FiesVenice S. Pietro in Vol(also known as The Day Before the Fiesta, St. Pietro in Volte) 1899

Curator: Here we have Maurice Prendergast’s “FiesVenice S. Pietro in Vol,” also known as "The Day Before the Fiesta, St. Pietro in Volte," painted in 1899, quite possibly en plein air. Look at how he's captured Venice, or, a very particular anticipatory mood of it, using watercolor. Editor: The colors vibrate, don’t they? It’s festive, yet it has this underlying fragility because it is a watercolor. Like it might dissolve if the party got too wild. Curator: That’s exactly what I feel too! But consider the formal elements—the composition is built from these layered, translucent washes. See how he uses a high vantage point? The flags become a kind of canopy, structuring the space. Editor: It feels flattened almost, which adds to that sense of dreamlike unreality. He's not concerned with precise perspective, is he? Those figures become blocks of color as much as anything. Curator: Absolutely, Prendergast's a rebel! While Impressionism aimed for realism, he uses the style almost to evoke memory, a fleeting feeling. It becomes this impression of an impression! Editor: So less about the record and more about, dare I say, the vibe? The expectation of something joyous, glimpsed through fluttering colors. I wonder, would he have kept working on this if the fiesta hadn't happened? Curator: The genius here really, is in that precariousness. The artwork is left deliberately unfinished...which is entirely the point! Editor: It’s funny—seeing all those flags I can make out, say, a Scottish Saltire, makes it seem he wasn’t only seeing what Venice was, but what Venice might mean, how Venice can include so much of the wider world on the day before its celebrations. Curator: The international flags against a distinctly Venetian atmosphere…that’s beautiful. This seemingly simple painting brims with insight, once you dive into it. Editor: Yes, Venice as a mirror reflecting a global celebration that’s always only just about to arrive. Well said!