Page 217 - Art-In-Vogue

Short commentaries and etching interpretations on gravure metal
Petru ruSu plates printed on handmade paper of the 100 stories contained in
giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden

THE ARTIST ONLINE www.mastersoftoday.com

In Petru Rusu’s engravings for Boccaccio’s Decameron, the tendency to indulge in detailed descriptions. It is this exoticism I am
twisted frenzy of the bodies arouses an impression of true release. writing about. An exoticism that Russu seems to bend into science
It is a release that breaks limits, avoiding the difference between fiction, populated by characters that look like ancient Egyptians, or
styles, social situations and historical-geographical sites. They are Chinese princes dressed with hundreds of jade stones, as the ones
not “illustrations” confined to a particular moment of the European discovered by the archeologists. Boccaccio will not be angry for
history: although within the images there are some allusions to the such interpretation. He himself-while he was writing about Dante-
fashion of that age, a sort of set-designing care, everything wrapped used to wonder if his illustrious master might have been angry up
around a dance of vitality that doesn’t want to accept stylistic above. Boccaccio will not be angry, because he himselflook a lot of
appearances. In the end, the sensation we have is a dépaysement freedom regarding the epic matter he utilized. It was the freedom
deriving from this attitude, not from a method. A dépaysement that of a superior distance. Boccaccio was the first author capable
is not a metaphorical book learning distance, but an aspiration for of dominating the most different subjects-both from a social-
the totality that excludes pedantic philological discriminations. historical and popular-dialectal point of view-with that distance that
belongs to the artistic discipline. I think that this example is very
While he was setting up his exhibition, an Italian pointed out important not only for those who create illustrations for books, but
some similarities with Chinese art. Someone else found analogies also for those artists who confront themselves with this gigantic
with the vivid chromatic of the popular Mexican engravings. masterpieces’ provocation.
Nevertheless, the exoticism of Petru Russu’s images comes from
a sort of poetic latitude, from a distance that he assumes in front Boccaccio dominates the subject. He reconsiders the epic plot
of the narration of the facts. It is -at the most-the same exoticism and at the same time, he framed it inside the rigorous structure
used by Boccaccio when he imagined Saladin traveling around the of the Decameron, inside sentences where the liveliness of the
Christian world, around Lombardy, to test the hospitality and the quip and of the dialectal allusion obeys the discipline of a rhythm.
magnanimity of the same people he wanted to fight. A rhythm, distinguished by participles with a latin flavor and by
everything that recalls the rules, the refined modalities of creating a
There is an entire cycle of medieval legends about Saladin. phrase with nobility, as it is in the tradition of the ancient rhetoric.
Recently, I have met an eminent art scholar, descendant of a
distinguished Crusader knight that had the fortune to benefit from This mixture of promiscuous vividness that forms Boccaccio’s
that magnanimity. He was captured by Saladin, who then set him subject an-at the same time-of high artistic discipline, it seems to
free, on the condition that he paid the ransom once he had returned me a theme that deserves consideration from anyone who wants
to his house. But when the knight returned home, he didn’t find to approach this text. It is important to feel pushed to a certain
any money to pay the ransom. So, he decided to go back to prison. attitude, as Russu did exhaustively dealing with the Decameron
Saladin was impressed by his gesture, and set him free once again universe.
only on the condition that he change his name to Saladin d’Anglure.
Petru Rusu comes from Transylvania. His art seems influenced
This name still exists after 800 years. I make this example, by some expressionist master: kokoschka in his best period (1914),
because the exoticism of Petru Russu tells of a magnificent East. with his unique chromaticity and his particular way of considering the
An East of admiration and wonder, that has nothing to do with the space of the page; kandinsky, with the twisty strength of this image.
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