This
article was originally written by me on february 25, 2015 (to be published in the
Cultural Digital Magazine of the Intendance of Salto, Uruguay,
“Ateneo”,
on it's issue nr. 2, at the request of the then Director of Culture,
Prof. Leonardo Garet Mas).
As
it has been partially transcribed in Wikipedia respect to Edmundo
Prati, with wrong additions and without quoting my authorship, I
published it here...
We
always read that sculptor Edmundo Prati was born in Uruguay, on april
17 of 1889, at the city of Paysandú. Actually his birth in that
beautiful and industrious town of River Uruguay littoral was
fortuitous, cause the family didn´t have no relationship with the
one.
My
greatgrandfather Michelangelo Prati was there acting as a
subcontractor of the laying of the railways of Northeastern Railway,
and there was reached by the brazilian german descendent Carolina
Mattje, from Lajeado, R.S. After a horse ride of hundreds of miles
escorted by one of his uncles. So the first of their offspring,
twins Edmundo and Eriberto, would be born in Paysandú, at the Hotel
“Dos Mundos”, beside the Basilica of St. Benito, where the couple
was hosted.
Michelangelo
was a young “Perito Agrario” and wasn't related to anything
related to civil works until he came to Rio Grande do Sul with two of
his older brothers, Leone and Probo, in 1886, in the search of
economic welfare that was the familiar statu quo before their father
Domenico bankrupcy.
Domenico,
the younger brother of their shire Rector, Revd. Giacomo, had been
“Perito Geometra” (Surveyor), rich owner of lands by inheritance
of his father “Messer” Stefano, construction business
man, exporter of the regional wines to countries of Central and
East Europe, merchant thereof in Venice, a man of great culture and
adventurous spirit, that in a few years dilapidated his part of the
familiar fortune. It included several fractions of farmland,
vineyards, woods, and a foundry beside a torrent, as is stated in the
good division did with his brothers in 1851, the one that he
reconverted in a flour
mill and familiar house, about 1852. He had died in 1865 leaving his
widow and numerous offspring in a difficult economic situation. The
wife Lucia was also a rich heiress, one of the daughters of Giuseppe
Garbari, powerful industrial of Caldonazzo, owner of the biggest Silk
Spinning mill of the village, and of Lucia de Negri, nobildonna
borned in Calavino, of an old bourgeois family of the city of Arco,
ennobled by Empress Maria Teresa in 1774. It's presumably that none
of her goods had remained, because when Domenico died, his brothers,
rich landowners, had to help them.
When
Lucia died, just two years later, in 1867, the family was divided,
the younger brothers, Anacleto, Benedetto, Giulio and Michelangelo,
who hadn't reach two years yet, were initially raised by the older
sisters, Luigia , Isabella and Anna, that continued to live in the
Mill, and after, the last two of them, at the time of their high
school education, received in the house of their aunt Francesca Prati
in Borgo Valsugana, who was married with Dr. Zanetti, a recognized physician
from that town. The eldest brother Eugenio, continued his formation
as an accademical painter in Florence, thanks to a grant of the
tyrolian government, opportunely conceded when their father finances
were decreasing and he didn't produce already to help to sustain his
brothers.
The
following in age, Leone and Probo, went out to work and so the second
learn, the railway office working in Austria in that new world, and
after both, following the trentine migration trend to Argentina and
Brazil, decided to came to try fortune in those jobs. They began the
southamerican adventure in Rio Grande do Sul in 1886, together with
Anacleto and the benjamin Michelangelo, who had already received his
education as agricutural expert.
Benedetto
and Giulio would stay in Italy, the last following the artistic
vocation initiated by Eugenio, but studying at Brera Accademy in
Milano since 1885.
Some
of their cousins Prati and Garbari, sustained by other economic
posibilities, had received the best education and were standing up in
judiciary, medicine, priesthood and other activities, in places as
the neighbour Levico, Borgo, Cavalese, etc. having reached another
Eugenio Prati a high position in Viena at th time of their migration,
when married a noble Vittorelli from Bozen, and where he would become
Imperial Councelor. Their maternal grandmother family, De Negri of
Arco, continue occupating the main administrative roles in that, as
they were since the beginning of the '700, having bonded with the
other families of the ennobled high bourgeoisie of Arco: Alovisi, de
Angelini, Marcabruni, Prati (branch from Dasindo), etc. some of them
also their ancestors, with whom they probably had'nt have contact anymore
due to their decadent position. Although through the firstborn
Eugenio, who moved in the best artistic and social circles of Venice,
Florence and Trento, could knew since their childhood, great painters
of the venetian school and other intelectuals, who came to the
cenacle in which Domenico converted the rustic Mill en his apogee,
and always visited the place in life of the painter.
This
digression was done aiming to reveal the curious life that had the
brothers Prati-Garbari, that by origin and after for his talent where
vinculated to a privileged ambient but for material need where lead
to follow the path of emigration. Thus michelangelo arrived to
Brazil, with scarcely 21 years, and working in the laying of the
railroads, in Uruguaiana and other places, arrived to Paysandú in
1889. No longer after he returned with his wife and elder sons,
Edmundo and Eriberto, to Caldonazzo (then belonging to Austria)
thanks to the goods obtained as a subcontractor, thinking in working
in agricultural labours for which was formed. I don't know the causes
why instead of doing that job in his native land, he returned to Rio Grande do Sul with the
wife and his third son borned in Caldonazzo, Alfredo, to operate
a leased land in the vicinity of Uruguaiana. His brother Leone will
settle definitely in the same in 1896, after marrying in Caldonazzo
with a cousin by his side Garbari, and finally, his nephew Domenico,
a son of Anacleto, at the beginning of the XX c., creating the trunks
of two known families of merchants of that place.
The
twins were left in Caldonazzo to be raised in the warm familiar
ambience in charge of the aunts Luigia and Isabella that have raised
his father before, in the Mill on the torrent Centa
There
they will grow, in that magical and wild world, under the ruins of
the Tower of the castle of Caldonazzo, climbing mountains, hunting
birds in the woods with traps, swimming in the lake, and creating
works of art by imitation, being that activity sporadically frecuent
in the Mill. And there had the chance to live the ambience of the
cenacle that was alive since the times of their grandfather Domenico,
cause now asisted, beside Eugenio and his friends, also Giulio and
his ones, and their cousin Romualdo, the son of Probo, another great
painter, borned in Austria before his father migration to America.
Between the ilustrious visitors of Eugenio in Caldonazzo, where he
installed his atelier for some years, were, beside painters, his
friends the notable Giacomo Puccini and Tito Riccordi, of the famous
family of editors.
Being
still child, the twins exposed little figures did in clay, in an
exhibition held at the Hotel Caldonazzo, the centre of the social
events of the village (installed in what had been the family Garbari
house), initiating so very early their artistic career... Once they finished
the school the had to begin to think in contributing to the economy of their
foster mothers, and so were sent to Trento, to learn the office of
decorator painters in that city, as apprentices in the atelier of De
Vigili, under cover of their aunt Anna, already married and living
there. On the weekends they returned to the mill walking, 12,5
miles., but was imperative to enjoy their ambient and visit their
aunts.
Casa Garbari, after Hotel Caldonazzo, today SOS Feriendorf
(photo E. Rodriguez Prati 1997)
In Brazil were born other five siblings, whom they didn't know still, and were anxious to know their mother, whom they had seen for the last time at an age when you dont' have memories, even their father returned some times to see them.
So
in 1909, with that aim, and to escape of the austrian military
service, country to where they belonged but to which the family
opposed since Garibaldi times, they leave for America, landing in
Buenos Aires and heading to Uruguaiana. After some months there,
first my grandfather Eriberto, and after Edmundo, settled in Salto, Uruguay, where they finded a fertile field for the office learned along three
years in Trento. Eriberto got to work some months in Paso de los
Libres RA, before arriving here, and Edmundo spent as many in a river
navigation adventure with a relative, what is told in his
autobiography. They established the decorative painting firm Prati
Hnos.(Prati Bros.), being the decoration of the ceilings of the "Ateneo de Salto" the first important assignment they realized, in 1911. They both formed
home in Salto, in 1913, with local ladies, my grandfather with
Rosario Bellettieri, daughter of an italian merchant early died, and
Edmundo with Teresa Scanavino, daughter of Pascual Scanavino, the
owner of the big hotel of that name, after named Biasetti. Some years
later, after the World War I, they receive their younger cousin
Lindo Prati, son of the painter Giulio, after a history that include
the exile of his family in Moravia, Czech Republic, during the war, as
all the population of the village of Caldonazzo was evacuated during
the same.
The
rest is well known by the inhabitants of Salto and is widely
documented.
You
may ask what happened with their father Michelangelo, mother Carolina
and siblings...
A
short time after the meeting with their elder sons in Uruguaiana, they returned to
Italy and settled in Milano, so their lives continued to be separated
by an ocean. Their father died in 1915 fighting for the italians as
a partisan sniper, following the pro italian and anti austrian
tradition of the family. He is considered a heroe of the cause of
the annexation of Trentino region to Italy, and received the honor of
many journalistic publications and a book remebering those facts.
Carolina
got old in Milano and Caldonazzo, thousand of miles away from her
native Lajeado in Brazil, her third son Alfredo returned to Brazil
and married his first cousin Azelia Prati Garbari, daughter of his
uncle Leone, borned in Uruguaiana, and had numerous family resident
in Porto Alegre, Sara lived always in Milano and worked as a public
official, Lasthenia and Alice married two brothers Poletti, both Post
office dealers in several cities of China, and there lived since the
advent of comunism when they had to return to Italy, Edilia also
returned to Brazil married a Martinelli, and finally the benjamin
Italo studied violin at the Music conservatory of Milano and reached
to be violinist of the Scala de Milano under the direction of
Toscanini, and after first violin of Symphonic Orchestra of Porto
Alegre, Brazil.
And
what hapenned with their aunts, twins's foster mothers, with the
uncles and cousin painters, and with the Mill Prati?
Aunts Luigia and Isabella died very old in Caldonazzo at the thirties, being possible to attend in 1925 to the inauguration of the monument of their brother Eugenio, beloved son of the same, who died in 1907, turned into one of the most recognized painters of his times in Veneto and Trentino, exhibiting in all european important art shows, obtaining the Gold Medal at the International Exhibition of Chicago of 1893, and considered beside Bezzi and Segantini one of the three most important painters of Trento province in XIX c. The bust was realized by their sculptor nephew Edmundo, already finishing his studies in Brera Accademy of Milano.
Giulio was also an outstanding painter, acting in Trento, Buenos Aires, Mendoza and returning to Caldonazzo before World War I to technify the familiar mill, and after being exiled during the same, returned to rebuilt it , cause it was dinamited by the austrians as a revenge for the pro italian activities of the family. There he got old and could finished his work, seen his eldest and youngest sons, Mario (borned in Mendoza in 1900) and Carlo (borned at the exile in Moravia in 1917) in important personalities of Trentino.
Prati Mill (photo E. Rodriguez Prati 1997)
Romualdo was another outstanding painter in Rio de Janeiro, Paris, in which famous Salons exhibited many years, and finally in Rome, where he had a Painting School. He had married in Rio de Janeiro with a brazilian aristocrat and their daughters formed distinguished homes in Trento and Riva del Garda.
The
Prati Mill, a cultural reference of their native region, Valsugana,
remains still there as Domenico built it and Giulio reconstructed, still
a family property, over the provintial road 108, that has the name of
Eugenio Prati...
Translation
and additions of september of 2019, of my original article written in
Salto on february 25, 2015.
Parque
del Plata, september 16, 1919
©
Edmundo Rodríguez Prati
Bibliografía-
“Michelangelo Prati”, Mario Paoli, Ed. Saturnia, Trento, 1936
“Eugenio Prati, Pittore”, Riccardo Maroni e Giorgio Wenter, 1a Edizione di Collana di Artisti Trentini, Trento, 1956
“Autobiografía de un artista”, Edmundo Prati, A. Monteverde y Cía S.A., Montevideo,1969
“I passi ritrovati, Caldonazzo e i suoi profughi nella Guerra Mondiale, 1915-1918” Centro d'Arte La Fonte, Coord. Saverio Tecilla, Artigianelli, Trento, 1985
“Cronaca di Arco - 1771-1879” (Arc. Mons. Eliodoro Degara, Arco, 1905) , Reedizione a cura di Mauro Grazioli, Il Sommolago, Arco, 1991
“La magia e la poesia del Trentino nella pittura di Eugenio Prati” catalogo mostra a cura di Elisabetta Staudacher, Comune di Trento 2002
“Eugenio Prati (1842-1907), Tra Scapigliatura e Simbolismo”, Provincia Autonoma de Trento, Comune di Trento, Comune di Rovereto, MART, a cura di Gabriella Belli, Alberto Pattini, Alessandra Tiddia, Silvana Editoriale, Milano y MART, trentoo y Rovereto, 2009
“Edmondo e Giulio Prati - Artisti internazionali da Caldonazzo al Sud America”, Alberto Pattini, Maria Martinelli, Centro Divulgazione della Provincia Autonoma di Trento, 2010
Innumerables artículos en diarios y revistas de Trento, Milano, Torino, Montevideo, Buenos Aires.
Webgrafía
“Eugenio Prati”, Alberto Pattini, en:
“Giulio Prati”, Alberto Pattini, 2003, en:
“Romualdo Prati”, Alberto Pattini, en:
“Michelangelo Prati”, Alberto Pattini, en:
“Edmondo Prati”, Alberto Pattini, en:
“Eriberto Prati” Edmundo Rodríguez Prati, 2006, en: http://www.prati.com.br/Familiaprati/ilustres/EribertoPrati/EribertoPrati_espanhol.htm
“Eugenio Prati, antologica a Castel Ivano” Elisabetta Staudacher, 2007, Sitio Web de Castel Ivano, en:
“Eugenio Prati (1842-1907), Tra Scapigliatura e Simbolismo”, 2009, Sitio web del MART en :
