fact, the artist begins to represent her world in a sort of calligraphic manner following the examples of Saint Francis of Assisi, as well as the lessons of the great masters of the Renaissance (it is enough to think of the great care that Pinturicchio reserves for the smallest details, from the blade of grass to each brick of his altarpieces), and in a similar detailed fashion she anatomizes, vivisects and reproduces her subjects; every leaf and every fruit of the earth is shown to us in its pristine condition (an immediate reference to Father Diego Donati, under whose guidance she learned her techniques), including all the microscopic parts that can become visible with a blink of an eye, suspending time as if by magic. At first glance it would seem the meticulous classification of a botanist who is organizing the vegetable kingdom; or perhaps the patient measurement of a surveyor while enumerating rows, a farmhouse, fences for a cadastral survey (as seen in some splendid eighteenth-century cartography). But if you look more carefully you will understand that beyond the begonia, or the marsh reed, or the vine planted and embedded by man, one can discover the beginning of life. When rationality accomplishes its task – which is to classify and to describe – it is the turn of intuitive knowledge to allow the individual to rejoin the world at large. It is not surprising then that Giovanna has almost imperceptibly moved from the wandering meditation on nature to the devotion – by virtue of her precious graphic work – for the great mysticism inspired by Angela of Foligno. We should actually say that Giovanna’s evolution was already apparent in her initial work and that destiny (which always proves to be a mysterious and decisive factor in human affairs) has taken the leading role toward its progress.
Giovanna has been able to depict – with her amazing pencil that seems to paint, to engrave and to carve rather than drawing – the naturalistic vitality and the feeling that converts a woman into a blessed saint, and was also able to recreate both enchanted landscapes as in Gerardo Dottori’s aerial views, and the holy face of Angela, a typically Peruginesque portrait, at the same time ingenuous and voluptuous, half-covered by billowing veils, revealing two large clear eyes that inspire an innocence seduction. With these fine traits, very delicate and light, we can experience a number of sensations, a certain anguish for the world around us, or the contrast between the sublimation of love and the carnality of desire, or between ascetic renunciation and sexual exaltation, among logical connections and ecstatic trances. And along these lines, we can quote an author – also very dear to Giovanna – who managed to merge science with faith, Blaise Pascal: “The heart has reasons that reason does not know”.
