Page 12 - Petru Russo | The 100 Days of Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

the vulnerability of human nature. Here, in his work about Boccaccio’s is teeming with presences that dramatically bring reality back to archetypal
“Decameron,” he has transferred all his fundamental problems. In fact, when an truths, contrasting with the leveling monotony of the daily horizon.
illustrator approaches a masterpiece of the past, it is legitimate that he carries
with himself all his cultural background, his problems, his sensibility. In his engraving work, Russo’s visionary attitude is accentuated by a narrative
Petru Russo is a courageous artist. Over the years, his work has been easing. This shift loosens the dramatic tension and embraces the pleasure of
characterized by austere and sober solutions, as well as by more provocative, pure dreaming. The atmosphere becomes lighter, ironic, and fluid. The plot
colorful liveliness. All these prolific variations are characterized by two main evolves towards dimensions of pure imagination, reminiscent of a fantastical
things: the stimulating resumption of a great cultural model and the importance machine’s exercises. Characters come alive in a metamorphic dimension,
of a certain persistency. crossing into fantastic spaces. They are liberated from conventional logic,
driven solely by the necessity of their narrative plot. This narrative plot,
crafted by Russo’s fantasy, creates a game of possible analogies with the
The fact that Boccaccio was one of the first readers of Homer’s original
text.
texts and an artist capable of conjugating the “holy studies” with apparent

frivolousness can lead, illustrators and artists alike, to assume as a gift this
Russo’s figurative tales are not merely descriptive. They connect with the text
prolific persistency.
through pure, fantastical solicitation that the artist renews time after time.
The text stimulates his taste and genius for a narrative plot derived from his
An analysis of Boccaccio’s Decameron and an examination of Dan Haulica’s* critical essay,
published for the opening of Petru Russo’s exhibition interpreting Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron pure, fantastical, visionary world, where symbolic presences, archetypal
in 100 engravings (The Italian Cultural Institute of Bucharest, 1986).
and mysterious, emerge. His sheets are precious for their vivid yet softened
*Dan Haulica, a literary essayist, art critic, editor, and publisher of Secolul 20 magazine, president
of AICA (International Association of Art Critics), and president of CAMERA (World Council for Art chromatic, insinuating among the spaces created by a skillful etching mark
Editing and Research). aware of the medium’s expressive qualities. Observing Russo’s engravings
feels like encountering ancient miniatures animated by tensions and
enchantments. A surrealist component in Russo’s figurative world grants him
Visionary Expressionism in Petru the freedom to reach a fantastic dimension as a space of visionary revelation,
echoing the archetypal surrealism of Romanian artist Victor Brauner.
Russo’s Decameron: An Analysis

Dan Haulica* spoke about a “double dimension of technological mechanics
and organic unity” in Russo’s artworks. The visionary world of Petru Russo
Petru Russo is a fascinating figure in the art world, known
seems to allude to both dimensions, as two competing archetypes within our
for his deep engagement with archetypal symbols. He
reality’s folds. These dimensions appear indistinguishable within his visionary
draws upon the rich tapestry of universal symbols and plot, where floating presences of surreal symbolic figures coexist.
myths that have been part of human consciousness for
millennia. His work is a blend of contemporary art and These dimensions remain spheres of allusion. They reference the mechanical

timeless symbolism, weaving together the old and the new plot of our contemporary world and the iconic plot that follows us daily. They
in a unique and compelling way. also reference a remote organic root, an anthropological truth on which the
motivations of a visionary symbolism, like Russo’s, are based.

During an exhibition, I had the opportunity to interview Petru Russo for my
Petru Russo’s etchings from 1985 are a testament to his visionary
print collector friends in the States. Petru Russo shared that he had read
expressionism. His work is dramatic, arousing, and brimming with excitement,
the Decameron at 14. The erotic tales lingered in his mind while he grew
challenging reality through the emergence of a symbolic-oneiric (dream-like)
up. About 15 years later, he decided to create 10 prints of the tales that had
awareness that sharpens into a scream. This artistic approach serves as a
impressed him most. Once begun in late 1983, he continued until he had
profound psychic investigation, a violent confession of anguish. Russo’s work
illustrated all the tales on 100 plates two years later. He printed the edition of
DECAMERON 12