Lago, by Giulio Aristide Sartorio, came during a moment of great artistic ferment for the author and for the Roman environment of the late 19^th century. Created using a refined mixed technique on cardboard, this lakescape stands out for its suspended atmosphere, built up through a skilful use of colour and brushstroke. The composition is dominated by a poetic vision of nature, where still water and diffused light bring a sense of silent contemplation.

This work was part of the “In Arte Libertas” movement founded in 1886 by Nino Costa, of which Giulio Aristide Sartorio was a key figure. The group was born as a reaction to official academicism and sought to bring painting back to a more authentic, spiritual dimension, inspired by nature and the tradition of the Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite masters. In the group, Sartorio distinguished himself both for his natural, intimate and haunting views, and for his ability to transfigure landscapes in an evocative key, anticipating the combination of classicism and symbolism that would come to characterize his later production.

In 1891, the year when Lago was painted, Sartorio was in the midst of a full-blown stylistic evolution, vacillating between the influence of the English Pre-Raphaelites and the fledgling Italian Divisionism. The work reflects this transition, with a painterly approach which combines a meticulous rendering of natural details with an almost dreamlike atmosphere. While maintaining a link with the tradition of 19^th-century Italian landscape painters, he had begun to develop a personal Symbolist vision, which would mature in the following decades in some monumental decorative works. The water, reflections and vegetation are rendered with a delicacy here that suggests an inner symbolic vision of the landscape, rather than a simple reproduction from life. Lago testifies to Sartorio’s interest in the landscape as a vehicle of emotion and introspection, anticipating some of the stylistic solutions that would go on to characterize his mature career. This work, although less known than his great decorative and allegorical cycles, reveals the sensibility of an artist capable of transfiguring reality through a vibrant and intensely evocative way of painting.