VICTOR LUCIANO REBUFFO⁺

  (1903 - 1983)

LOS SANTOS EVANGELIOS

THE IMAGES on this web site are xylographs ("xilografias impresas con tacos originales") created by Victor Luciano Rebuffo to illustrate LOS SANTOS EVANGELIOS (THE HOLY GOSPELS) published 1944 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

VICTOR L. Rebuffo, a master of the technique of chiaroscuro, was born February 14, 1903  in Turin, Italy, and immigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his family at the age of three. In 1947, he became a citizen of Argentina. He died in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1983. Señor Rebuffo was a xylographer (chiaroschurist), painter and technician in the graphic arts.

SENOR REBUFFO, educated at the National Academy of Beaux Arts in Buenos Aires, received his  art degree in 1926. Recognizing his particular talent in drawing, the academy offered him a position as professor which he immediately accepted. Señor Rebuffo held this position until 1943, relinquishing it to become Artistic Director of the Peuser Publishing Company (Buenos Aires).

"VAST TRAJECTORY"

IN COLLABORATION with Peuser, the artist illustrated a number of poetry and prose texts with his original works, among them:  DON SEGUNDO SOMBRA (Ricardo Güiralde), NUESTRA GENTE Y SU TIERRA EN EL MARTIN FIERRO (León Benarós), LOS GAUCHOS JUDIOS (Alberto Gerchunoff), FAUSTO (Estanislao del Campo), REINALDO SOLAR (Rómulo Gallegos)  and his own book of engravings CONTRALUZ.

SENOR REBUFFO remained active as a printmaker throughout his life accumulating several prizes. An Academic Member of the Academy of Beaux Arts and a Director of the National Foundation of the Arts, he dedicated his life to the plastic arts and to teaching.

SENOR REBUFFO achieved the highest awards in regional and national exhibitions of Argentina and in the International Exhibition of Brussels. His artistic contribution (a "vast trajectory" comprising 2,500 engravings and innumerable works in oil, tempera, watercolor and charcoal) is well-represented in the collections of the principal museums of Argentina and in the international arts community.

CHIAROSCURO (Italian: chiaro, bright, light [Lat. clārus, clear] + oscuro, dark [Lat. obscūrus]) refers to the gradations of light and dark values in two-dimensional imagery, especially the illusion of rounded, three-dimensional form created through gradations of light and shade rather than line. Engraving is ideally suited for monochromatic media and the graphic technique of chiaroscuro. As early as 1927, Victor Rebuffo began to explore and refine the techniques of engraving, the form and skills of which would bring him renown. 

FIFTH GOSPEL

AS ARTISTIC Director of the Peuser Publishing Company, Senor Rebuffo collaborated with the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires to illustrate LOS SANTOS EVANGELIOS. The chiaroscurist's 186 xylographs comprise an artistic portfolio of extraordinary beauty and complexity. Inexplicably, the original plates were destroyed by order of Peuser Publishing at the time of publication. Analysis of Señor Rebuffo's gospel portfolio--arguably his finest work in engraving--strongly suggests he was permitted a free hand in choosing which scripture passages to illustrate.

OF PARTICULAR interest is the artist's preference for adorning the gospel stories with the vocabulary of Argentina's topography and flora. Señor Rebuffo illuminates the Christian proclamation without depreciating the transcendent origin undergirding the gospel pericopes. Fellow Argentinian and artist Leon Benarós commented, "Rebuffo is one of those names that can represent Argentine art with dignity in any part of the world."  [1963]  Possessing a "contemporary yet restrained boldness"  [cf. Benarós], the artist has conjugated the classical stories with a modern "freshness and vitality".

LIGHT IN A DARKENED WORLD

REMARKABLY, THE graphic panorama illustrating LOS SANTOS EVANGELIOS emerges as a fifth gospel revealing the light of Christ in the context of a darkened world: medium impregnated by vision, image consecrated by word, sight intensifed by insight, clarity humbled by the obscure, the human event immortalized by divine intervention.

HENCE, THE devout Christian and the secular art patron alike can appreciate Señor Rebuffo's artistic mastery--Benarós' characterization: "long poetic breath"--of the seemingly irreconcilable. That which had been hidden has suddenly come into view:  “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  [2Cor 4:6]

SHORTLY BEFORE his death at age 80, Señor Victor Luciano Rebuffo was honored by the Konex Foundation which awarded him the Konex de Platino prize as the "Best Living Figure in the History of Argentine Engraving". ADVENTUS CHRISTI Communications is grateful to Señor Rebuffo's heirs whose permission makes possible ADVENTUS CHRISTI's presentation of the engravings from LOS SANTOS EVANGELIOS. Patrons of the arts may hope that Senor Rebuffo's portfolio one day will be more fully represented on the world wide web. To view other work of this artist, you may refer to: http://grabados.org/rebuffo/ .