Information
oil on canvas
50 x 43 cm
50 x 43 cm
On the back, Half figure of a child with a basket of grapes and fruit
signed lower left: Spadini
Provenance
Collection of Dr. Angelo Signorelli, Rome;
private collection.
private collection.
Literature
E. Cecchi, A. Venturi, Armando Spadini, Milan 1927, n. 204 and 205 (back), pl. LXXXIII.
The work offered here dates back to 1914, thus only four years after the artist's transfer from his native Florence to Rome. The impact with the capital was not easy for him, but it is precisely in these years that, with the participation in the exhibitions of the Roman Secession of 1913 and then of 1915, his position in the Roman artistic panorama begins to consolidate, thanks also to the support of shrewd collectors such as Dr. Angelo Signorelli, to whose collection this double oil on canvas belonged.
“We think and Spadini paints”. With this lightning-fast beginning opens the "portrait" of Armando Spadini published by Ugo Ojetti in 1923 [1], only two years before the untimely death of the Florentine painter. He thus effectively sums up Spadini's secluded but active position with respect to the artistic panorama of his time: far from fashions and for this reason also out of time, despite his training with Fattori and the exhibitions with the Roman Secession first and with the group of Plastic Values then. It is not by chance that Spadini's art is characterized by a tendency towards everyday and familiar data, by a predilection for portraiture and the representation of intimate and homely scenes often set in the garden of his cottage in Parioli. The maid, with her almost equally finished backhand, is a perfect example of this. They are in fact two portraits of great immediacy and spontaneity in which the children depicted offer themselves to the painter's gaze with affectionate familiarity. The palette is typical of Spadini, clear, bright and vibrant like the material brushstrokes that betray the painter's admiration for Antonio Mancini and keep the volumes firm even in the brilliant light in which the figures are immersed. The cut is close together, with the hand of the servetta just hidden by the frame and the bunch of pizzutello on the back that almost seems to want to come out. "... this ability to return to love, to feel, to vigorously represent the moving humanity around and the faces and gestures [...], this desire to put man back in the foreground ..." [2], keenly noted by Ojetti, thus appears here in all its brilliant efficacy.
[1] U. Ojetti, Portraits of Italian artists. Second series , Milan 1923, p. 173.
[2] U. Ojetti, Milan 1923, pp. 180-181.
Contact
Condition report
To request a Condition Report, please contact artefigurativa.milano@finarte.it
The department will provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Please note that what Finarte declares with respect to the state of conservation of the objects corresponds only to a qualified opinion and that we are not professional conservators or restorers.
We urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. We always suggest prospective buyers to inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition during the exhibition days as indicated in the catalog.